CHAP. I. SCOTLAND AT THE MIDDLE OF LAST CENTUKY. 101 



The townsmen of this adventurous individual, on the 

 morning of his way-going, were accustomed to turn out 

 and take leave of him, wishing him a safe return from 

 his perilous journey. 



The great post-road between London and Edinburgh 

 passed close in front of the house at Phantassie in 

 which John Eennie was born ; but even that was little 

 better than the tracks we have already described. It 

 passed westward over Pencrake, and followed the ridge 

 of the Garleton Hills towards Edinburgh. The old 

 travellers had no aversion to hill tops, rather preferring 

 them because the ground was firmer to tread on, and 

 they could see better about them. This line of high 

 road avoided the county town, which, lying in a hollow, 

 was unapproachable across the low grounds in wet 

 weather ; and, of all things, swamps and quagmires were 

 then most dreaded. A portion of this old post-road 

 was visible until within the last few years, upon the 

 high ground about a mile to the north of Hadding- 

 ton. In some places it was very narrow and deep, not 

 unlike an old broad ditch, much waterworn, and strewn 

 with loose stones. Along this line of way Sir John 

 Cope passed with his army, in 1745, to protect Edin- 

 burgh against the Highland rebels ; and it is related that, 

 on marching northward to intercept them ; he was com- 

 pelled to halt for several days, waiting for a hundred horse- 

 loads of bread required for the victualling of his army. 



In 1750, a project was set on foot for improving the 

 high road through East Lothian, and a Turnpike Act 

 was obtained for the purpose the first Act of the kind 

 obtained north of the Tweed. 1 The inhabitants of the 

 town of Haddiiigton complained loudly of the oppres- 

 sion practised on them, by making them pay toll for 

 every bit of coal they burned ; though before the road 

 was made it was a good day's work for a man and 



G. Buchan Hepburn's 'Account,' p. 151. 



