CHAP. I. SCOTLAND AT THE MIDDLE OF LAST CENTURY. 103 



equally busy beyond the Tweed, providing those essen- 

 tial means of intercourse for the community. Thus we 

 find bridges early erected across most of the rapid rivers 

 in the Lowlands, especially in those places where the 

 ecclesiastical foundations were the richest ; and to this 

 day the magnificent old abbey or cathedral of the neigh- 

 bourhood in some corner of which the Presbyterian 

 Church holds its worship serves to remind one of the 

 contemporaneous origin of both classes of structures. 

 Thus, as early as the thirteenth century, there was a 

 bridge over the Tay at Perth; bridges over the Esk at 

 Brechin and Marykirk ; one over the Dee at Kincardine 

 O'Neil ; one at Aberdeen ; and one at the mouth of 

 Glenmuick. The fine old bridge over the Dee, at Aber- 

 deen, is still standing : it consists of seven arches, and, 

 as usual, the name of a bishop Gawin Dunbar is con- 

 nected with its erection. There is another old bridge 

 over the Don near the same city, said to have been built 

 by Bishop Cheyne in the time of Robert the Bruce the 

 famous " Brig of Balgonie," celebrated in Lord Byron's 

 stanzas as " Balgownie Brig's black wa'." It consists 

 of a spacious Gothic arch, resting upon the rock on 

 either side. There was even an old bridge over the 

 rapid Spey at Orkhill. Then at Glasgow there was a 

 fine bridge over the Clyde, which used, in old times, to 

 be called " the Great Bridge of Glasgow," said to have 

 been built by Bishop Rae in 1345. Though the bridge 

 was only twelve feet wide, it consisted of eight arches ; 

 somewhat similar to the ancient fabric which still spans 

 the Forth under the guns of Stirling Castle. This last- 

 mentioned bridge was, until recent times, a structure of 

 great importance, affording almost the only access into 

 the northern parts of Scotland for wheeled carriages. 



But the art of bridge-building in Scotland, as in Eng- 

 land, seems for a long time to have been almost entirely 

 lost ; and until Smeaton was employed to erect the 

 bridges of Coldstream, Perth, and Banff, next to nothing 



