CHAP. VII. 



TELFORD'S GENERAL BUSINESS. 



369 



and as the banks were steep and rocky, he determined 

 to bridge the stream by a single arch of 112 feet span. 

 The rise being considerable, high wingwalls and deep 

 spandrels were requisite ; but the weight of the struc- 

 ture was much lightened by the expedient which he 

 adopted of perforating the wings, and building a number 

 of longitudinal walls in the spandrels, instead of filling 

 them with earth or inferior masonry, as had until then 

 been the usual practice. The ends of these walls, con- 

 nected and steadied by the insertion of tee-stones, were 

 built so as to abut against the back of the arch-stones 

 and the cross walls of each abutment. Thus great 

 strength as well as lightness was secured, and a very 

 graceful and at the same time substantial bridge was 

 provided for the accommodation of the district. 1 



In his letters written about this time, Telford seems to 

 have been very full of employment, which required him 

 to travel about a great deal. " I have become," said he, 

 " a very wandering being, and am scarcely ever two days 

 in one place, unless detained by business, which, how- 

 ever, occupies my time very completely." At another 

 time he says, " I am tossed about like a tennis ball : the 



1 The work is thus described in 

 Robert Chambers's ' Picture of Scot- 

 land ' : " Opposite Compston there 

 is a magnificent new bridge over the 

 Uee. It consists of a single arch, the 

 span of which is 112 feet; and it is 

 built of vast blocks of freestone 

 brought from the Isle of Arran. The 

 cost of this work was somewhere about 

 70001. sterling; and it may be men- 

 tioned, to the honour of the Stewartry, 

 that this sum was raised by the pri- 

 vate contributions of the gentlemen of 

 the district. From Tongueland Hill, 

 in the immediate vicinity of the 

 bridge, there is a view well worthy of 

 a painter's eye, and which is not in- 

 ferior in beauty and magnificence to 

 any in Scotland. The distant horizon 

 is bounded by the everlasting ocean 

 and the mountains of Man, which 

 are seen in their whole extent. The 



VOL. II. 



centre of the picture is occupied by 

 the high and rocky island of Little 

 Bess, the woods of St. Mary's Isle, the 

 town of Kirkcudbright, with its raised 

 and castellated outline, and the wind- 

 ings of the Dee, which flows to the 

 foot of the eminence upon which the 

 spectator is supposed to stand. On 

 the left, the Bay of Kirkcudbright and 

 the course of the river are bounded by 

 a long range of wooded hills, for the 

 beauty of which we are mainly in- 

 debted to the patriotic improvements 

 of Basil Lord Daer, the eldest brother 

 of the late Earl of Selkirk. The right 

 of the picture, again, is filled by a 

 similar range of hills, extending along 

 the west side of the bay, and ter- 

 minating in the ornamented grounds 

 of Compston, which are seen to the 

 greatest advantage from Tongueland 

 Hill." 



2 B 



