CHAP. VIII. 



TELFORD'S SURVEY OF SCOTLAND. 



377 



Iii 1802 Mr. Telford was called upon by the Govern- 

 ment to make a survey of Scotland, and report as to 

 the measures which were necessary for the improvement 

 of the roads and bridges of that part of the kingdom, 

 and also on the means of promoting the fisheries on the 

 east and west coasts, with the object of better opening 

 up the country and preventing further extensive emi- 

 gration. Previous to this time he had been employed 

 by the British Fisheries Society of which his friend 

 Sir William Pulteney was Governor to inspect the 

 harbours at their several stations, and to devise a plan 

 for the establishment of a fishery on the coast of Caith- 

 ness. He accordingly made an extensive tour of Scot- 

 land, examining, amongst other harbours, that of 

 Annan ; from which he proceeded northward by Aber- 

 deen to Wick and Thurso, returning to Shrewsbury by 

 Edinburgh and Dumfries. 1 He accumulated a large 

 mass of data for his report, which was sent in to the 

 Fishery Society, with charts and plans, in the course of 

 the following year. 



In July, 1802, he was requested by the Lords of the 

 Treasury, most probably in consequence of the preceding 

 report, to make a further survey of the interior of the 

 Highlands, the result of which he communicated in his 

 report presented to Parliament in the following year. 

 Although full of important local business, "kept run- 

 ning," as he says, " from town to country, and from 

 country to town, never when awake, and perhaps not 

 always when asleep, have my Scotch surveys been 

 absent from my mind." He had worked very hard at 



1 He was accompanied on this tour 

 by Colonel Dixon, with whom he re- 

 turned to his house at Mount Annan, 

 in Dumfries. Telford says of him: 

 " The Colonel seems to have roused 

 the county of Dumfries from the 

 lethargy in which it has slumbered 

 for centuries. The map of the county, 



the mineralogical survey, the new 

 roads, the opening of lime works, the 

 competition of ploughing, the im- 

 proving harbours, the building of 

 bridges, are works which bespeak the 

 exertions of no common man." Let- 

 ter to Mr. Andrew Little, dated 

 Shrewsbury, 30th November, 1801. 



