388 HIGHLAND TRAFFIC. PAKT VIII. 



consolidated by ice, as well as, shortly after, from the blow 

 of a schooner which drifted against it on the opposite 

 side, and had her two masts knocked off by the collision, 

 gave him every confidence in the strength of this form 

 of construction, and he accordingly repeated it in several 

 of his subsequent bridges, though none of them are com- 

 parable in beauty with that of Craig-Ellachie. 



Thus, in the course of eighteen years, 920 miles of 

 capital roads, connected together by no fewer than 1200 

 bridges, were added to the road communications of the 

 Highlands, at an expense defrayed partly by the localities 

 immediately benefited, and partly by the nation. The 

 effects of these twenty years' operations were such as 

 follow the making^ of roads everywhere development 

 of industry and increase of civilization. In no districts 

 were the benefits derived from them more marked than 

 in the remote northern counties of Sutherland and 

 Caithness. The first stage-coaches that ran northward 

 from Perth to Inverness were tried in 1806, and became 

 regularly established in 1811 ; and by the year 1820 

 no fewer than forty arrived at the latter town in the 

 course of every week, and the same number departed 

 from it. Others were established in various directions 

 through the Highlands, which became as accessible as 

 any English county. 



Agriculture made rapid progress. The use of carts 

 became practicable, and manure was no longer carried 

 to the field on women's backs. Sloth and idleness 

 disappeared before the energy, activity, and industry 

 which were called into life by the improved com- 

 munications ; better built cottages took the place of 

 the old mud biggins with a hole in the roof to let 

 out the smoke ; the pigs and cattle were treated to a 

 separate table ; the dunghill was turned to the outside 

 of the house ; tartan tatters gave place to the produce 

 of Manchester and Glasgow looms ; and very soon few 

 young persons were to be found who could not both 



