CHAP. XI. TELFORD AS A ROAD-MAKER. 427 



CHAPTEE XL 



TELFORD AS A EOAD-MAKEB. 



MR. TELFORD' s extensive practice as a bridge-builder 

 led his friend Southey to designate him " Pontifex 

 Maximus." Besides the numerous bridges erected by 

 him in the West of England, we have found him fur- 

 nishing designs for about twelve hundred in the High- 

 lands, of various dimensions, some of stone and others 

 of iron. His practice in bridge-building had, there- 

 fore, been of an unusually extensive character, and 

 Southey' s sobriquet was not ill applied. But besides 

 being a great bridge-builder, Telford was also a great 

 road-maker. With the progress of industry and trade, 

 the easy and rapid transit of persons and goods had 

 come to be regarded as an increasing object of public 

 interest. Fast coaches now ran regularly between all 

 the principal towns of England ; every effort being 

 made, by straightening and shortening the roads, cut- 

 ting down hills, and carrying embankments across valleys 

 and viaducts over rivers, to render travelling by the 

 main routes as easy and expeditious as possible. 



Attention was especially turned to the improvement 

 of the longer routes, and to perfecting the connec- 

 tion of London with the chief towns of Scotland and 

 Ireland. Telford was early called upon to advise as to 

 the repairs of the road between Carlisle and Glasgow, 

 which had been allowed to fall into a wretched state ; 

 as well as the formation of a new line from Carlisle, 

 across the counties of Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, and 

 Wigton, to Port Patrick, for the purpose of ensuring a 

 more rapid communication with Belfast and the northern 



