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GLASGOW AND CARLISLE ROAD. 



PART VIII. 



parts of Ireland. Although Glasgow had become a place 

 of considerable wealth and importance, the roads to it, 

 north of Carlisle, continued in a very unsatisfactory 

 state. It was only in July, 1788, that the first mail-coach 

 from London had driven into Glasgow by that route, 

 when it was welcomed by a procession of the citizens 

 on horseback, who went out several miles to meet it. 

 But the road had been shockingly made, and before long 

 had become almost impassable. Robert Owen states 

 that, in 1795, it took him two days and three nights' 

 incessant travelling to get from Manchester to Glasgow, 

 and he mentions that the coach had to cross a well- 

 known dangerous mountain at midnight, called Trick- 

 stone Bar, which was then always passed with fear and 

 trembling. 1 



As late as the year 1814 we find a Parliamentary 

 Committee declaring the road between Carlisle and 

 Glasgow to be in so ruinous a state as often seriously to 

 delay the mail and endanger the lives of travellers. 

 The bridge over Evan Water was so much decayed, that 

 one day the coach and horses fell through it into the 

 river, when " one passenger was killed, the coachman 

 survived only a few days, and several other persons were 

 dreadfully maimed ; two of the horses being also killed." 

 The remaining part of the bridge continued for some time 

 unrepaired, just space enough being left for a single 

 carriage to pass. The road trustees seemed to be help- 

 less, and did nothing ; a local subscription was tried and 

 failed, the district passed through being very poor ; but 

 as the road was absolutely required for more than merely 

 local purposes, it was eventually determined to under- 

 take its reconstruction as a work of national importance, 

 and 50,000/. was granted by Parliament with this object, 

 under the provisions of the Act passed in 1816. The 



1 ' Life of Robert Owen,' by him- 

 self. 



2 'Report from the Select Com- 



mittee on the Carlisle and Glasgow 

 Road,' 28th June, 1815. 



