432 GENERAL ROAD IMPROVEMENT. PART VIII. 



between the great cattle-markets of Falkirk, Crief, and 

 Doune, and Carlisle and the West of England. It was 

 carried over deep ravines by several lofty bridges, the 

 most formidable of which was that across the Mouse 

 Water at Cartland Crags, about a mile to the west- 

 ward of Lanark. The stream here flows through a deep 

 rocky chasm, the sides of which are in some places 

 about four hundred feet high. At a point where 

 the height of the rocks is considerably less, but still 

 most formidable, Telford spanned the ravine with the 

 beautiful bridge represented in the engraving on the 

 preceding page, its parapet being 129 feet above the 

 surface of the water beneath. 



The reconstruction of the western road from Carlisle 

 to Glasgow, which Telford had thus satisfactorily carried 

 out, shortly led to similar demands from the population 

 on the eastern side of the kingdom. The spirit of road 

 reform was now fairly on foot. Fast coaches and wheel- 

 carriages of all kinds had become greatly improved, so 

 that the usual rate of travelling had advanced from five 

 or six to nine or ten miles an hour. The desire for the 

 rapid communication of political and commercial intel- 

 ligence was found to increase with the facilities for 

 supplying it ; and, urged by the public wants, the Post- 

 Office authorities were stimulated to unusual efforts in this 

 direction. Numerous surveys were made and roads laid 

 out, so as to improve the main line of communication 

 between London and Edinburgh and the intermediate 

 towns. The first part of this road taken in hand was 

 the worst that lying to the north of Catterick Bridge, 

 in Yorkshire. A new line was surveyed by West Auck- 

 land to Hexham, passing over Carter Fell' to Jedburgh, 

 and thence to Edinburgh ; but rejected as too crooked 

 and uneven. Another was tried by Aldstone Moor and 

 Bewcastle, and rejected for the same reason. The third 

 line proposed was eventually adopted as the best, passing 

 from Morpeth, by Wooler and Coldstream, to Edinburgh ; 



