54 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



are maintained to the present day, notwithstanding 

 the great poverty that exists amongst its inhabitants. 



Arthur Young, in his " Tour in Ireland," says : 

 " For a country so far behind England in other 

 respects to be so far before us in the matter of 

 roads, cannot fail to impress the English traveller." 

 He goes on to say, " that no matter where he 

 determined to go during his tour, everywhere he 

 found perfect roads." 



Telford, the engineer, as I have elsewhere observed, 

 made 920 miles of roads and 11 17 bridges in the 

 Highlands of Scotland. In Scotland that was a 

 matter of some difficulty, as the labour did not consist 

 merely in making the roads, but protecting them after 

 they were made from swollen torrents, and providing 

 proper drainage to enable them to be easily freed of 

 water that encroached upon their surface. 



In the districts between Glasgow and Carlisle, up- 

 wards of 150 miles of Lowland roads were made by 

 Telford. But it was in 181 5 that he especially distin- 

 guished himself, by making the great Holyhead road, 

 thus making an important line of communication 

 between London and Dublin. He made a foundation 

 of rough stone pavement, upon which he laid the road 

 surface. 



Telford, in speaking of this road himself, says : "I 

 was directed to make a survey of it in 1810, it having 

 been satisfactorily proved to successive committees 

 of the House of Commons, that the inhabitants of the 

 country through which the road passed did not possess 

 sufficient funds for effecting any essential improve- 

 ments ; an Act of Parliament was therefore passed, 

 empowering commissioners therein named to expend 

 the sum of ^20,000 in making such alterations as 

 might be deemed expedient." 



