130 



Old Roads on Gala Water and the Vicinity. By Miss 

 Russell, Ashiesteel. 



No doubt Scotland owed her existence, or at any rate 

 independence, very much to carrying out the system which 

 was the formal bequest of Robert Bruce— that of leaving the 

 country undefended and deserted. But it is very strange to 

 find how rough things were in the way of roads and other 

 means of communication till the last century. 



A dowager lady who only died in 1873, the aunt of a 

 well-known baronet, used to say that when she first married, 

 in Selkirkshire, a year or two before 1820, two aunts of her 

 husband's were alive, who remembered the Gala Water route 

 before there was any made road. 



As the first road, that on the west side of the valley, which 

 is very up and down compared to the excellent road on the 

 other side, was made, according to the Statistical Accounts, etc , 

 in 1750, it seems likely these ladies ma} r have been grandaunts 

 of the bridegroom ; but the only question of importance is, 

 whether they really remembered themselves seeing what they 

 described. 



In their childhood or early youth, when the ladies of the 

 family went to Edinburgh, they rode straight up Gala Water, 

 by a line much like that of the. present railway, crossing the 

 stream many times ; which is intelligible enough. But the 

 point where the track, like the present road, crossed to the 

 west side of the valley, and turned up into Middleton Moor, to 

 avoid running straight into the deep deans between Crichton 

 and Borthwick, was left so entirely unmarked, no doubt as a 

 trap for invaders, that it was necessary to count the crossings 

 accurately, to be sure when they were past Kilcoulter, near the 

 present Heriot station. And to be sure of this, one lady was en- 

 trusted with a number of pins corresponding to that of the fords ; 

 the total number was about sixteen, but it would depend on 

 where they struck into the valley ; and these pins were htuck in the 

 cuff of her riding habit, and at each crossing she removed one, 

 and stuck it in her sleeve higher up. When all had been moved, 

 they knew that they must turn up into what was no doubt then 

 the open moor on their left. 



Of course the most hilly road was better than this, as a very 

 moderate amount of rain would make the valley entirely im- 



