384 Roads and Highways : their Iliston/, 
acquired habits which led to wants before unknown ; and the 
transport of merchandise from the coast to the inland towns, 
and from one special seat of industry to another, soon made the 
want of roads severely felt. 
Very many years passed before any systematic attempt was 
made to maintain and improve the highways of the country ; 
occasional instances, however, are recorded of the construction 
of roads by the various monasteries. The introduction of wheel- 
carriages, in the early part of the seventeenth century, caused 
the wretched condition of the horse-tracks, by which communi- 
cation had been kept up, to be severely felt ; and the introduction 
of stage-coaches, in the reign of Charles I., rendered it absolutely 
necessary that some measures should be taken to render the roads 
passable. It was not until the middle of the eighteenth century 
that any really efficient roads were constructed. 
The first attempt at systematic road-making was in the High- 
lands of Scotland, where, after the rebellion of 1715, the soldiers 
were employed under General Wade in constructing the great 
military highways by which access was gained to those parts of 
the Highlands which had hitherto proved almost inaccessible to 
the army, and by means of which, not only were the Highland 
chiefs subdued, but the prosperity of the country was very 
materially advanced. The roads thus constructed were 800 miles 
in length. The advantages which ensued from their construc- 
tion gave a stimulus to road-making throughout Great Britain, 
so that from 1760 to 1774 upwards of 400 Acts were passed re- 
lating to the formation and repairing of roads. 
The first English road-engineer was a blind Yorkshireman, 
Metcalfe, a man of innate shrewdness and ingenuity, with great 
resoluteness of purpose, who in his career had acquired a more 
than ordinary share of experience. His first connection with 
road-making began in 17G5, when, an Act having been obtained 
for the construction of a road from Harrogate to Boroughbridge, 
he contracted for the construction of three miles of the new 
road. This was followed by the erection of a bridge ; after which 
he was for upwards of thirty years engaged in similar occu- 
pations in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire. 
Metcalfe fulfilled the functions of designer as well as constructor, 
and personally surveyed and laid out many of the most important 
turnpike-roads, involving the building of bridges, retaining walls, 
and culverts. 
Smeaton, the father of engineers, was engaged as a road-maker 
during part of his career, having been employed in 1708 in 
making a new road in Nottinghamshire. The great main arteries 
of the country were laid still later, in the beginning of the present 
