_Improvement of the Means of Communication._
In the early part of the eighteenth century, the roads in Scotland were
very bad, but there was then little traffic, and few wheeled vehicles
of any kind were used. The roads constructed by the Government in the
Highlands were of little commercial importance, as they were planned
for military ends. This part of the country was not opened by good
traffic roads till the beginning of the present century. The spirit
of improvement, however, had begun in the Lowlands a century earlier,
although it made little progress in road-making for a considerable time.
In 1776, an authoritative Survey of the roads of Scotland was
published.¹ In this Survey, the great roads throughout the country
are measured from Edinburgh, and it gives a list of the different
stages, and shows the distance between one stage and another, as well
as the distance of each stage from Edinburgh; all the cities, towns,
and villages on the lines of these leading roads are marked, and
the bridges and cross-roads indicated. It is pretty evident that
at this time considerable progress has been made, and the statement
in the Survey concludes thus:――“It may be expected that we should
give a particular description of the roads, but this would be too
great a departure from our original plan for us to undertake; we shall,
therefore, only observe, that the military roads are kept in the best
repair; and so much has been done of late years to the other roads, by
the attention of the nobility and gentry, that travelling is thereby
made incredibly easy, expeditious, and commodious; and such a spirit of
improvement prevails throughout Scotland, that we may venture to say, a
few years will complete all the public roads in that part of the United
Kingdom.
¹ ♦Taylor and Skinner’s _Survey and Maps of the Roads of North
Britain or Scotland_.
♦ “Tylor” replaced with “Taylor”
“There are good inns on all the roads, with post-chaises and horses at
every stage, as far north as Inverness by Aberdeen.” About this time
the general construction of turnpike roads began, and before the end of
the eighteenth century the means of communication were greatly improved
throughout the Lowlands. During this period the talents of Mr. Telford,
the engineer, were much employed in planning and constructing roads
and building bridges. His advice concerning the repairs of the road
between Glasgow and Carlisle was sought. The roads to Glasgow, north of
Carlisle, were in a very unsatisfactory state, and, in 1784, when the
first mail-coach from London was driving into Glasgow by this route,
the citizens formed a procession on horseback, and went out several
miles to meet and welcome it.¹ A line of road was made from Carlisle,
across the counties of Dumfries and Wigton, to Portpatrick, for the
purpose of obtaining more rapid communication with Belfast and the
northern parts of Ireland. Many roads and bridges were formed in the
latter years of the eighteenth century and the early years of the
present century.
¹ Smiles’ _Lives of the Engineers_, Volume II., page 428.
In 1802, the Government employed Mr. Telford to make a survey of
Scotland and report on the state of the roads and bridges, and on the
means of promoting the fisheries on the east and west coasts, with the
object of preventing further emigration of the inhabitants of those
regions. He collected a vast mass of facts, and presented his report
in April, 1803; and in the following summer, he received instruction
to prepare for beginning practical operations. He proceeded to the
Highlands to draw out the lines of roads and plan the bridges which
were most necessary. His first aim was to secure the connection of the
new lines of road by bridges at the most important points, such as at
Dunkeld over the Tay, and other points. The bridge at Dunkeld formed
the opening, as it were, to the central Highlands, and it was finished
and opened for traffic in 1809. The communication to the north of
Inverness was continued by a bridge over the Beauly, and another over
the Conan. He also erected three or four important bridges to connect
the existing lines of road at Ballater over the Dee, at Alford over the
Don, and at Craigellachie over the Spey. The bridge of Craigellachie
was a light cast-iron arch of 150 feet, a beautiful structure.
Telford, having thus connected the main lines of road, concentrated
his attention upon the interior of the Highlands; and by the year 1820,
one thousand two hundred new bridges were erected, and nine hundred
and twenty miles of good roads were added to the road communications
of this region. The first stage-coaches that ran northward from Perth
to Inverness were tried in 1806; before 1811 they were regularly
established, and in 1820 forty stage-coaches arrived in Inverness every
week, and as many departed.¹
¹ Smiles’ _Lives of the Engineers_, Volume II., pages 377‒388.
Shortly after the Union the idea arose of uniting the east with the
west, by a canal uniting the Forth and the Clyde. The scheme at first
was thought to be impracticable; but when commerce had advanced a few
degrees farther, it was readily adopted, and this important work was
commenced in 1768. The canal runs nearly in the line of the old Roman
wall, and it was opened in 1790. The main canal joins the Clyde a few
miles below Glasgow. It is 38 miles in length; its medium width at the
surface is 56 feet, and at the bottom 27; at first it was about eight
feet in depth, but its banks were raised, and the depth of water then
reached ten feet. It has thirty-nine locks, with a rise of 156 feet
from the sea to the highest level.
In the latter half of the eighteenth century, many plans of canals were
projected in Scotland, and surveys made, which were never executed.
In 1807, a canal, intended to form a communication between Glasgow,
Paisley, and Ardrossan, was begun; but only the part extending past
Paisley on to Johnstone was made. It is about twelve miles long, thirty
feet broad at the top and eighteen at the bottom, and four feet and a
half in depth. The Union Canal, which joined the Forth and Clyde Canal
near Falkirk, and thence to Edinburgh, a distance of thirty-one miles,
was opened in 1822. In 1803, the construction of the Caledonian Canal
was commenced, but it had been thought of long before. For in 1773,
Watt, the improver of the steam engine, was employed to make a survey,
and he announced that the canal was practicable, and pointed out how it
could be constructed. It was made, at the expense of Government, from
plans, and under the superintendence of, Telford, the engineer, and
opened in 1822. Some other canals in Scotland, after being made and
used for years, have been superseded by railways.
Thus far it appears that with regard to the means of internal
communication both by land and water Scotland was fairly well advanced
before the first quarter of the present century expired. But her
manufactures and commerce were rapidly extending, and she was thus so
far prepared to take advantage of any improved means of communication
which might be discovered. The great revolution in the means of
communication which took place in the second quarter of this century,
however, does not seem to have been anticipated even by those who were
most actively engaged in originating it.
A waggon-road, tramway, or railroad, is a kind of road with ways
formed of wood, stone, iron, or other material, on which the wheels
of vehicles or waggons passing along it run. The immediate end of all
such roads is to enable a less quantity of power to impel a loaded
carriage and send it forward at a greater speed. It is reported
that wooden-rails were first employed about 1630, on roads used for
coal-waggons in the north of England. It is recorded that, in 1745,
a tramroad existed between the Tranent coal-pits and the harbour of
Cockenzie in East Lothian. The first iron rails were cast at Colebrook
Dale Ironworks, in Shropshire, in 1767. Rails were laid down at
several of the collieries in Mid-Lothian, Lanark, and Ayr, long before
locomotives were introduced. The first public railway in Scotland was
constructed between Kilmarnock and Troon, nine and a half miles long,
which was opened for traffic in 1812. The rails of this tramway were
of cast iron and fixed in stone blocks, and the carriages were drawn
by horses.
The earliest lines were mostly all connected with mines or quarries,
and were worked by horses or by fixed engines. Before the year 1830
the sanction of Parliament had been obtained for the construction of
upwards of a hundred miles of railways; and between 1830 and 1840,
Parliamentary powers were obtained for two hundred miles of new
lines of railways. The more important of these were the Edinburgh and
Glasgow; the Glasgow, Paisley, and Greenock; the Dundee and Arbroath;
Arbroath and Forfar. In the next ten years there was a vast extension
of railways, and many of the short lines were united into systems.
But a number of the new railways then proposed were never made, though
some of them were fifteen or twenty years afterwards, but not by the
original projectors. For a time the country rang with projects of new
and impracticable schemes of railways, and immense sums of money were
lost and won; those were the days when millionaires began to arise in
the iron trade, and in other less legitimate lines of business. Railway
extension, however, continued till the whole country became penetrated
with lines; and twenty-six years ago almost the whole of the railways
in Scotland were either worked or leased by a few companies――The
Caledonian, Glasgow and South-Western, North British, Great North of
Scotland, and Highland――each of these companies have large systems of
railway communication. In 1866, there were 2244 miles of railways in
Scotland.
Along with the development of the railway system, a remarkable
improvement and development of the postal system has taken place. The
Post Office system is entirely under the control of the Government,
and forms a distinct and important department of the administration.
The introduction of the penny postage in 1840, and since then the
introduction of post-cards, the telegraphic system, and the parcels
post, were all important and convenient improvements.