Chapter XXXV: Section III: 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.