the few lean kyloes, which paid the rent and produced wherewithal to pay for the oatmeal imported."1

Telford's first recommendation was, that a bridge should be thrown across the Tay at Dunkeld, to connect the improved lines of road proposed to be made on each side of the river. He regarded this measure as of the first importance to the Central Highlands; and as the Duke of Athol was willing to pay one-half of the cost of the erection, if the Government would defray the other— the bridge to be free of toll after a certain period-it appeared to the engineer that this was a reasonable and just mode of providing for the contingency. In the next place, he recommended a bridge over the Spey, which drained a great extent of mountainous country, and, being liable to sudden inundations, was very dangerous to cross. Yet this ferry formed the only link of communication between the whole of the northern counties. The site pointed out for the proposed bridge was adjacent to the town of Fochabers, and here also the Duke of Gordon and other county gentlemen were willing to provide one-half the means for its erection.

Mr. Telford further described in detail the roads necessary to be constructed in the north and west Highlands, with the object of opening up the western parts of the counties of Inverness and Ross, and affording a ready communication from the Clyde to the fishing lochs in the neighbourhood of the Isle of Skye. As to the means of executing these improvements, he suggested that Government would be justified in dealing with the Highland roads and bridges as exceptional and extraordinary works, and extending the public aid towards carrying them into effect, as but for such assistance the country must remain, perhaps for ages to come, imperfectly connected. His report further embraced certain improvements in the harbours of Aberdeen and Wick,

1 Extract of a letter from a gentleman residing in Sutherland, quoted in 'Life of Telford,' p. 465.

and a description of the country through which the proposed line of the Caledonian Canal would necessarily pass-a canal which had long been the subject of inquiry, but had not as yet emerged from a state of mere speculation.

The new roads and bridges, and other improvements suggested by the engineer, excited much interest in the north. The Highland Society voted him their thanks by acclamation; the counties of Inverness and Ross followed; and he had letters of thanks and congratulation from many of the Highland chiefs. "If they will persevere," says he, "with anything like their present zeal, they will have the satisfaction of greatly improving a country that has been too long neglected. Things are greatly changed now in the Highlands. Even were the chiefs to quarrel, de'il a Highlandman would stir for them. The lairds have transferred their affections from their people to flocks of sheep, and the people have lost their veneration for the lairds. It seems to be the natural progress of society; but it is not an altogether satisfactory change. There were some fine features in the former patriarchal state of society; but now clanship is gone, and chiefs and people are hastening into the opposite extreme. This seems to me to be quite wrong." 1

In the same year Telford was elected a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on which occasion he was proposed and supported by three professors; so that the former Edinburgh mason was rising in the world and receiving due honour in his own country. The effect of his report was such, that in the session of 1803 a Parliamentary Commission was appointed, under whose direction a series of practical improvements was commenced, which issued in the construction of not less than 920 additional miles of roads and bridges throughout the Highlands, one-half of the cost of which was defrayed by

1 Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated Salop, 18th February, 1803.

the Government and the other half by local assessment. But in addition to these main lines of communication, numberless county roads were formed by statute labour, under local road Acts and by other means; the landowners of Sutherland alone having formed nearly 300 miles of district roads at their own cost.

By the end of the session of 1803 Telford received his instructions from Mr. Vansittart as to the survey he was forthwith to enter upon, with a view to commencing practical operations; and he again proceeded to the Highlands to lay out the roads and plan the bridges which were most urgently needed. The district of the Solway was, at his representation, included, with the object of improving the road from Carlisle to Portpatrick-the nearest point at which Great Britain meets the Irish coast, and where the sea passage forms only a sort of wide ferry.

It would occupy too much space, and indeed it is altogether unnecessary, to describe in detail the operations of the Commission and of their engineer in opening up the communications of the Highlands. Suffice it to say, that one of the first things taken in hand was the connection of the new lines of road by means of bridges at the more important points; such as at Dunkeld over the Tay, and near Dingwall over the Conan and Orrin. That at Dunkeld was the most important, as being the portal to the Central Highlands; and at the second meeting of the Commissioners Mr. Telford submitted his plan and estimates of the proposed bridge. In consequence of some difference with the Duke of Athol as to his share of the expense--which proved to be greater than he had taken into account-some delay occurred in the commencement of the work; but at length it was fairly begun, and after being three years in hand the structure was finished and opened for traffic in 1809.

The bridge is a handsome one of five river and two land arches. The span of the centre arch is 90 feet,

of the two adjoining it 84 feet, and of the two side arches 74 feet; affording a clear waterway of 446 feet. The total breadth of the roadway and footpaths is 28 feet. 6 inches. The cost of the structure was about 14,000l., one-half of which was defrayed by the Duke of Athol. It forms a fine feature in a landscape not often surpassed, presenting within a comparatively small compass a great variety of character and beauty.

The communication by road north of Inverness was also perfected by the construction of a bridge of five arches over the Beauley, and another of the same number over the Conan, the central arch being 65 feet span; and the formerly wretched bit of road between these points having been put in good repair, the town of Dingwall was thereupon rendered easily approachable from the south. At the same time a beginning was made with the construction of new roads through the districts most in need of them. The first contracted for was the Loch-na-Gaul