CONTENTS OF ESSAYS ON RAIL-ROADS. 5-15 15-31 X. Whether Railways can be made to suit ordinary Carts? XI. Whether there may not be a Track suitable both to Railway XII. Whether any mode of Package would facilitate the Draught, XIII. Whether it affects the Draught that the Carriage be yoked near Notes by Mr Stevenson, in reference to the preceding Essays, 130-146 ESSAYS ON RAIL-ROADS, PRESENTED TO THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY. (Edited by ROBERT STEVENSON, Esq. Civil Engineer.) Ar the original institution of the Highland Society of Scotland, in the year 1784, one of its chief objects is declared to be, the facilitating of communication, by means of roads and bridges. The influence, therefore, of an association comprising so large a proportion of the nobility and landed interest of the kingdom, must necessarily have had an important effect in directing the public attention to an object of so much general utility as that of rendering all parts of the country easily accessible. Accordingly we find, that, previous to the period at which this Society was instituted, our public roads were extremely defective both in their lines of direction and draught; and the greater part of the Highlands was, till them, literally shut up and inaccessible to carriages of any description. Perhaps the first great step towards improvement in road VOL. VI. A making, upon scientific principles, in any part of the United Kingdom, was the formation of the Military Roads of the Highlands, soon after the unfortunate troubles of 1745. But even these, agreeably to the practice of the times, were too often carried by the most direct line, without due regard being paid to avoid the undulations of the country. So much was this the case, that a celebrated traveller, when asked, at one of the most difficult passes on these new highways, what could induce the fabricators of such a road to insert their names upon certain stones set up by its side?" I know not," he facetiously answered, "unless it were to afford the weary traveller an opportunity of cursing them by name and surname." In this state, the roads of the North were occasionally found, and thus they remained for many years; with the example, it must be confessed, of too many of the beaten paths of the South. Though it is not here meant to be inferred, that the late improvements were wholly in consequence of the immediate exertions of the Highland Society; yet such a concentration of influence as this great body possesses, exerted in all the walks of life, cannot fail to be regarded as one of the principal causes of that excellent system of roads which is now in operation. The Government having, with the most enlightened policy, advanced one-half of the necessary funds for opening roads in the north of Scotland, while the landed proprietors contributed the other,-by this happy union of objects and interests, together with the open and unenclosed state of the country, |