military posts, like Fort William and Fort Augustus, which guarded their
ends, had to do with the ordinary life of a commercial town. Meanwhile,
however, the Highlands had begun gradually to settle down; and Telford's
roads were intended for the far higher and better purpose of opening out
the interior of northern Scotland to the humanizing influences of trade
and industry.

Fully to describe the great work which the mature engineer constructed
in the Highland region, would take up more space than could be allotted
to such a subject anywhere save in a complete industrial history of
roads and travelling in modern Britain. It must suffice to say that when
Telford took the matter in hand, the vast block of country north and
west of the Great Glen of Caledonia (which divides the Highlands in two
between Inverness and Ben Nevis)--a block comprising the counties of
Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, and half Inverness--had literally
nothing within it worthy of being called a road. Wheeled carts or
carriages were almost unknown, and all burdens were conveyed on pack-
horses, or, worse still, on the broad backs of Highland lassies. The
people lived in small scattered villages, and communications from one to
another were well-nigh impossible. Telford set to work to give the
country, not a road or two, but a main system of roads. First, he
bridged the broad river Tay at Dunkeld, so as to allow of a direct route
straight into the very jaws of the Highlands. Then, he also bridged over
the Beauly at Inverness, so as to connect the opposite sides of the
Great Glen with one another. Next, he laid out a number of trunk lines,
running through the country on both banks, to the very north of
Caithness, and the very west of the Isle of Skye. Whoever to this day
travels on the main thoroughfares in the greater Scottish Islands--in
Arran, Islay, Jura, Mull; or in the wild peninsula of Morvern, and the
Land of Lorne; or through the rugged regions of Inverness-shire and