222
pense in attempting to reform what was incorrigible, required fobe ultimately resorted to. Before wheel-carriages were much inrise, levelness was of less moment, the straight line was preferred;and if this led over hills, rather than round their base, this cir.cumstance was rather considered as eligible, in generally afford,ing a harder bottom for the road. Even in the military roads,(in regard to the making of which,,the execution was neitherhampered by scarcity of funds nor deficiency of discretionarypower), the same error has been generally committed, whichshows the difficulty of attaining to just theory, till it has beencorrected by practice.
Those counties may probably he accounted the most fortunate,who were the latest of starting in the enterprise of road-reforma-tion, as they could profit by the errors of their precursors.
In this respect, the county of Kirkcudbright seems to havebeen peculiarly fortunate, where nothing of importance seems tohave been attempted till 1796, when they obtained a road act,for the first time empowering them to collect toll. Much of thehigh state of improvement of the roads in that county, is ascrib-ed to the indefatigable perseverance, and superior intelligence, ofthe late Basil William, Lord Daer , who had particularly turnedhis attention to that subject, and had improved upon the ideas ofthe late Sir George Clerk of Pennicuik, as to the mode of con-ducting level roads through hilly districts. Lord Daen first ex-emplified his ideas, by planning an entire new set of farm-roads,for his father the Earl of Selkirk’s estate, paying no regard toexisting roads, nor even to the disarranging of existing enclosures,After much ineffectual representation, and even overcoming someopposition, which arose from paltry self-interested views, at theexpense of some pecuniary sacrifices, he prevailed, some time be-fore his death, in having his plan adopted, in some miles of *road undergoing repairs; and the marked contrast betwixt thispart and the rest, began to open the eyes of the country. Manyof his proposals, it is said, looked upon at the time as chimerical,liave at length been adopted, to universal satisfaction. *
One excellent maxim, the reporter observes, is uniformly act-ed upon in the stewavtry of Kirkcudbright, since the time of LordDaer , ‘ that no repairs shall be laid out upon any of the old roads,‘ exceeding 2(V. per mile, till a surveyor shall have reported that‘ the road is in a proper direction ; and that every new line of‘ road proposed shall first be laid out by an engineer, with pro-‘ per instruments, inspected by a committee, and approved of by
* a general meeting, before the work can be carried into execu-
* tion. ’
* See Agricultural Survey of Galloway. He had to be his own engineer,that profession, as to roads, being then unknown in Scotland ; and he invent-ed a level, with a piece of mirror attached to it, reflecting, to the eye, the air-bi.bhle of the spirit-tube, at the same time that it is looking at thet! reug'i the sights ; which venders the instrument extremely handy.