*[2] Statistical Account of Scotland,' iii. 185.
*[3] The cas-chrom was a rude combination of a lever for the removal of rocks, a spade to cut the earth, and a foot-plough to turn it. We annex an illustration of this curious and now obsolete instrument. It weighed about eighteen pounds. In working it, the" upper part of the handle, to which the left hand was applied, reached the workman's shoulder, and being slightly elevated, the point, shod with iron, was pushed into the ground horizontally; the soil being turned over by inclining the handle to the furrow side, at the same time making the heel act as a fulcrum to raise the point of the instrument. In turning up unbroken ground, it was first employed with the heel uppermost, with pushing strokes to cut the breadth of the sward to be turned over; after which, it was used horizontally as above described. We are indebted to a Parliamentary Blue Book for the following representation of this interesting relic of ancient agriculture. It is given in the appendix to the 'Ninth Report of the Commissioners for Highland Roads and Bridges,' ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 19th April, 1821.
*[4] Anderson's 'Guide to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland,' 3rd ed. p.48.
*[5] He was accompanied on this tour by Colonel Dirom, with whom he returned to his house at Mount Annan, in Dumfries. Telford says of him: "The Colonel seems to have roused the county of Dumfries from the lethargy in which it has slumbered for centuries. The map of the county, the mineralogical survey, the new roads, the opening of lime works, the competition of ploughing, the improving harbours, the building of bridges, are works which bespeak the exertions of no common man."—Letter to Mr. Andrew. Little, dated Shrewsbury, 30th November, 1801.
*[6] Ordered to be printed 5th of April, 1803.
*[7] 'Memorials of his Time," by Henry Cockburn, pp. 341-3.
*[8] 'Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Sir John Sinclair, Barb,' vol. i., p. 339.
*[9] Extract of a letter from a gentleman residing in Sunderland, quoted in 'Life of Telford,' p. 465.
*[10] Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated Salop, 18th February, 1803.
*[11] The names of Celtic places are highly descriptive. Thus Craig-Ellachie literally means, the rock of separation; Badenoch, bushy or woody; Cairngorm, the blue cairn; Lochinet, the lake of nests; Balknockan, the town of knolls; Dalnasealg, the hunting dale; Alt'n dater, the burn of the horn-blower; and so on.