“By this time my own (for distinction) was quite free of the bog, and being frighted, stood very tamely by himself; which he would not have done at another time. In the mean while we were forced to wait at a distance, while the other was flouncing and throwing the dirt about him; for there was no means of coming near him to ease him of the heavy burden he had upon his loins, by which he was sometimes in danger to be turned upon his back, when he rose to break the bog before him. But, in about a quarter of an hour, he got out, bedaubed with the slough, shaking with fear, and his head and neck all over in a foam.
“As for myself, I was harassed on this slough, by winding about from place to place, to find such tufts as were within my stride or leap, in my heavy boots with high heels; which, by my spring, when the little hillocks were too far asunder, broke the turf, and then I threw myself down toward the next protuberance; but to my guide it seemed nothing; he was light of body, shod with flat brogues, wide in the soles, and accustomed to a particular step, suited to the occasion.
“This hill was about three quarters of a mile over, and had but a short descent on the further side, rough, indeed, but not remarkable in this country. I had now five computed miles to go before I came to my first asylum,—that is, five Scots miles, which, as in the north of England, are longer than yours as three is to two; and, if the difficulty of the way were to be taken into account, it might well be called fifteen. This, except about three quarters of a mile of heathy ground, pretty free from stones and rocks, consisted of stony moors, almost impracticable for a horse with his rider, and likewise of rocky way, where we were obliged to dismount, and sometimes climb, and otherwhile slide down. But what vexed me most of all, they called it a road; and yet I must confess it was preferable to a boggy way. The great difficulty was to wind about with the horses, and find such places as they could possibly be got over.”
Wade went vigorously to work in the construction of his roads, selecting from the regular troops and Highland companies 500 men, who were put on extra pay while at the work of road-making. Notwithstanding the many difficulties to be encountered, the inexperience of the workmen, and the inferior tools then at their command for such a purpose, the undertaking was satisfactorily accomplished in about ten years. A Scottish gentleman, who visited the Highlands in 1737, found the roads completed, and was surprised by the improvements which he found to have arisen from them, amongst which he gratefully notes the existence of civilized places for the entertainment of travellers. Formerly the only apologies for hostelries in the Highlands were wretched huts, often with only one apartment, swarming with lively insects, the atmosphere solid with smoke, and the fragile walls pierced here and there with holes large enough to admit a man’s head. Now, however, these were replaced by small but substantial inns built of stone, located at distances of about ten miles from each other along the new roads. The standard breadth of the roads was sixteen feet, although where possible they were made wider, and were carried on in straight lines, unless where this was impracticable.
Wade’s main road, commencing at Perth, went by Dunkeld and Blair-Athole to Dalnacardoch, where it was joined by another from Stirling by Crieff, through Glenalmond, to Aberfeldy, where it crossed the Tay, on what was then considered a magnificent bridge of five arches. From Dalnacardoch the road goes on to Dalwhinny, where it again branches into two, one branch proceeding towards the north-west through Garva Moor, and over the Corryarrick mountain to Fort-Augustus, the other striking almost due north to Ruthven in Badenoch, and thence by Delmagary to Inverness. Another road, along the shores of Lochs Ness and Lochy, joined the latter place with the strongholds of Fort-Augustus and Fort-William. One of the most difficult parts of the undertaking was the crossing of the lofty Corryarrick, the road having to be carried up the south side of the mountain by a series of about fifteen zigzags. The entire length of road constructed measured about 250 miles.
Lieutenant General Wade, Commander-in-Chief of all
His Majesty’s Forces in Scotland. (From an old
engraving in the possession of D. Laing, Esq.)
Although these roads were doubtless of considerable advantage in a military point of view, they appear to have been of very little use in developing the commercial resources of the country. “They were indeed truly military roads—laid down by a practical soldier, and destined for warlike purposes—with scarcely any view towards the ends for which free and peaceful citizens open up a system of internal transit.”[763] They appear to have been regarded with suspicion and dislike by all classes of the Highlanders. The chiefs, according to Burt,[764] complained that in time of peace they opened up their country to strangers, who would be likely to weaken the attachment of their vassals, and that in time of war they laid their fastnesses open to the enemy. The bridges, especially, they said would render the people effeminate, and less fit to ford the rivers in other places where there were no such means of crossing. The middle class again objected to them because, their horses being unshod,—and necessarily so on account of the places where they had to find pasture—the gravel would soon whet away their hoofs, and thus render them unserviceable. “The lowest class, who, many of them, at some times cannot compass a pair of shoes for themselves, allege that the gravel is intolerable to their naked feet; and the complaint has extended to their thin brogues.” For these reasons, allied no doubt to obstinacy and hatred of innovation and government interference, many of the Highlanders, despising the new roads, continued to walk in the wretched ways of their fathers.
Although the Chevalier still had many adherents in the south of Scotland, yet, as they were narrowly watched by the government, it was considered inexpedient and unsafe to correspond with them on the subject of the Spanish expedition. In the state of uncertainty in which they were thus kept, they wisely abstained from committing themselves, and when Marischal landed they were quite unprepared to render him any assistance, and unanimously resolved not to move in any shape till a rising should take place in England in favour of the Chevalier.