Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

xxiv INTRODUCTION
. . . become a good accomptant . . . and
carries on his official correspondence in an
able manner. . . . Nor has this life, and the
exposure to all winds and weathers, and the
temptations, either of company or of solitude
at the houses in which he puts up, led him
into any irregularities. . . . Neither has his
elevation in the slightest degree inflated him.
He is still the same temperate, industrious,
modest, unassuming man, as when he . . .
first attracted Mr Telford's notice."^
Though the course of the Tour was
determined by Telford's operations, and the
inspection of them was naturally a leading
preoccupation of both men, the Journal is
very far from being merely an account of
roads, bridges, and canals. Southey was a cul-
tivated, refined, and very intelligent observer,
travelled, well-bred, with decided convictions,
political and religious, and a fair stock of deep-
seated, but, on the whole, harmless prejudices.
He had the tastes of an English country
1 P. 252. A tragical accident to a ferry-boat, which
Mitchell escaped only by arriving just too late to embark,
illustrates the other perils of his official life. It is related
on p. 129.