Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

ROADS, CANALS, RAILWAYS, STEAMERS, TELEGRAPHS, Etc.
in 1878, tolls ceased throughout Scotland, the roads
being maintained by a general assessment. The Com-
mission reported that in 1859 there were 5768 miles of
turnpike road in Scotland, with 1060 tolls upon them.
Canals were the second means of internal communi-
cation, and a considerable number of such waterways
were constructed in Scotland, most of them being still
in use. The canal from Aberdeen to Inverurie was
partly utilised in the construction of the Great North
of Scotland Railway, the company having acquired its
ownership; and the Glasgow and Paisley Canal has been
converted into a railway. But the Caledonian and Crinan
Canals, the Forth and Clyde Canal, the Union Canal,
and the Monkland Canal are still used, and are described
in detail in other parts of this work. Owing to the
increased size of vessels, those canals, although made
for the transit of sea-going vessels, have ceased to fulfil
that function, but are largely used for local purposes.
Powers were obtained to construct a ship canal between
East and West Tarbert, on the Mull of Kintyre, to
shorten the voyage to the Clyde and save the dangers
of rounding the Mull, but they have not been exercised.
Proposals for the construction of a ship canal between
the Forth and the Clyde have recently been discussed,
one scheme taking the existing canal route by Kilsyth,
and another proposing to utilise Loch Lomond as part of
the waterway. t But those schemes are yet in the air.
The formation of Scotland, and the insular and pen-
insular character of so much of Argyll, Inverness, and
Ross, made steam navigation of much benefit as a means
of communication. The steamboat had its birth on
the Clyde in Henry Bell's Comet, and to this day the
Clyde shows supremacy in the building of steamers, and
great enterprise in the use of them. Some of the earliest
sea-going steamers in Britain were those from Leith to
London, Dundee, etc. Two lines of well-appointed
steamers still run from Leith to London, and there are
also vessels from Dundee and Aberdeen to London sail-
ing regularly. From Glasgow steamers go to Canada
and the United States, to the Mediterranean and India,
and to Australia, South America, China, etc. Lines of
steamers also sail regularly to Belfast, Dublin, Liver-
pool, Bristol, Southampton, Cork, etc. ; and steamers to
Ireland also sail from Ardrossan and Stranraer. From
Leith well-known lines of steamers sail to Aberdeen,
Kirkwall, and Lerwick; to Antwerp, Rotterdam, Ham-
burg, the Baltic, Norway, Iceland, etc. ; and a line has
been established between Leith and New York, with
Dundee as a port of call. Grangemouth has also a
large coal traffic by steamer to England and the Con-
tinent. The most extensive local system of steamer
communication is that from the Clyde to Inveraray,
Oban, Skye, and the Western Islands. This service
was begun by Messrs Burns of the Cunard line, but it
was not fully developed until taken over from that
firm in 1851 by Mr David Hutcheson, whose labours
have since been taken up by Mr David M'Brayne. The
' Royal Route ' to Oban (so called because the Queen
went by it on her west-coast tour in 1847) was origin-
ally served by the first lona, a vessel since replaced
by two of the same name, and now superseded by the
magnificent C'ohcmba, the largest, most completely
equipped, and most popular pleasure steamer in the
kingdom. While trading steamers of the line sail
round the Mull of Kintyre, and maintain, summer and
winter, a most valuable connection with the Inner and
Outer Hebrides, the tourist service is conducted by the
C'olumba to Ardrishaig, thence by Crinan Canal, and
to Oban. From that port vessels sail to Inverness by
the Caledonian Canal, to Tobermory in Mull, to Stafl'a
and lona, to Stornoway, Lochmaddy, etc. A railway
steamer connects Skye with Strome Ferry, the present
terminus of the Dingwall and Skye railway ; and many
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steamers from Greenock, Gourock, Craigendoran,
Wemyss Bay, Fairlie, and Ardrossan maintain con-
nection with Dunoon, Rothesay, Arran, and the many
fine watering places with which the shores of the Clyde
and its numerous sea lochs are studded. Steamers also
sail on Loch Lomond, Loch Katrine, Loch Barn, Loch
Tay, Loch Eck, and other waters in connection with
the tourist routes by coach and rail, and there is a fine
holiday service of saloon steamers on the Forth.
Railways were first used in Scotland in connection
with coal-mining, and the earliest lines were rather
tramways than railways. The line from Tranent Col-
liery to Cockenzie Harbour, the embankment of which
served as a military point in the battle of Prestonpans
in 1746, was really a tramway. The road still exists,
but a side line from the North British Railway has
taken its place so far as regards the conveyance of coal
from the pit. The earliest railway constructed in Scot-
land under an Act of Parliament was the Kilmarnock
and Troon, the Act for which was passed in 1808, and
which was completed in 1810. This line, which is now
part of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway system,
was primarily constructed for the conveyance of coal,
but passenger omnibuses were run on it, and a ' trip on
the tramcar from " Auld Killie " to Troon and back was
in summer among the luxuries indulged in by " Kilmar-
nock Wabsters (M'Ewraith's Glasgow and South-
western Railway). The railway system of Scotland
has been fully described under the Caledonian, Glasgow
and South- Western, Great North of Scotland, High-
land, and North British railways, the whole country
being practically in the hands of those five companies.
In 1894 the West Highland railway, of 100 miles in
length, was opened between Helensburgh and Fort
William, passing through a splendid series of pic-
turesque scenes in loch, moor, and mountain. This is
the greatest length of railway opened in the kingdom
at one time. A number of what are termed light
railways have been constructed in various parts of the
country since 1896. The Glasgow Subway, worked
in two tunnels, as in the line from King William Street
to Stockwell in London, is a railway in name, but more
properly may be deemed a local tramway, and as such,
perhaps, belongs to the next paragraph.
The construction of tramways in Scotland dates from
1871, when the first portion of the Edinburgh tram-
way system was opened for traffic. As has been stated,
the earlier railways were practically tramways in their
method of construction, but the tramway as a means
of internal communication within towns is of modern
introduction. The system had its origin in America,
and was first introduced into Britain, though in an
incomplete' form, by Mr G. F. Train, who formed the
Birkenhead tramway in 1862. In Scotland there are
lines in Edinburgh, traversing the city, and connecting
with Leith, Newhaven, and Portobello; in Glasgow,
Aberdeen, Dundee, and Greenock, Paisley, Rothesay,
and Stirling. Animal power only has been used on
those lines, except in Dundee, on the Govan section of
the Glasgow tramways, and experimentally for a time
between Edinburgh and Portobello, where steam loco-
motives have been in use. The Edinburgh Northern
tramways, consisting of two lines from Princes Street
to the low-lying northern suburbs, are worked on the
cable system. This system has been in use in San
Francisco since 1873 with great success; also later in
Chicago, and the first cable tramway in Britain was
opened at Highgate Hill, in London, in May 1884.
Of the tramways here enumerated those of Glasgow
were constructed, and are now worked, by the Corpora-
tion; in Edinburgh the city portion has been acquired
by the Corporation and let on lease; while in Dundee
the lines were constructed by the city and are worked