Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

xxvi INTRODUCTION
which he encountered by Loch Earn.^ But
the Journal contains scarcely a vestige of this
sentiment. He is cheered by the sight of
cultivated land ; the " Wild " so far as he is
concerned, only "calls," like the "bad road,"
for the attentions of the agriculturist and the
engineer. Sometimes the new facilities of
travel and traffic dove-tail in amusingly with
unexpected elegances at some remote High-
land inn. Thus at Clashmore, in the wilds
of Caithness, he was agreeably surprised, at
breakfast, when the meal was served in "a
tasteful and handsome set of Worcester
china." Telford explained that " before these
roads were made," he had met some Worcester
people "with a cartload of crockery, which
they got over the mountains how they could ;
when they had sold all their ware, they laid
out the purchase - money on black cattle,
which they drove to the South." ^ What had
been before a daring and unusual adventure,
the new roads made, or were in the course
of making, an affair of everyday.
So with wool, and other inland and upland
products, now by the new roads easily brought
down to the coast. At Bonar Bridge, on
the Dornoch Firth, in Sutherland, they saw
1 P. 37. 2 p, 141^