Ossian Collection > Journal of a tour in Scotland in

INTRODUCTION xxvii
" considerable quantities of wool, in packs, . . .
lying . . . ready for shipping. These roads
have given life to the country." ^ Not always
by fining purses. The farmers saved, but the
blacksmiths lost.^
They also smoothed the path of the
smuggler, whose calling was further assisted,
as we learn elsewhere, by indiscreet attempts
to promote the regular trade. The bewilder-
ment, soon turned into joy, which the
Telfordian bridges occasionally produced in
the simpler inhabitants of the West Highland
countryside, is vividly illustrated by the story
of the Sutherland man whose father, having
been drowned in the ferry-boat accident of 1809,
while crossing the Meikle Ferry, he refused
ever to use the ferry again ; being thus cut off
by the long Dornoch Firth from the south,
until Telford flung his costly and difficult
iron arch across. He described his first
sight of it. " As I went along the road
by the side of the water, I could see no
bridge ; at last I came in sight of something
like a spider's web in the air — if this be it,
thought I, it will never do ! But presently
I came upon it, and oh, it is the finest thing
that ever was made by God or man ! " ^
1 P. 142. -^ P. 237. 3 P. 129.