Series 4 > Papers on Sutherland Estate Management 1802-1816 > Volume 9

202 SUTHERLAND ESTATE MANAGEMENT: CORRESPONDENCE
rounded gravel mixed with a little sand without any binding sub¬
stance being contained in it. The remedy which I would suggest for
this is that in filling up the ruts and holes all the stones should be
broken with a hammer so that their sharp angles may fix themselves
in the firm part of the road. An attention to this I have seen do wonders
and after the Coal is worked for sale if this is not attended to I am
afraid the heavy Carriages will roll many of the round stones out of
their places. Where a hole is to be filled up a pick should be used to
loosen the edges round, the Material then laid in covered with some
loam or the debris of a stone quarry and beat down. By this means the
old and the new incorporate into one. If the stones are merely fitted
into the hole they do not incorporate with the road but are pushed
out by the first wheel that passes over them. It ought to be made a
point to have some old Men allways upon the road attending to these
things to prevent the necessity of what they so much delight in, in
Scotland, a thorough repair which is the most ingenious device pos¬
sible to keep a road allways bad, by having it either full of holes or
in the state of one newly made. The propriety also of laying down in
Autumn stones on the sides of the road for their repair during winter
as under the present mode of repairing roads in Scotland one of two
evils allways happens, the one is that to avoid the damage done by
the Carts carrying the materials the roads are not repaired till Spring,
or if they are repaired the Carts carrying the Materials actually do as
much damage as they repair. The Stones should be so near each other
that a wheelbarrow may be used in the winter repairs. To attend to
these things is not yet part of a Scotchmans Creed and that is why I
called Lord Gowers particular attention to it and it has occurred to
me that there is no man so likely to attend to these little details as
Sellar. Young has no time, and I think if Sellar was to be appointed
surveyor of the highways (without a Salary) from the one end of the
Country to the other with an under surveyor under him the whole
would be put upon the best footing the thing is at present capable of.
and in this capacity he would be fully under Young who from time
to time could give him such directions as he thought proper as a
Trustee. This Appointment should in the view I have taken the liberty
of suggesting should be confined to the repair of the roads already
made. To it however I certainly would recommend, that the manage¬
ment of the Collection of the Tolls should be added. And my reason