stirling-1963-vol-1/05_088

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER
the older agriculture by the Rev. Patrick Graham are worth reproducing here, as his experience
evidently went back to a time before "improvement" had become general. Thus he says , in
one passage ¹ : "The pernicious system of distinguishing the lands into infield and outfield, the
former receiving all the manure of the farm, whilst the latter was cropped from time to time,
without any other amelioration than it might receive from resting, or from the urine of cattle
pastured on it, is now very nearly abolished in Stirlingshire; though the marks of ridges,
extending nearly to one fourth of the height of the mountains of Campsie, Kilsyth and
Gargunnock, show how this practice prevailed in former times." The following, too, is of
interest: ² "In the ancient practice of this county, little attention was paid to the direction or
construction of the ridges; they were generally winding in a semicircular form; too many
specimens of which may still be observed, even in the lower and richer districts of this county.
They were besides raised high in the middle, so that the most fertile parts of the soil accumulated
there, whilst the sides of the ridge were left bare and thin." Dr. Graham also notes ³ that, in
contrast to these curved rigs, the ones just mentioned as existing on the Gargunnock, Campsie
and Kilsyth hills were "perfectly straight and equal". He regards the rigs as of great antiquity.

ROADS
Road-improvement seems to have begun in Stirlingshire in the later 18th century, an Act ⁴
for the repair of highways and bridges in the county having been passed in 1778. The state of
affairs at a rather earlier date is described in a record referring to about 1746 ⁵ ; this reads :
"Indeed, the roads were at that time so steep, narrow and rugged, that wheel carriages must
have been almost useless. The line of the roads was generally straight, or nearly so, over hill
and dale; or if they deviated from this course at any time, it was only to avoid some marsh,
or to find a firm bottom. They seem to have thought of little else, at least they never dreamed
of a level road." Country roads were still bad at the end of the 18th century, or even later. ⁶
Improvements and new construction, combined with the intensive cultivation of much of
the adjoining land, have obliterated the remains of most of the bad old roads, while maps of
practical value date only from the middle of the 18th century or later, ⁷ and consequently any
picture of the road-system of the Middle Ages or of the centuries immediately following must
be based largely on inference. It seems clear, however, that Stirling itself was the point of
principal importance, as through routes converged from all directions on the town and bridge.
Whether or no a successor to the Roman road had always come from the north along the line
of the Allan Water, in the manner of the "King's Road to Crieff" marked by Edgar in
1777, the Sheriffmuir road (No. 508) is on record as the old route from Perth. ⁸ The military
road from the west (No. 510), though built as a strategic link between Stirling and Dumbarton
Castles, seems to have taken the same course as an older country road, in its eastern portion at
least. From the south-west came two roads - the first from the Endrick Water (p. 432), which

1 General View, 85.
2 Ibid., 129.
3 Ibid., n.
4 18 George III, cap. 69.
5 Stat. Acct., xviii (1796), 309.
6 General View, 317.
7 Roy's map of Scotland was prepared between 1747 and 1755, but his plan of Central Scotland (Military Antiquities, pl. xxxv)
seems to have been revised between 1760 and 1773. Edgar's map of Stirlingshire was based on a survey made in 1745, but, as it
was brought up to date for publication with Nimmo's History in 1777, is cannot safely be used as evidence for any period earlier
than the second date.
8 Ordnance Survey Name Book, Logie parish, 37.

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