“In early periods, when every family formed a kind of community within itself for providing the necessaries of life, it is obvious that there could be little communication with distant parts of the country, and there was, therefore, no use for roads, which, long after the establishment of towns, must have continued in the state of _footpaths_ and _horse-tracks_. The bulky articles of fuel and building materials are likely to have given rise to the first idea of a sledge, the precursor of the wheel-carriage, which ultimately led to the construction of anything like a regular path. The first roads of Britain appear to have been the Military Ways of the Romans. Some remains of these are still to be seen in various parts of the kingdom, and even in the immediate vicinity of the city of Edinburgh. It is, however, quite astonishing how slow the progress of improvement in road-making seems to have been, and especially its adaptation to economical purposes; although all classes must have felt an equal interest in the formation of roads, as both the landed proprietor and the citizen were to be mutually benefited by thus laying open the country. But it requires the accumulated wealth of ages to produce improvements so expensive. It is long before the mind can be brought to approve of any radical change of habit, however advantageous; and the scale adopted in the first instance is often so circumscribed, that the whole measure requires to be extended and even to be changed a second, and perhaps a third time, in keeping pace with the public demands for improvement.
“It is well known, that even so late as about the middle of the last century, almost the whole land carriage of Scotland, and a great part of England, was conducted upon horseback, the animals employed being termed _pack-horses_. To the horse-tracks thus produced, and which in the first instance were _formed_ without regard to steep acclivities, are to be ascribed the evils which we now labour under, as attendant on the laying out of our roads for the modern improvement of wheel-carriages. Nor was it till after much practice and the application of scientific principles, long after the introduction of carriages, that we were induced to improve the line of draught and adopt level tracks of road, although perhaps more circuitous.