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TE
34, I
, PI 3


R 0 AD RE FOR M.
/ -
R O A D R E F O R. M. :
A PLAN
FOR
ABOLISHING TURNPIKE TOLLS AND STATUTE
LABOUR ASSESSMENTS,
AND FOR
PROVIDING THE FUNDS NECESSARY FOR MAINTAINING
THE PUBLIC ROADS BY AN ANNUAL RATE
TO BE LEWIED ON HORSES. v.
IBY
WILLIAM PAGAN, WRITER.
ED IN BURGH : “Jº Jº
BLACKWOOD & SONS, GEORGE STREET.
CUPAR-FIFE : JOHN GIBSON.
M.D.CCCXLV.
\?\}-5


CUPAR-FIFE :
PRINTED IN THE FIFESHIRE JOURNAL OFFICE BY JAMES TOD,
TO
COLONEL JAMES LINDSAY, OF BALCARRES,
AND
ONESIPHORUS TYNDALL BRUCE, ESQ. OFFALKLAND,
CONVENERs of THE county of FIFE,
AND TO
CHARLES STEIN, ESQ. OF HATTONBURN,
conven ER OF THE COUNTY OF KINROSS,
THIS VOL U M E
IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.
PREFA CE.
*-*.*.*.
IN submitting a proposal for abolishing the system of Tolls and
Statute Labour Assessments, by which all the public roads and
bridges in Scotland are maintained—excepting those in certain of
the Highland counties—and for substituting an entirely new
method of raising the funds necessary for these purposes, it ap-
peared to us that the most satisfactory mode of illustration would
be, to give a distinct view of the several statutes by which the roads
of one or two counties are regulated, and of the financial ope-
rations of the Road Trusts in these counties—and then to point
out as briefly as possible the demerits of the present system, and
the nature of the substitute we would propose.
Taking the Counties of Fife and Kinross as the most conve-
nient example, we now lay before the public—1. An Abridge-
ment of the nine Local Acts, and of the General Turnpike Act,
which regulate the roads and bridges of these two Counties; 2.
An Abstract of three years’ Accounts of the twenty-eight Trusts
into which these roads and bridges are divided ; and, 3. Our Plan
for abolishing Turnpike Tolls and Statute Labour Assessments,
wherever they exist, and for raising Road Funds by an annual
rate upon horses.
These we have followed up by a collection of the Titles of the
Scottish Road Acts, 1707–1844—Appendix (A)—to show the
vast amount of Road Legislation; and by a collection of law
decisions respecting Road Tolls, 1821–1844–Appendix (B)—to
give some idea of the great trouble and expense incurred in con-
struing such a variety of Road Acts, and in enforcing the tolls
thereby granted.
viii PREFACE.
We have thus put the travelling public in a condition to
become acquainted with the whole structure and working of the
Toll-bar system. That system, in our judgment, ought to be im-
mediately abolished. We think that a rate upon horses—the
active agents in the tear and wear of the roads—is the simple,
and equitable, and efficacious, substitute.
But should a consideration of the facts we have stated, and of
the arguments we have advanced, not induce the conviction that
our scheme is an advisable one, it will be a gratification to us
should the materials we have brought together lead to the adop-
tion of some beneficial substitute for the present costly, unequal,
and often unjust, system of providing funds for the public roads
in the Toll-bar counties.
We beg to tender our thanks to the Clerks, and Treasurers,
and Surveyors, of the Fife and Kinross-shire Trusts, for the
financial information supplied by them; and also to the gentle-
men who have given us the benefit of their local knowledge, both
in revising the lists of horses taken up by the constabulary, and
in reference to other information sought from them.
CUPAR-FIFE, March, 1845.
C O N T E N T S.
33art jirgt.—3 firingement of the Étatutes.
PAGE.
I. Fife Statute Labour Act (1797) — I
II. Do. (1807) 5
III. Fife Turnpike Act (1829) 22
IV. Burntisland and Granton Pier, Ferry, and Road Act (1842) 34
V. Leven Bridge and Road Act (1839) 50
VI. Kinross-shire Statute Labour Act (1826) - 55
VII. Kinross-shire, &c., Turnpike Act (1831) 64
VIII. Great North Road Act (1829) 71
IX. Kinross and Alloa Road (1829) 79
X. General Turnpike Act (1831) --> - 83
33art àecomb, ºbgtract of 3 ccounts.
I. Cupar District Statute Labour . 105
II. St Andrews District Statute Labour 108
III. Kirkaldy District Statute Labour *- ... 110
IV. Dunfermline District Statute Labour 113
W. Fife Large Bridges … 114
VI. Fife Lesser Bridges—Cupar District 116
VII. Do. St Andrews District --~ 118
VIII. Do. Rirkaldy District 120
IX. Do. Dunfermline District -- • 122
X. Fife Turnpikes—Cupar District 124
XI. Fife Turnpike and Statute Labour Roads—St Andrews
District º 129
XII. Fife Turnpikes—Kirkaldy District 133
XIII. Do. Dunfermline General District --~ 137
XIV. Do. Whitehill Trust - 140
XV. Do. Aberdour and Duloch Trust ...~ 141
XVI. Leven Road and Bridge . 142
XVII. Kinross-shire Statute Labour—Kinross and Orwell
District * *~ 145
XVIII. Do. Bortmoak and Arngask District 146
XIX, Do. Cleish and Fossaway District…. 147
X CONTENTS_CONTINUED.
PAGE.
XX. Kinross-shire, &c., Turnpikes—Outh and Nivingston Trust 148
XXI. Do. Carnock and Comrie Trust 149
XXII. Do. Thomanean Trust . 150
XXIII. Do. Cupar and Kinross Road.- 151
XXIV. T}o. Auchtermuchty and Pit-
cairly Road *. 154
XXV. Do. Scotland-well and Balgedie
Road . 156
XXVI. Do. Cleish Trust …~ 157
XXVII. Great North Road 158
XXVIII. Kinross and Alloa Road - 161
$3art ºffirb.-\}ſant of 1:30at 13 eform …~ 162
APPENDIX (A.)—Titles of Scottish Road Acts (1707–1844).---~ 297
e tº e º e e (B.)—Digest of Decisions in Road Toll cases (1821–1844). 325
R 0 AD STAT IS TIC S.
33art ºffirgt.
ABRIDGEMENT OF THE TEN STATUTES UNDER
WHICH THE TURNPIKE AND STATUTE LABOUR,
ROADS AND THE BRIDGES OF THE COUNTIES
OF FIFE AND KINROSS ARE REGULATED.
NO. I.
FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT.
37 GEo. III., CAP. 52.—(1797.)
[Of this Act only the Preamble and the Titles of the Sections are given, as the Act
is in a great measure superseded by the subsequent Statute Labour Act, No. II.
of this Abridgement.]
THIS act is intituled “An act for regulating and converting the
statute labour in the county of Fife, and for more effectually
making and repairing the highways within the said county;” and
the preamble is in these words:—
“Whereas the laws for making and repairing highways and
bridges generally in Scotland, and the particular acts of Parlia-
ment for making and repairing highroads in the county of Fife,
have been found by experience ineffectual in their present shape
for the purposes intended; and it would be more convenient and
advantageous for all concerned if the whole statute labour of the
county were converted, upon equitable terms, into payments in
money in place of the present services; and if the conversions
2 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
exigible upon ploughgates of land were in the first instance paid
by the proprietors, with recourse upon the occupiers, and powers
granted to borrow money upon the produce of the conversion to
the extent hereafter specified;—but such purposes cannot be
accomplished without the aid of Parliament: May it therefore
please your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted—by
the King’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and
consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in
this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the
same—That the act passed in the 14th year of the reign of his pre-
sent Majesty, intituled An act for repairing the highways and bridges
within the county of Fife, shall, from and after the first day of
January 1798, be, and the same is hereby, repealed *; and, in the
meantime, the steps necessary for carrying this act, and powers
thereby granted, into effect shall proceed in manner hereinafter
specified.”
II.-Division into districts.
III.-Trustees.
IV.-First and annual general meetings of the districts.
V.—First and annual general meetings of the trustees for
the county.
VI.-Trustees to defray their own expenses.
VII.-List of roads to be made up ; not to be altered unless
upon application.
VIII.-Extent of a ploughgate.
IX.-Power to convert the ploughgates at £1 sterling each, to
be paid by the heritor or liferenter.
X.—With recourse on the occupier.
XI.-Conversion of statute labour for chaises and carts.
XII.-Conversion of personal services of householders—
masters to pay in the first instance for their journeymen ; ser-
vants hired by the year, and householders renting a house, &c., of
20s. rent, not liable.
XIII.-Power to exeem indigent persons. *.
* The preamble of this repealed act was as follows:—“Whereas the powers
granted by the law in Scotland relative to highways and bridges, and the services
and work, and monies, which are thereby authorised to be exacted and levied, have
been found by experience insufficient to amend and keep in repair the roads and
bridges within the county of Fife, and that other and further powers are necessary
to be given to the Heritors and Justices of Peace of the said county effectually to
carry the intention of the said laws into execution; and as this cannot be done
without the aid of Parliament; May it therefore please your Majesty that it may
be enacted, and be it enacted, by the King's most excellent Majesty—by and with
the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same—That for the
more easy and effectual execution of the powers hereinafter granted, the said
county of Fife shall be divided into four different districts, consisting of the respec-
tive Presbyteries of St Andrew8, Iſèrkaldy, Cupar, and Dwnfermline.”
No. I.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 3
XIV.-Amount of conversion for personal services. How to
be fixed.
XV.-Heritors to give in lists of their ploughgates. Propric-
tors to have a separate option of conversion.
XVI—Power to cite occupiers of land.
XVII-At what time the converted values are payable.
XVIII.-Power to name surveyors, who are to give up lists
of those liable in statute labour. Power of appeal. Surveyors
to deliver lists to the clerks to the districts, and those to the
general clerks, with alterations.
XIX. —Collector of the cess to levy the conversion for plough-
gates, and give intimation of the time of collection. Diligence to
be used for recovery of arrears. Same diligence competent at
the instance of proprietors against occupiers.
XX.-Conversion for personal services, when payable. Dili-
gence for recovery thereof.
XXI.-Collectors, &c., liable in treble damages.
XXII.-Assessment of 20s. Scots on the £100 Scots of valued
rent. How applied.
XXIII.-Aid to bridges; the expense of which exceeds £80.
Districts may resolve not to lay on the additional 1s. 8d. on the
:E100 Scots. Additional 1s. 8d. not to be applied out of the dis-
trict where levied.
XXIV.-Collector to lodge the funds in the bank.
XXV.-Conversion money how to be laid out.
XXVI.-Power to borrow money. Sinking fund.
XXVII.-Power to assign the funds in security of money
borrowed.
XXVIII.-Form of bond or assignment.
XXIX.-Bonds to be transferable by indorsation. Form of
transference.
XXX.—Application of the money borrowed.
XXXI.—Proportion of the funds to be allocated.
XXXII.-Grants of money how to be obtained.
XXXIII.--To be applied to the road for which granted.
XXXIV.-Not to be paid till the work commences.
XXXV & XXXVI.-Those obtaining grants to lodge accounts,
attested on oath.
XXXVII.-Districts to report their proceedings.
XXXVIII.-Trustees to name officers for putting the act
into cxccution.
4 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
XXXIX.-Trustees to keep books and accounts.
XL.—Trustees to make the great and cross roads.
XLI.-Trustees to erect arches and bridges.
XLII-District meetings may appoint committees.
XLIII.-Roads running through unenclosed ground to be
widened.
XLIV.—Ground of old roads to be sold.
XLV-Power to dig gravel, &c.
XLVI.-Value of ground damaged how to be ascertained.
XLVII.-Possessors to clean ditches made by them. In
default, trustees may order it at their cost.
XLVIII.-Ditches and drains made by trustees to be scoured
at public expense. Possessors obstructing the same to pay treble
expense. Water carried across any road—manner thereof.
XLIX.-Notice to be given of new enclosures upon sides of
roads to trustees.
L.—Penalty on injuring footpaths.
LI.—Possessors to cut the hedges on sides of roads.
LII.-Trustees may act as justices.
LIII.-Trustees not to hold any place of profit under this
act.
LIV.—Trustees may erect mile-stones. Penalty on defacing
these stones, &c. : for breaking parapet walls of bridges, &c.
LV.—No annoyances to be laid on the roads. Head ridges.
Gates.
LVI.-Every thing drawn on the roads must be on a wheeled
carriage.
LVII.-Houses to be built near the sides of the roads to be
10 feet from the side of such road.
LVIII.-Penalties and forfeitures how to be recovered.
How to be applied. On failure of distress, offender to be com-
mitted.
LIX.—How parties aggrieved may obtain redress.
LX.—Expense of this act to be paid out of the money levied
in virtue thereof.
I, XI.-Limitation of actions.
LXII.-Public act.
NO. II.
STATUTE LABOUR ACT FOR FIFE.
47 GEo. III., CAP. 12.
(Royal Assent 9th April, 1807.)
THIS act is intituled “An act for farther regulating and con-
verting the statute labour in the county of Fife, and for more
effectually making and repairing the highways, bridges, and
ferries within the said county.”
The preamble recites the previous statute labour act, 37
George III., cap. 52, adding—“And whereas the laws for
making and repairing the highways and bridges generally in
Scotland, and the said in part recited act for making and repair-
ing the highways, bridges, and ferries in the county of Fife, have
been found by experience to be ineffectual in their present shape
for the purposes for which they were intended, and it would be
expedient and advantageous to all persons concerned if farther
and more effectual regulations were adopted with respect to the
converting the statute labour exigible by law for repairing the
highways, bridges, and ferries in the said county; but such pur-
poses cannot be accomplished without the aid of Parliament:”
Therefore it was enacted—“That for the more easy and effectual
execution of the powers hereinafter to be granted, the division of
the said county of Fife into the districts of Cupar, St Andrews,
Kirkaldy, and Dunfermline, as in the said former act, shall
remain and be continued.”
SECT. II.-“And be it enacted, That every person, who is at
present, or hereafter, during the continuance of this act, shall be,
in his own right, or in the right of his wife, possessed of lands in
the said county of Fife, entitling him to be a commissioner of
supply for the same, and the eldest sons, or apparent heirs, of
every such person so qualified, and the provost, or chief magis-
trate, of every royal burgh, within the said county, for the time
being, shall be trustees for making, repairing, upholding, and
keeping in repair, the great and cross roads, bridges, and ferries,
within the said county of Fife, and for executing all the other
powers by this act to them given and granted; and the said
Trustees shall have power to act within any of the said respective
districts, although they may not have property, or do not reside
within the same; but declaring that only one person shall act
-
-
=
6 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
and vote as a trustee, in respect of the same lands; the person in
actual possession, or having the dominium utile, being preferable,”
&c.
SECT. III. enacts that the trustees shall meet annually—
“That is to say, the trustees for the district of St Andrews on
the first Tuesday of April; the trustees for the district of Cupar
on the Wednesday after the first Tuesday of April; the trustees
for the district of Kirkaldy on the Thursday after the first Tues-
day of April; and the trustees for the district of Dunfermline on
the Friday after the first Tuesday of April—any five of them
being a quorum; and shall at such meetings proceed to the execu-
tion of this act, and may then and afterwards from time to time
adjourn themselves,” &c.
SECT. IV. appoints the trustees to hold their first annual
general meeting at Cupar on the first Tuesday of May 1807, and
on the first Tuesday of May thereafter, for the purpose of pro-
ceeding to the execution of this act—any seven of them being a
quorum ; with power then and afterwards to adjourn themselves,
&c.; adding—“And the said trustees, at all the meetings to be
held in virtue of this act, shall defray their own charges and
expenses of every kind.”
SECT. V. enacts that the trustees for the districts, at their first
or any after meeting, to be held previous to the general meeting
of the trustees for the county on first Tuesday of May, shall
“make up a list of the great and cross roads within each parish
of the district to which the funds ought in the first place to be
applied, with an estimate of the expense of making the same, and
the proportion of the funds to be applied thereto, and report
their proceedings to the said general meetings of the trustees for
the county; and the lines of road being once fixed, the same
shall not be altered, or any new road inserted in the list, until
the roads so fixed at the said general meeting shall, by the gene-
ral meeting of the district where the said roads lie, be declared
completely made and finished, unless upon application to an
annual meeting of the district in the month of April—notice
being given in four Edinburgh newspapers, one month previous
to such meeting, of the intention of the party concerned to apply
to have the road inserted in the list; and the said district meet-
ing shall have the power of approving or rejecting the said appli-
cation, subject to the review of the annual general meetings of
the county, as hereinafter mentioned.” Any person interested
considering himself aggrieved by the resolutions of the district,
and meaning to apply to the general mecting for an alteration
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 7
thereof, shall intimate his intention to the clerk to the district at
least fourteen days previous to the general meeting of the
county.
SECT. VI-It shall be lawful for two or more justices of the
peace for the county, upon an application from the trustees at
their annual general meeting in May, “to suppress any public or
bye roads (private roads excepted) that appear not to be of im-
portance to the public”—providing that notice of the proposal to
shut up such roads be given by advertisement affixed to the doors
of the three nearest parish churches, for two consecutive Sundays,
one month at least before the application be taken into the con- -
sideration of the justices.
SECT. VII.-“That, during the continuance of this act, a plough-
gate of land within the county of Fife, in respect to the statute
labour, shall be held and deemed to be fifty acres of land, whether
plantations, arable, or pasture land, or (in the option of the pro-
prietor), lands paying seventy pounds sterling of actual gross
rent, by the occupier, or valued at that sum when in the occupa-
tion of the proprietor, as hereinafter directed; and so on in pro-
portion for lesser divisions or parts of a ploughgate of land.”
SECT. VIII. enacts that the trustees for the district shall
“convert the services leviable by law for each ploughgate of
land, according as the extent is fixed and ascertained by the
before in part recited act, into money, according to the ordinary
price or rate of labour in that part of the county where the
services are payable; and so on in proportion for a greater or
lesser quantity or produce of a ploughgate; to be paid in the first
place by the heritors or liferenters of the ground.”
SECT. IX. provides that the trustees may, at their annual
general meeting, upon an application from an heritor or heritors
possessed of two third parts of the property or dominium utile of
any particular parish, convert the statute labour leviable on the
ploughgates of such parish at a higher rate than the rate fixed
for the district, provided such rate shall not exceed the actual
price or rate of labour.
SECT. X-‘‘And in respect all lessees, tenants, and occupiers
of land, are by law liable in performance of the statute labour, or
payment of the converted value thereof, be it enacted, That the
heritor or liferenter, liable for and paying the converted value of
the statute labour as aforesaid, shall have recourse for the
amount thereof upon the tenants and occupiers of the ground, in
8 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
proportion to the extent or rent of the property possessed by
them respectively, whether the same be held immediately of the
proprietor, or by subset; to be ascertained either by the extent of
property or quantum of rent, as may have been proportioned on
the heritor or liferenter; and the proprietor shall be entitled to
the same diligence for recovery thereof, as is authorised for levy-
ing the deficiencies of the converted values of statute labour, at
the instance of the collector of the cess, in manner hereinafter
specified.”
SECT. XI. directs the trustees for the districts to “convert the
the statute labour exigible from the owners of all chaises with
four wheels, drawn by two or more horses, let for hire at any
sum not exceeding twenty shillings sterling; and from the owners
of all chaises with two wheels, drawn by one horse, let for hire
at any sum not exceeding ten shillings sterling; and the owners
of all carts or other carriages, drawn by two or more horses, or
other beasts of draught, let for hire, to be used in conveying
persons or things, at a sum not exceeding ten shillings sterling
each; and the statute labour for all carts or other carriages let
for hire as aforesaid, drawn by one horse or other beast of
draught, at a sum not exceeding five shillings sterling each.”
SECT. XII. enacts, “That in place of the personal services
which householders and others are obliged at present by law to
perform in making and repairing the high roads and bridges in
the said county, a conversion shall be paid in money, to be ap-
plied for that purpose; and it shall be in the power of the said
trustees, or any five or more of them, and they are hereby autho-
rised and directed, by a writing under their hands, to assess all
householders, cottagers, labourers, and tradesmen, of every de-
nomination, whether masters or journeymen, living together or
separately in one house (not being assessed in a conversion of
statute labour otherwise), in a conversion of such a number of
days’ labour, not exceeding six, as they shall consider propor-
tioned to the circumstances of each individual. Declaring
always, That all farm servants bona fide hired by the year for a
specific annual wage, shall be, and are hereby exempted from
performing statute services, or payment of the converted value
thereof altogether.”
SECT. XIII.-Power to exempt indigent persons.
SECT. XIV.-The rate of conversion of day’s labour not to
exceed the ordinary price of labour in that part of the country
where the labour is to be performed.
SECT. XV.-In order to render the making up of the list of
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 9
“ploughgates more easy and expeditious, each heritor shall,
within two months after the first meeting to be held in pursuance
of this act, and on or before the first January annually thereafter,
deliver in to the clerk of the district, a writing or account,
specifying his or her option of the mode of having their plough-
gates rated for the ensuing year, and of the number of plough-
gates and proportional parts of a ploughgate they are respectively
liable in, agreeable to that option : Declaring always, that all
proprietors of land shall have it in their power to make a separate
option of the mode of conversion for each particular farm sepa-
rately occupied or possessed by them, or their tenants, and such
option shall in every case be made in the manner most beneficial
to the occupier or tenant; and that heritors occupying their own
lands shall be liable in the conversion of statute labour, in the
same manner as tenants; and that the yearly value of all grounds
and other subjects in the natural possession of such heritors as
take the option of paying by the annual value shall be ascer-
tained by two neutral men, one to be named by the proprietor
and another on the part of the trustees, who shall on oath report
what in their opinion the ground or other subjects so occupied by
the heritor would rent at for a nineteen years' lease; and the rent
thus fixed shall be held as the annual value of the ground or
other subjects so occupied by the heritor: Provided, that in case
any heritor or heritors shall refuse or neglect to give in the be-
fore-mentioned account within the time before specified, then it
shall be lawful for the said trustees, at any after general meet-
ings of the district, to rate the said heritors as liable in statute
labour, in the proportion of a ploughgate of land for each seventy
pounds of real rent, as the same may be reported by the sur-
veyors, in manner hereinafter mentioned.” -
SECT. XVI. gives power to cite occupiers of land in proof of
the rent of any farm.
SECT. XVII. enacts, “That the whole of the converted values
shall be due and payable on the 25th of March in each year,
except in the case hereinafter specified.”
SECT. XVIII.-The trustees for the districts are empowered
to name surveyors or other proper officers, who “shall, on or
before 5th January annually, make up and report, on oath, an
exact list of all ploughgates of land, and lesser divisions thereof,
belonging to the several heritors of the district respectively, to
be ascertained in manner aforesaid; and of all persons keeping
chaises, carts, or other carriages, liable in a conversion of statute
labour, as aforesaid; and of all householders and others liable in
a conversion for personal services; and the said surveyor or
other officer shall, immediately after having ascertained the con-
version due by virtue of this act, deliver to the said person, or
JB
10 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTEs.
his known factor or agent, a note, dated and subscribed, specify-
ing the conversion in which they are respectively liable:” The
persons assessed to have power of appeal to the next general
meeting of the district; and the surveyor shall, within ten days
after 5th January, give in to the clerk of the district a full copy
of the assessment made by him for the year, to be laid before a
committee of the trustees, who shall meet on the first Tuesday of
February annually,” &c.
SECT. XIX.-Collector of the cess to levy the conversion for
ploughgates, and give intimation of the time and place of collec-
tion—the whole converted values to be payable to the collector
on or before 25th March in each year; and if any heritor shall
neglect, delay, or refuse, to pay his conversion, the collector
shall, within fourteen days after the 25th of March, make up a
list of deficients, against whom any one or more of the justices of
the peace or the sheriff are required to grant summary warrant for
poinding and distraining the effects of such deficients, &c. Same
diligence competent at the instance of proprietors against
occupiers.
SECT. XX.-All persons liable in payment of conversions (not
leviable conformably to the ploughgate) shall, upon the rates
being duly intimated to them in manner before specified, annually
pay the same to the collector, overseer, or other person appointed
by the trustees for that purpose, on or before the 25th of March
of the year for which the conversion is due ; but in case any
person shall be omitted to be assessed previous to 25th March,
then they shall be obliged to pay the conversion within fourteen
days after the same is intimated to them. Those neglecting or
refusing to pay after the expiry of the time before specified (four-
teen days), shall be liable to the diligence authorised by Sect.
XIX.
SECT. XXI.-Collectors, surveyors, or other officers, in case of
their attesting improper applications against persons liable in
conversion money, shall be liable in damages to the parties
aggrieved.
SECT. XXII.-“And whereas, it has been found by experience
from the great number of roads and bridges, and the daily in-
crease of carriages within the said county of Fife, that the sum
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 11
of twenty shillings Scots money upon each one hundred pounds
Scots of valued rent, authorised to be levied by former acts of
Parliament, is insufficient for keeping the said roads and bridges
in repair: Be it further enacted, that it shall and may be law-
ful to and for the said trustees, at their general meeting at
Cupar, on the first Tuesday of May, one thousand eight hundred
and seven, and at every annual meeting on the first Tuesday of
May thereafter, to assess the whole heritors of the county, in a
sum not exceeding three shillings and fourpence sterling, upon
every one hundred pounds Scots of valued rent; and in case the
said general meeting shall not assess the whole county to the
extent of the said sum of three shillings and fourpence sterling,
then it shall be lawful to, and in the power of, all or any of the
districts, at a general meeting, to assess the said district or dis-
tricts to what further sum they shall judge necessary, the said
assessments not exceeding the sum of three shillings and four-
pence sterling, in the whole, upon every one hundred pounds
Scots of valued rent ; and which additional assessment shall be
certified to the collector of supply, in writing, under the hands of
the preses and clerk of the said meeting, and which respective
sums shall be levied by the said collector, along with the cess or
land-tax of the said county; and shall be applied towards the
building, making, repairing, and upholding the highways and
bridges within the districts where levied ; and the said collector
shall keep an exact and separate account of the sums levied out of
each of the said districts, which shall only be applicable to the
bridges and roads within the said several districts within which the
same shall be levied, and shall be drawn out only by orders of the
general meetings of the said districts or committees appointed by
them : and it shall not be lawful to apply any part of the sums
raised in one district towards the reparation of roads and bridges
in another district, except in the case hereinafter mentioned.”
SECT. XXIII.-‘‘ Provided always, and it is hereby enacted
and declared, That in case the rebuilding or repairing of any one
bridge within the said county shall exceed the sum of eighty
pounds sterling, the district within which the said bridge is situ-
ated shall only be subject and liable to pay one-half of the said
sum, and the other three districts shall be subject and liable to
pay the other half thereof, and that in proportion to the valued
rents of the said several districts; and the rebuilding or repair-
ing of the said bridge shall be done, made, and executed by the
direction only of a general meeting of the trustees for the whole
county; and the sum appointed to be applied for that purpose
shall be drawn, in virtue of an order in writing of the said gene-
ral meeting, certified by their clerk: Declaring always, that no
money shall be granted for any bridge, the expense of which
may exceed eighty pounds sterling, until an application shall be
made to the first or some other general meeting of the district
wherein the same is situated, who shall thereupon appoint a com-
12 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
mittee to cause the said bridge to be inspected; and in case it
is found necessary to be repaired, the said committee shall adver-
tise in at least three of the newspapers published at Edinburgh
for contractors for repairing the same, and report the estimates
and their opinion to the first annual general meeting of the dis-
trict, who shall, if they judge it expedient, recommend to the
annual general meeting of the trustees for the county to grant
the aid from the other districts hereby authorised and appointed
to be given : Declaring also, that if the trustees for the respect-
ive districts shall, by a resolution of the first general meeting to
be held in virtue hereof, or at any annual general meeting there-
after, find and declare, that the additional one shilling and eight-
pence on the one hundred pounds Scots authorised by this act
to be laid on, is not necessary for making and repairing the
roads and bridges within their district, the first general meeting
of the trustees for the county to be held in pursuance hereof,
or any annual general meeting thereafter, shall, upon the said
resolution being reported to them, assess the heritors of the dis-
trict from which such resolution is reported, in the sum of one
shilling and eightpence sterling only on each one hundred
pounds Scots of valued rent within the said district, to be levied
and applied in manner before mentioned : Declaring likewise,
that the additional one shilling and eightpence sterling on each
one hundred pounds Scots of valued rent, authorised by this act
to be laid on and levied, shall be wholly applicable to the roads
and bridges within the district where the same is levied, and no
part thereof liable to be laid out or applied towards the making
or repairing any roads or bridges within other districts, notwith-
standing the same may exceed the sum of eighty pounds ster-
ling.”
SECT. XXIV.-‘‘And be it enacted, That the said trustees, or
a quorum of them, at the first general meeting of the trustees
for the county, assembled, or at any annual general meeting in
May, at which they shall be assembled under the authority of
this act, shall be, and they are hereby authorised and empowered
to appropriate and set apart from the general funds of the
county, arising from the conversion of statute labour from the
ploughgates of land leviable within the same, a sum not exceed-
ing two shillings and sixpence sterling on each ploughgate of
land within the county, to be paid from the ploughgates of the
respective districts of the county, according to the number of
ploughgates within the said respective districts, out of the pro-
duce of the ploughgates leviable therein, to be applied in build-
ing or repairing such bridges within the county, as the said gene-
ral meeting shall deem expedient to be built or repaired, and the
expense of which respectively shall exceed the sum of three hun-
dred pounds sterling ; and which sum so to be set apart for the
purpose aforesaid, the said trustees shall, and they are hereby
authorised and empowered to cause to be retained in the hands
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 13
of the collector of the conversion of the statute labour of the
said county, out of the monies levied by him from the converted
values of the services payable for the ploughgates of land, until
the same shall be disposed of by the trustees at a general meet-
ing, for the purposes for which it is intended : Declaring always,
that it shall not be in the power of the said trustees to appro-
priate or set apart any further or additional sum out of the pro-
duce of the said statute labour, for building and repairing the
said bridges, until the sum formerly set apart for that purpose,
and remaining in the hands of the collector, or at least three
hundred pounds thereof, shall have been applied, or ordered to
be applied, for the purposes for which it was appropriated.”
SECT. XXV.-‘‘And be it enacted, That the sum so to be ap-
propriated and set apart out of the produce of the statute labour
arising from the ploughgate within the district shall only be ap-
plied for the building or repairing of such bridges within the
said county, of which the expense shall exceed the sum of three
hundred pounds sterling; the building or repairing of which
bridges shall be made and executed by the directions of the said
general meeting of the county only, and the sum appointed to be
applied for that purpose shall be drawn only by virtue of an
order in writing of any of the said general meetings, certified by
their clerk.”
SECT. XXVI.-The collector, on the first of May annually, to
“lodge with the agents for the Bank of Scotland, within the re-
spective districts, the proportions of the conversions of the
statute labour, and all other money collected in virtue of this act,
due to the said respective districts, which may then have been
levied by him, and obtain a receipt from the treasurer of the
Bank of Scotland therefor; which receipt, along with a list of the
persons then in arrear, shall be lodged with the clerks of the re-
spective districts; and the said collector shall be allowed for his
trouble in levying, recovering, and paying over the conversions
and other monies, authorised by this act to be levied, the sum of
one pound per centum, and no more, for the money so levied and
paid over by him.”
SECT. XXVII.-“And be it enacted, That the whole produce
of the conversions of statute labour to be levied under the autho-
rity of this act, and all sums of money which shall be borrowed
upon the credit thereof, shall be laid out and expended upon the
roads within the parishes respectively from which such conver-
sion shall be levied, or on which the interest of such monies to be
borrowed shall be charged, and no otherwise, unless an heritor or
heritors possessed of two-thirds of the property or dominium wtile
of the parish, ascertained by their ploughgates, shall agree to lay
out the whole, or any part of the same, on roads adjoining to or
connected with the parish, which they are hereby authorised to
14 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
do, although not situated therein; excepting always the fund to be
levied within the territories of a royal burgh, which it shall be in
the power of the said trustees, at their first meeting, as directed
by this act, and at their annual general district meetings respec-
tively, in the month of April, to allocate upon the different roads
leading thereto, to the extent of two miles therefrom, whether the
roads to which the same are applied are within the parish where
the conversion is exigible or not : Declaring always, that when it
may be necessary to build or repair a bridge across a rivulet,
hollow ground, or other space which is the boundary betwixt two
parishes, the expense of the bridge so to be built shall be de-
frayed by the two parishes betwixt which it forms the junction,
and that in proportion to the number of ploughgates within the
said respective parishes.”
SECT. XXVIII.-* And be it enacted, That in order that the
roads may be more speedily and effectually put in repair, and the
public derive immediate advantage therefrom, the trustees of the
respective districts, or any seven or more of them, at a general
meeting assembled, to be held after the ānnual general meeting
of the trustees for the county, shall have power to borrow money
on the security of the funds leviable by virtue of this act, to be
applied in making and repairing the great and crossroads within
the district; notice of the intention of borrowing, and the extent
of the sums to be borrowed, being always given by advertisement
in any four Edinburgh newspapers, published for the time, at
least ten days previous to such borrowing: Provided always,
that no sum shall be borrowed unless it clearly appears that a
sum equal at least to five pounds per centum per annum of the
capital sum so proposed to be borrowed—over and above the legal
interest of the money borrowed, the sum to be appropriated by
the trustees for keeping the roads in repair, and expense of man-
agement—can be appropriated and set apart as a sinking fund, to
be applied in diminishing and extinguishing the debt to be in-
curred, and the same shall be carefully and attentively so ap-
plied; and if any trustee, or set of trustees, shall borrow money
for making the roads, without adopting and following these re-
gulations, he or they shall be personally liable for the money
so borrowed, and the same shall not be held as a debt on the
funds of the district : And provided also, that all monies so bor-
rowed shall be lodged in the hands of the agents for the Bank of
Scotland, upon a receipt from the treasurer, there to remain till the
making and repairing the roads for which it is borrowed actually
commence, and afterwards to be drawn as the operations require,
in manner hereinafter specified.” .
SECT. XXIX.-“Provided always, That it shall and may be
lawful to and for the trustees, at their annual general district
meeting assembled, if they shall think fit, upon a special appli-
cation from the heritor or heritors of any particular parish, pos-
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 15
sessed of two-thirds of the dominium wtile, or property of such
parish, to be ascertained as aforesaid, or any person or persons
duly authorised to act for them, setting forth the peculiar circum-
stances of such parish, to reduce the amount of the sinking fund
herein directed to be set apart for the repayment of sums to be
borrowed under the authority of this act, to any sum they may
think reasonable, not less than two pounds per centum on the
capital borrowed, or proposed to be borrowed, upon the funds
arising out of such parish; which said reduced sinking fund shall
be applied in the same manner, and under the same regulations,
as are provided for the application of the sinking fund hereinbe-
fore required.”
SECT. XXX.-The trustees, at any general meeting for the
districts, are empowered to assign the funds leviable by this act
in security of the money to be borrowed. All assignments to be
entered by the clerk in a book to be kept for that purpose, and
which book may be seen and perused at all reasonable times
without fee or reward.
SECT. XXXI.—Rights of persons who had advanced money on
the credit of the conversion money previous to the passing of this
act not to be hurt by any after transactions.
SECT. XXXII.-Form of bond or assignation for borrowing
money.
SECT. XXXIII.-Bonds or assignations to be transferable by
indorsation.
SECT. XXXIV.-‘‘ And be it enacted, That the funds to be
levied by virtue of this act shall be, and are hereby vested in the
said trustees, and the same shall be applied and disposed of in
repayment of the money borrowed, and in making and repairing
and keeping in repair the said roads: Declaring always, that the
funds of each parish shall only be applied in repayment of the
money borrowed on the credit of the sum arising within the
parish, and interest of the said sum, and to the sinking fund for
discharging the debt thereon, and in making and repairing the
lines of road within that parish, and no otherwise; excepting
as hereinbefore excepted.”
SECT. XXXV.-* And be it enacted, That the trustees for the
respective districts shall, at their first meeting, to be held in
pursuance hereof, or any adjournment thereof, in the year one
thousand eight hundred and seven, and every annual general
16 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
meeting thereafter, ascertain the proportion of the funds of each
parish within the district, to be allocated for the respective roads
within the same for the ensuing year: Declaring, that when a
particular portion of the said fund of any parish has been once
allocated for making and repairing any line of road within the
parish, and money has been borrowed upon the faith of that allo-
cation, it shall not be in the power of the trustees to alter the
allocation until the money so borrowed is paid off and dis-
charged.”
SECT. XXXVI.-* And be it enacted, That none of the funds or
money shall be allocated or granted but on the application of one
or more trustees, or other respectable persons, who, by obtain-
ing the grant, shall be held responsible and strictly accountable
for the faithful expenditure of the sum granted; and who, before
obtaining any grant for money, shall give in a list of the respec-
tive roads meant to be made and repaired by them, and at the
same time shall give in an estimate, specifying the expense per
rood of the proposed making or repairs.
SECT. XXXVII.-* And be it enacted, That the money shall
be applied to the respective roads for which it was granted, and
to no other road, under the penalty of repaying the sum drawn,
with legal interest for the same from the day it was paid, and
one-half more by way of fine on the person applying.”
SECT. XXXVIII.-‘And be it enacted, That the money, to
the extent of the sum granted, shall not be paid until the work
is begun; when it may be drawn for at one or more instalments,
by order of the person or persons to whom it was granted, on
the clerk to the district, who shall accept and direct it for pay-
ment by the bank.”
SECT. XXXIX.-“And be it enacted, That whoever obtains a
grant for and receives money, shall make up and lodge with the
clerk to the district an attested account, on oath, with regular
vouchers for the fair expenditure of the money, distinguishing
the sum expended on each road ; and if the whole or any part of
the money granted shall have been paid, and not expended or
accounted for as aforesaid, the same shall be repaid immediately
after the first of January thereafter, and one-half more by way
of penalty and legal interest for both, from the said first of Janu-
ary until paid.” --
SECT. XL.-‘And be it enacted, That all grants, for the ex-
penditure of which regular accounts, as aforesaid, shall not be
lodged, and the payment demanded, on or before the first of
January yearly, shall be held as not laid out or expended as
the same was allocated, and, together with all unappropriated
money, shall remain at the future disposal of the trustees of
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 17
the district, at their annual general meeting in April or after-
wards, to be applied on such roads as they think proper.”
SECT. XLI.-Districts to report their proceedings, and at
every annual general meeting a summary of the proceedings of
the trustees of the districts shall be laid before such meeting,
“containing a list of the roads adopted for repair, an account of
the money levied and money borrowed (if any), in virtue of this
act, with the proportion of these funds allocated to each line of
road upon the list; and the whole proceedings of the trustees for
the districts, in case of complaint, shall (except in the event above
mentioned, of money being borrowed) be subject to the review
and alteration of the said general meetings of the county.”
SECT. XLII.-Trustees to name “clerks, collectors, surveyors,
or other officers they may consider necessary for carrying this
act into execution, and to remove these officers at pleasure.”
SECT. XLIII.-‘‘And be it enacted, That the said trustees
shall keep a record of their proceedings, and an exact account of
the money received by virtue of this act, and of the application
thereof, in a book in the hands of their clerks; which book of ac-
counts and proceedings, all heritors of the said county of Fife
shall, at any reasonable time, be at liberty to inspect, without fee
or reward; and, in case of any misapplication of money collected,
received, or levied by virtue of this act, all and every person or
persons who shall misapply, or by whose authority the same shall
be misapplied, shall forfeit and pay double the sum so misap-
plied, to be recovered from him or them at the suit of any two or
more heritors within the said county of Fife, possessed of three
hundred pounds Scots each of valued rent, who are hereby autho-
rised to pursue for and recover the same, in a summary action be-
fore the judge ordinary, with full costs of suit; one moiety of which
forfeiture shall belong to the person who sues for the same, and
the other moiety shall be paid to the said trustees for the dis-
trict where the misapplication may have taken place, who are
hereby appointed to apply the same for the repairing of the said
roads by this act directed to be made and repaired.”
SECT. XLIV.—“And be it enacted, That the said trustees, in
their general meetings for the county, or at their respective dis-
trict meetings, shall, and they are hereby authorised to cause the
great and cross roads, bridges, and ferries, within the said county,
to be altered, amended, widened, and repaired, in such manner
as they shall think proper, not exceeding the breadth hereinafter
mentioned, and to settle the direction of any of the said roads,
and to make, or cause to be made, new lines of roads, if neces-
sary: Provided always, that such new roads shall in no case be
C
18 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
carried through any lawn, avenue, garden, orchard, or pleasure
ground, or within three hundred yards of any mansion house,
upon ground being the exclusive property of the owner of such
mansion house, so as to incommode the same.”
SECT. XLV-Drains to be kept clear, and not to be made
through pleasure grounds; and value of ground and amount of
damages to be ascertained by the sheriff and a jury; and no
special conveyance necessary to the ground taken for roads.
SECT. XLVI.-Expense of jury, in the event of their awarding
greater compensation than the trustees have offered but less than
the owner shall have required, to be borne by the trustees and
the owner equally; but in case the jury award the sum required,
the whole expense to be paid by the trustees. On the other hand,
if the jury award the sum offered by the trustees, or a less sum,
the whole expense to be paid by the owner. Provision in case of
persons, by reason of absence, being prevented from treating with
the trustees, &c.
SECTs. XLVII., XLVIII., XLIX., L., L.I., LII.—Money pay-
able to persons under entail or disability—how to be disposed of
if £200 and upwards; if less than £200 and above £20; if less
than £20. In case of not making out titles, purchase-money to
be paid into the Bank of Scotland or Royal Bank of Scotland,
subject to the order of the Court of Session. When any ques-
tion shall arise touching the right of such money, the Court of
Session is to decide; the Court may order reasonable expenses
of purchases to be paid by the road trustees.
SECT. LIII.-“And be it enacted, That the said trustees, in
their general or district meeting, shall, and they are hereby
authorised and empowered to cause new arches and bridges of
stone, brick, or timber, to be made or erected upon the said roads,
and any old bridges which may become useless or unnecessary, by
changing the course of the road, or otherwise, to be pulled down,
and the materials thereof to be sold, or applied in building new
arches, or for repairing the said roads, as they shall see proper;
and also to cause such parts of the said roads as they shall consider
not of a sufficient breadth to be widened, and made of such
breadth as they shall see necessary, not exceeding forty feet, free
of ditches and side drains; and also to cause the course of such
part or parts of the said roads as they shall think proper to be
changed or altered, for shortening the same, or for making them
more accessible; and for these purposes, if necessary, to cause re-
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 19
move fences, or pull down any house or houses, upon giving
the proprietor or proprietors of the said houses (or his known
factor or agent, in case of his being furth of Scotland) six months’
previous notice of their intention of purchasing the house or
houses so to be pulled down; and also upon giving the occupiers
of houses legal intimation of removing—the said trustees
being always liable to the owners of houses and fences so to be
pulled down in the damages thereby incurred, to be ascertained
in the manner directed by the said recited act of the thirty-
seventh year of his present Majesty; and the roads so altered
shall from thenceforth be deemed and taken to be a public high-
way, and shall be repaired and amended, and kept in repair, in
the same manner as the said great and cross roads to be made
and repaired by virtue of this act.”
SECT. LIV.—District meetings may appoint committees, who
must report their accounts and transactions “once in the year, to
be, by the said trustees, at their said district meetings, examined,
audited, and approved, and to be entered in the book kept by the
clerk for the district.”
SECT. L.V.-* And be it enacted, That where any road in the
said county of Fife runs through unenclosed ground, or ground
which is enclosed on one side of the road only, it shall and may
be lawful to the said trustees, at any meeting of the respective
districts, to cause the same to be widened to the breadth of thirty
feet, without any recompence from the trustees (and without pre-
judice to their widening the same to forty feet, if necessary, upon
payment of the ground taken more than the said thirty feet); and
where such widening shall be of a road running through ground
enclosed on one side, the additional breadth shall be taken off
the unenclosed ground, and the proprietor of the enclosed ground
shall be obliged to pay the proprietor of the unenclosed ground
one-half of the value of the ground beyond twenty-five feet, and
not exceeding thirty feet, taken off the unenclosed property, as the
same shall be ascertained by any three or more of the justices of
the peace of the said county, at their quarter sessions assembled.”
SECTs. LVI. & LVII.-Ground of old road to be sold. Old
road to be offered to persons whose lands adjoin.
SECT. LVIII.-Power to dig gravel, &c.
SECT. LIX.—Value of ground damaged by digging gravel and
other materials to be ascertained by arbitration.
SECT. LX.—Notice to be given to proprietors before materials
are taken.
20 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. LXI.-Ditches and drains to be cleaned and kept in
repair at the joint expense of the trustees and of the proprietor
and occupier; proprietors obstructing the same to pay treble the
expense. No occupier of land to turn water upon the side of
any road, &c.
SECT. LXII.-Notice to be given of new enclosures upon sides
of roads to trustees.
SECT. LXIII.-Trustees authorised to make footpaths along
the sides of the roads, not exceeding the breadth of five feet; any
person riding or driving upon the same to forfeit a sum not
exceeding five shillings.
SECT. LXIV.-Possessors to cut the hedges on sides of roads
at the proper season of the year, “to the height of five feet from
the level of the road, and to prune the trees in a proper manner,
so as to give sufficient breadth and air to such road; and in case
they neglect to do so three months after being required by an
order of the district meeting properly intimated to them, the said
district meeting shall have power to appoint the same to be done
at the defaulter’s expense.”
, SECTs. LXV. & LXVI—Trustees may act as justices. Trus-
tees not to hold any place of profit under this act.
SECT. LXVII.-Trustees may erect mile-stones; penalty in
defacing these stones and for breaking parapet walls of bridges,
&c.
SECT. LXVIII.-No annoyances to be laid on the roads.
Every person, in ploughing any field contiguous to any of the
said roads, shall always make head ridges along the side of the
roads of the breadth of eight feet at least. All gates upon any
enclosures on the high roads shall open inwards, &c.
SECT. LXIX—Horses, &c., not to be pastured on the roads.
SECT. T.XX.-Breadth of wheels of carriages ; penalty on
owners and drivers of carriages the wheels of which are not of
the proper dimensions.
SECT. LXXI.-Things drawn on the road must be on a wheeled
carriage.
No. II.-FIFE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 21
SECT. LXXII.-Houses to be built near the sides of the roads
to be ten feet from the side of such road.
SECT. LXXIII.-Penalties and forfeitures to be recovered by
warrant of two justices or of the sheriff, and to be paid to the
trustees or their collectors—to be laid out in repairing the roads
in respect whereof such penalties and forfeitures shall be
incurred. On failure of payment, offender to be committed to
any house of correction or common jail in the county, for any
time not exceeding three calendár months.
SECT. LXXIV.-How parties aggrieved may obtain redress.
SECT. LXXV.-Expense of this act to be paid out of the money
levied in virtue hereof, in proportion to the number of plough-
gates within the respective districts.
SECT. LXXVI.-All actions for penalties, &c., shall be com-
menced within the space of six calendar months after the penalty,
&c., is incurred, and not afterwards.
SECT. LXXVII. repeals the above-recited act of 37 Geo. III.,
cap. 52, so far as the same is varied or altered by the present act;
but the said recited act, in so far as not hereby varied, altered,
or repealed, shall remain in full force and effect for all the pur-
poses therein specified.
SECT. LXXVIII.-This act declared to be a public act.
No. III.
FIFE T U R N P I K E A C T.
10 GEO. IV., CAP. 84.
(Royal Assent 22d May, 1829.)
THIs act is intituled “An act for repairing and keeping in
repair the turnpike roads in the county of Fife; for rendering
turnpike certain statute labour and parish roads; and for mak-
ing and maintaining certain new roads in the said county”—
and the preamble is in these words:
“Whereas an act was passed in the thirtieth year of the reign
of his late Majesty King George the Third, intituled ‘An act
for making and repairing the road from Newmill Bridge, by
Foodie's Mill, Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Kirkaldy, Galla-
town, and Cameron Bridge, to Crail, and other roads in the
county of Fife ;’ and another act was passed in the thirty-
seventh year of the reign of his said late Majesty, in-
tituled ‘An act for enlarging the term and powers of an act
passed in the thirtieth year of his present Majesty's reign (in-
tituled An act for making and repairing the road from New-
mill Bridge, by Foodie's Mill, Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Kirk-
aldy, Gallatown, and Cameron Bridge, to Crail, and other roads
in the county of Fife), and for making and repairing other roads
in the said county;’ and another act was passed in the forty-
seventh year of the reign of his said late Majesty, intituled “An
act for continuing the term, and altering and enlarging the
powers of two acts passed in the thirtieth and thirty-seventh
years of his present Majesty, for making and repairing certain
roads in the county of Fife, and for making and keeping in
repair several other roads in the said county:’ And whereas by
the said acts, or one or other of them, certain persons were ap-
pointed trustees for making and repairing the roads therein
mentioned, who have proceeded to put the said acts into execu-
tion, and great progress has been made in completing and
repairing the said roads, and large sums of money have been
borrowed, and are still owing, upon the credit of the tolls and
duties thereby authorised to be levied, which remain unpaid; but
the said acts are about to expire, and the said roads cannot be
repaired or maintained, or the money due upon the credit of the
tolls be repaid, unless powers be granted for these purposes:
And whereas it is expedient, and would be advantageous to the
public and to the inhabitants of the said county, if certain of the

No. III.—FIFE TURNPIKE ACT. 23
statute labour or parish roads in the said county were rendered
turnpike, and put under the charge of the trustees to be ap-
pointed by this act; and it would also be of advantage to the
public if certain new roads were made and maintained : And
whereas an act was passed in the fourth year of the reign of
his present Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled ‘An act
for regulating turnpike roads in that part of Great Britain called
Scotland:’ May it therefore please,” &c.
SECT. I. repeals the said acts of 30, 37, and 47, Geo. III., and
declares that instead thereof this act shall commence and con-
tinue in force.
SECT. II.-Powers of general turnpike act, 4 Geo. IV., cap. 49,
applied to this act.
NOTE.-The above-mentioned general turnpike act has since been repealed and
replaced by the existing general turnpike act, land 2 Will. IV., cap. 43.
SECT. III.-Former securities and agreements to remain in
force.
SECT. IV.-Former books to be evidence.
SECT. V.--Tolls granted by this act to be liable to debts due
and owing under the former acts.
SECT. VI.-Former officers to continue until removed.
SECT. VII.—Same person not to be clerk and treasurer.
SECT. VIII.-Officers under the former acts to account to the
trustees for executing this act.
SECT. IX. enacts “That every person who at present is or shall
be during the continuance of this act, in his own person or in the
right of his wife, in the actual possession and enjoyment, as pro-
prietor or liferenter, of lands lying in the said county of Fife
rated in the valuation-books of the said county at one hundred
pounds Scots, and the eldest son or heir-apparent of every person
so qualified, and the provost or chief magistrate of every royal
burgh in the said county of Fife for the time being, shall be, and
they are hereby nominated and appointed trustees for surveying,
making, repairing, widening, or altering, and keeping in repair,
the roads made or authorised to be made by the trustees under
24 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
the said recited acts of the thirtieth, thirty-seventh, and forty-
seventh years of the reign of his said late Majesty, or any of the
said acts.” And the same section describes the lines of road com-
prehended in the act, being thirty-five in number, besides branches
—“all which roads are, by the said three first recited acts, made
or directed to be made turnpike roads, and shall continue as such
under this act.” The same persons are also appointed trustees
for repairing, &c., the following statute labour or parish roads in
the said county of Fife, which are hereby declared to be turnpike
roads, viz.:-(here follows the description of eight roads pre-
viously statute labour or parish roads); and also for making
and maintaining, and keeping in repair, the following new roads,
which, when made, shall be held and considered to be turnpike
roads, viz.:-A road through the village of Ferry-Port-on-Craig,
by Spearhill, to Newport; a road from Dunfermline to North
Queensferry, through the farms of Grange, Gellats, Blackhall,
Primrose, Rosyth, and Orchardhead, with a branch through the
farm of Rosyth; and a road from the junction of the coast road
at the east end of the town of Kinghorn, leading through Abden
grounds, to Pettycur. -
SECT. X-Trustees having the dominium wiile to be preferred.
SECT. XI.-Maps and books of reference deposited with the
clerk of the peace of the county of Fife, and may be inspected.
SECT. XII.-Trustees not to deviate from lines laid down, nor
to remove any building or enter any orchard, &c., not specified in
the schedule (A) annexed to the act.
SECT. XIII.-Power to trustees to alter line of road with
consent.
SECT. XIV.-Branch of Queensferry and Perth road to Dun-
fermline may (if so agreed upon) be put under this act.
SECT. XV-Power to acquire property stated in schedules
limited to five years.
SECT. XVI.-First general meeting of trustees for putting this
act into execution to be held at Cupar on the last Tuesday of
July after the passing of this act; and the trustees also to hold
º
No. III.--FIFE TURNPIKE ACT. 25
a general meeting at the same place on the first Tuesday of May
annually during the continuance of this act. The first general
meeting of the trustees for the districts to be held on the first
Tuesday of August after the passing of this act; and the annual
district meetings are appointed as follows, viz.:-Cupar District
—At Cupar on the Wednesday after the first Tuesday of April;
St Andrews District—At St Andrews on the first Tuesday of
April; Kirkaldy District—At Kirkaldy on the Thursday after
the first Tuesday of April; and Dunfermline District—At Dun-
fermline on the Friday after the first Tuesday of April;-seven
to be a quorum of general meetings, and five to be a quorum of
district ones.
SECT. XVII.-District meetings may appoint committees—
three a quorum—to manage particular roads. Such committees
to lay before the trustees once in the year a state of their
accounts, with proper vouchers, to be audited and entered in a
book kept by the clerk for the district.
SECT. XVIII.-All meetings of the trustees to be upon notice
given twice at least, and fourteen days at least previously, in one
or more Fife newspapers, or if no Fife newspaper, then in one
or more of the Edinburgh newspapers usually circulated in the
said county. -
SECT. XIX.-“And whereas the roads in the said county of Fife
contained in the said recited acts hereby repealed are at present,
under the authority of the said acts, divided into four districts;
videlicet, first, the Cupar District, consisting of the parishes of
Arngask, Abdie, Abernethy, Auchtermuchty, Balmerino, Ceres,
Cupar, Creich, Cult, Collessie, Dairsie, Denbog, Falkland, Flisk,
Kettle, Kilmany, Logie, Monimail, Moonzie, Newburgh, and
Strathmiglo ; second, the St Andrews District, consisting of the
parishes of Anstruther Easter, Anstruther Wester, Cameron,
Carnbee, Crail, Denino, Elie, Ferry, Forgan, Kemback, Kilcon-
quhar, Kilrenny, Kingsbarns, Largo, Leuchars, Newburn, Pitten-
weem, St Leonards, St Monance, and St Andrews; third, the
Rirkaldy District, consisting of the parishes of Abbotshall, Auch-
terderran, Auchtertool, Ballingry, Burntisland, Dysart, Kenno-
way, Kinglassie, Kinghorn, Kirkaldy, Leslie, Markinch, Scoonie,
and Wemyss; and fourth, the Dunfermline District, consisting of
the parishes of Aberdour, Beath, Carnock, Dalgetty, Dunfermline,
Inverkeithing, Saline, and Torryburn; be it enacted, That the
D
26 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
said county shall for the purposes of this act continue to be and
be divided into the four districts aforesaid.”
SECT. XX.-District trustees to enjoy the powers of the general
trustees: “Provided always that the said trustees shall not have
power in future to borrow any sum or sums of money upon the
credit of the said tolls, or to assign the said tolls existing previous
to the passing of this act in security for the money so borrowed,
unless the annual produce of the said tolls so assigned or to be
assigned in security shall amount to ten pounds per centum per
annum of the sum so borrowed as aforesaid, beyond the amount
of the sums required for the annual repair of the roads upon
which the said tolls shall be collected, and the interest of all
money previously borrowed upon the credit thereof.”
SECT. XXI.—“Provided always, and be it enacted, That if the
trustees for any district shall at a district meeting order any ex-
isting gate or toll-bar to be removed, or any new one to be erected,
and shall by such removal or erection place the same in such a
position as to be so much nearer to any existing gate or toll-bar
in any other district, that by reason of the limitation in this act
contained (whereby it is provided that toll shall not be collected
more than once in every six miles, except in so far as is herein-
after excepted), the right to collect and receive tolls at such exist-
ing gate in such other district shall be diminished or affected, the
trustees of the district ordering such removal or erection as afore-
said shall be bound to give pass-tickets to passengers at such
removed or newly-erected gate, and to account to the trustees of
such other district for the amount of all such tolls as shall from
such tickets appear to have been taken or received, to the preju-
dice or diminution of the produce of the existing gate in such
other district as aforesaid.”
SECT. XXII.-Enacts “That it shall and may be lawful to and
for the said trustees, and they are hereby authorised and em-
powered, to continue or erect, or to cause to be continued or
erected, a gate or gates, turnpike or turnpikes, in, upon, or across
any part or parts of the said roads, or on the sides thereof, and also
such number of toll-houses, with proper gardens adjacent thereto,
as to them shall appear to be expedient, the site of each such toll-
house and garden not exceeding the eighth part of an acre, and
from time to time to alter the situation of such gates or turnpikes
and toll-houses and gardens.”
SECT. XXIII.-“And be it further enacted, That the said
trustees, or any person or persons duly authorised by them, shall
be, and they are hereby authorised and empowered to demand and
take, or cause to be demanded and taken, at the several gates or
No. III. FIFE TURNPIKE ACT. 27
turnpikes which shall be continued or erected by virtue of this
act, a sum not exceeding the rates and duties hereinafter speci-
fied, before any carriage, horse, or other cattle, shall pass through
any gate or turnpike to be continued or erected on the said roads;
(that is to say)—
“For every horse or beast of draught drawing any coach, barouche,
berlin, chariot, landau, chaise, curricle, calash, chair, hearse, or
other such carriage, or any stage coach, long coach, or dili-
gence, or carriage of the like kind, where only one is drawing
any such carriage, ninepence; and where more than one is em-
ployed in drawing any such carriage, one shilling for each
horse not exceeding six; and for one horse or beast drawing a
taxed cart, sixpence:
“For every horse or beast of draught drawing any waggon, wain,
cart, or other such like carriage, where Sone only is drawing,
and where any such carriage and the loading thereof taken to-
gether shall not exceed twenty-five hundred weight, fourpence;
and where such carriage and loading shall exceed twenty-five
hundred weight, and shall not exceed thirty hundred weight,
sixpence ; and where such carriage and loading shall exceed
thirty hundred weight, and shall not exceed thirty-five hundred
weight, eightpence; where any such carriage and loading shall
exceed thirty-five hundred weight, and shall not exceed forty
hundred weight, tenpence; and in-addition, for every hundred
weight which such carriage and loading shall weigh above forty
hundred weight, and not exceeding forty-five hundred weight,
twopence; and for every hundred weight which such carriage
and loading shall weigh above forty-five hundred weight, six-
pence per hundred weight:
“And for every horse or other beast of draught that shall be em-
ployed in drawing any such waggon, wain, cart, or other like
carriage, more than one, for each such additional horse or beast
of draught, twopence :
“For every horse, mule, or ass, whereon any person shall ride,
threepence :
“For every horse or mule, laden or unladen, and not drawing, two-
pence halfpenny:
“For every score of oxen or neat cattle, one shilling and eight-
pence; and so in proportion for any greater or less number :
“For every score of calves, hogs, sheep, lambs, or goats, ten-
pence; and so in proportion for any greater or less number.”
SECT. XXIV.-Penalty on. toll-collector over-charging by
reason of weighing machine not being in order.
SECT. XXV.-Broad-wheeled waggons of a certain description
to pay two-fifths only of the toll payable by other waggons.
28 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XXVI.--Double toll for wheels not having a flat surface.
SECT. XXVII.-Penalty for drawing timber on roads except on
carriages.
SECT. XXVIII.-* And be it further enacted, That upon pay-
ment of the tolls or duties by this act granted, the collector or
receiver thereof shall deliver to the person paying such tolls or
duties a note or ticket denoting such payment, which note or ticket
shall entitle the same person, with the same carriages, and horses
or other cattle, to pass through any other turnpike gate or turn-
pike gates placed on the said roads at a distance not exceeding
six statute miles from the turnpike gate where such note or ticket
was delivered, without being liable to pay the said tolls more
than once for passing through such turnpike gate or turnpike
gates, and who shall return the same day before twelve of the
clock at night with the same carriages, and horses or other cattle :
Provided always, that in case any waggon, wain, cart, or carriage
of the like descriptions, shall pass through any such turnpike gate
or turnpike gates with a new loading a second or more times in
the same day, the tolls and duties by this act granted shall be
paid for each time the same shall so pass in the same manner as
for the first time; and that nothing under two hundred weight
shall be reckoned a new loading in any such waggon, wain, cart,
or other such carriage.”
SECT. XXIX.-“Provided always, and be it enacted, That no-
thing in this act contained shall be construed to limit or affect
the exemptions from tolls provided and enacted by the aforesaid
act of the fourth year of the reign of his present Majesty, nor to
subject to the payment of toll more than once in twenty-four
hours any cart, waggon, wain, or other carriage, passing a toll-bar
empty, and returning through the same gate with a loading,
although the second passage shall not take place before twelve of
the clock at night of the same day with the first.”
SECT. XXX.-“Provided nevertheless, and be it enacted, That
nothing herein contained shall prevent the said trustees, if they
shall deem it expedient, from levying or causing to be levied the
tolls and duties hereby granted at any gate or gates specified in the
schedule annexed to this act marked (B.), although within six
miles of each other, or within six miles of any other gate or gates
now existing, and also at any gate or gates not specified in the said
schedule, although within six miles of any gate or gates therein
specified.”
SECT. XXXI.—“Provided always, and be it enacted, That in
case any monies shall be subscribed and advanced for the making
No. III.-FIFE TURNPIKE ACT. 29
and maintaining any new road, or improving any of the statute
labour or parish roads hereby authorised to be made, improved,
and maintained as turnpike roads, and the trustees shall assign
the tolls and duties hereby granted at any gate to be erected on
such new road, or statute labour or parish road as aforesaid, it
shall and may in such case be lawful for the said trustees to levy
the tolls and duties hereby granted at any gate to be erected on
such new or statute labour or parish roads as aforesaid, notwith-
standing that such gate shall be situated within six miles of any
other gate, and also at any of the gates at present existing or
specified in the schedule aforesaid, notwithstanding the same or
any of them shall be within six miles of each other.”
SECT. XXXII.-The trustees of each district at the annual
general meeting shall appoint some person to be auditor of ac-
counts of the district for the ensuing year, making him such re-
muneration as they think fit.
SECT. XXXIII.-‘‘And be it further enacted, That the clerk and
treasurer of each trust upon any of the said roads shall severally
be bound, under a penalty of fifty pounds each in case of failure,
to keep an exact and accurate account of all the monies received
or disbursed by them respectively on account of the said trust;
and one month at least annually before the general meeting in
the month of May herein directed to be held, such clerk and
treasurer severally shall render a statement of such accounts,
showing distinctly the receipt and expenditure by them respec-
tively on account of such trust for the preceding year, and also
the amount of debt owing by such trust, to the auditor to be ap-
pointed for the district in which such clerk and treasurer seve-
rally shall act in manner herein directed ; which statement of
accounts the said auditor shall examine with the documents or
vouchers instructing the same, which the said clerk or the trea-
surer to the said trusts shall respectively be obliged when called
upon to produce; and the auditor shall audit and docquet the
said statements, and shall report the same to the said annual
general meeting in May; and the said annual general meeting
shall direct the said statements of accounts to be printed and
circulated among the trustees of all the said roads, one week at
least previous to the Michaelmas head court.”
SECT. XXXIV.-‘‘And be it further enacted, That the tolls
and duties hereby granted and made payable and authorised to
be levied, and any sums of money which shall be borrowed on
the security thereof, together with the right of property of every
toll-bar, weighing-machine, and toll-house already erected, or to
be erected on or adjoining to any of the said several roads, and
30 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
of every garden and other property belonging to the trustees on
any of the said roads, under the said recited acts of the thirtieth,
thirty-seventh, and forty-seventh years of the reign of his late
Majesty, or which shall be acquired by virtue of this act, are and
shall be vested in the trustees acting in virtue of this act; and
the said tolls and duties, and any sums of money which shall be
or shall have been borrowed, subscribed, or advanced on the
security thereof, shall be paid over and applied to and for the
several uses and purposes of this act. -
SECT. XXXV.-Borrowed money to be laid out on road on
which borrowed.
SECT. XXXVI.--Tolls to be applied to repayment of money
borrowed—of sums subscribed and advanced for the roads—
interest thereof—and in making and repairing the roads.
SECT. XXXVII.--Tolls apportioned between districts to be
so continued.
SECT. XXXVIII.-“Provided always, and be it further
enacted, That it shall be lawful and competent to the trustees of
any district, at any general or special meeting of such district, to
determine, order, and direct, that all the tolls and duties collected
at the several toll-bars within such district, or payable to them
as the proportion due by any other district in respect of any
road common to both districts, to be applicable and to be applied
generally—in the first place, in payment of the interest of all the
debts owing on the credit of the tolls within the said district—
and, in the second place, to be applied generally towards the
making and maintaining the roads within the said district : Pro-
vided also, that no such determination and order shall be made
unless at a general meeting of such district, called in manner
herein directed, by notice specifying the special purpose for
which such meeting is intended to be held, nor unless notice in
writing shall also have been sent to every creditor upon the tolls
of such district, or, in his or her absence, to the known agent or
factor of such creditor.”
SECT. XXXIX.-Particular roads may be excepted in certain
cases from consolidation.
SECT. XL-Trustees may enter upon lands through which
the roads hereby authorised to be made are intended to pass—
fourteen days’ previous notice being given.
No. III. —FIFE TURNPIKE ACT. 31
SECT. XLI.-Power to widen roads.
SECT. XLII.-Materials of old bridges, &c., to be disposed of.
SECT. XLIII.-“And be it further enacted, That the said
respective trustees, or any seven or more of them, at their
annual general meeting in May assembled, shall, and they are
hereby authorised, as they shall see convenient and think fit, to
compound and agree by the year with any person or persons in
the use to travel through the turnpikes, and living within three
miles of any turnpike or turnpikes erected, or to be erected, on
the said roads, with any coach, landau, berlin, chariot, chaise,
curricle, waggon, wain, cart, or other carriage, horse, mule, or
ass, or any other beast of draught, for any sum or sums of money
as to the said trustees shall seem reasonable, to be paid quarterly
in advance, from time to time, after such agreement is made; but
such compositions or agreements so made by the trustees as
aforesaid shall continue in force for one year only from the
making thereof.”
SECT. XLIV.—Toll-collectors to be competent witnesses.
SECT. XLV.-Any three or more persons qualified to be trus-
tees within a district, or as chief magistrate of a royal burgh,
may, within ten days after a district meeting, appeal for redress
against the resolutions of such meeting to the annual general
meeting of the trustees for the county in May, whose determina-
tion shall be final.
SECT. XLVI.-None of the exemptions granted by this act, or
by the said general turnpike act, shall affect any existing lease of
tolls.
SECT. XLVII.-Public act.
SECT. XLVIII.-“And be it further enacted, That the expense
of procuring and passing this act shall be paid out of the tolls
and duties levied in the several districts of the said county of
Fife, as the same shall be ascertained and apportioned upon the
said districts by a general meeting of trustees for the said
county; and the trustees of the several districts shall thereupon
divide and apportion the sum with which their district shall be so
charged respectively upon each of the several toll-gates within
the same, according to the produce that has accrued from each
of such gates respectively in the last twelve months, which por-
tions shall be charged upon the same, and paid accordingly.”
32 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XLIX-This act shall commence from and after the pass-
ing thereof, and remain in force during the term of thirty-one
years, and from thence to the end of the then next session of Par-
liament.
SCHEDULE (A.)
This schedule specifies certain houses, &c., in the burghs of
Kirkaldy, Anstruther Wester, and Crail, and on the line of road
from Dundee ferries to Kinross-shire, to be taken for the purposes
of this act upon making compensation for the same.
SCHEDULE (B.)—(referred to in Sect. XXX.)
Description and situation of toll-gates at which toll is to be de-
mandable and levied, although the said gates may be situated
within six miles of each other, or of any other gate or gates not
specified in the said schedule.
CTUIPAIR DISTRICT.
1. The toll-bar erected on the lands of Balgarvie, on the road
from Cupar to Newburgh.
2. The toll-bar erected on the lands of Arnots-Comb, on the
road from Cupar to Fernie Mill.
3. The toll-bar erected at Sandilands near Cupar, on the road
from Cupar to Largo Burnmouth, by Teasses.
4. The toll-bar erected at Teuchats, on the road from Fawfield,
through the lands of New Gilston and others, to Pratis Muir.
5. The toll-bar erected at Pitscottie, on the road from St An-
drews to the village of Ceres, through Magask Muir, and from
thence to the turnpike road at or near Struthers.
6. The toll-bar erected on the lands of Kinnimont, on the road
from Callange to Pitscottie Bridge, through Dura Den to Dairsie
Bridge.
7. The toll-bar erected near to the village of Strathmiglo, on
the road from New Inn to Strathmiglo, in the event of that bar
being removed and erected farther south from its present situa-
tion on the said line of road.
ST ANDREWS DISTRICT.
1. The toll-bar erected at St Andrews, Shore Bridge, on the
road from St Andrews to Crail by Kingsbarns, and from St An-
drews by Denino to Anstruther harbour.
2. The toll-bar erected on the lands of Rathalpie at St An-
drews, Argyle Port, on the road from St Andrews to the village
of Ceres, through Magask Muir, and from thence to the turnpike
road at or near Struthers.
No. III.-FIFE TURNPIKE ACT. 33
3. The toll-bar erected at or near Ferry-Port-on-Craig, on the
road from Brackmont Mill to the river Tay at Ferry-Port-on-
Craig.
4. *the toll-bar erected near Lathones, on the road from St
Andrews by Lathones, to join the turnpike road to Balcarres at
Largoward, with a branch by Higham Loan.
5. The toll-bar erected at Elie, on the road branching off
from the turnpike road at or near Balchrystie by Elie to Pitten-
Weena.
6. The toll-bar erected at Woodhaven, on the lands of Wood-
haven, in the parish of Forgan.
7. The toll-bar erected at Newport, on the road from Brack-
mont Mill to Newport.
DUNIFERMLINE DISTRICT.
The toll-bar erected on the lands of Whitehill at Whitehill,
on the road striking off or branching from the turnpike road from
North Queensferry at Little Couston, and passing by Balmule
and Kilry to Kirkaldy.
NO. IV.
BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON PIER,
FERRY, AND ROAD ACT.
5 VICTORIA, CAP. 91.
(Royal Assent 30th June, 1842.)
[The importance of this act to the whole travelling public has induced us to give a
comprehensive Abstract of its provisions, although only eight of its clauses
bear directly on turnpike road matters.]
THIS act is intituled “An act for constructing a low-water pier
and necessary works at Burntisland, in the county of Fife, and
establishing a ferry between the same and Granton, in the county
of Edinburgh; and for improving the communication between the
said pier and Kinghorn:” and the preamble is as follows:–
“Whereas an act was passed in the thirty-second year of the
reign of his Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An act
for improving the communication between the county of Edin-
burgh and the county of Fife by the passages or ferries cross the
Frith of Forth, between Leith and Newhaven in the county of
Edinburgh, and Kinghorn and Burntisland in the county of Fife,
and for rendering the harbours and landing-places more commo-
dious;’ and whereas another act was passed in the fifty-third year
of the reign of his said Majesty King George the Third, intituled
* An act for further improving the communication between the
county of Edinburgh and the county of Fife by the ferries cross
the Frith of Forth, between Leith and Newhaven in the county of
Edinburgh, and Kinghorn and Burntisland in the county of Fife;’
and whereas another act was passed in the first and second year
of the reign of his Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled
“An act to amend and enlarge the powers of an act of the fifty-
third year of his late Majesty, for improving the communication
between the county of Edinburgh and county of Fife by the
ferries cross the Frith of Forth, between Leith and Newhaven
and Kinghorn and Burntisland;’ and whereas another act was
passed in the seventh year of the reign of his said Majesty King
George the Fourth, intituled “An act for further improving the
communication between the counties of Edinburgh and Fife by
the ferries cross the Frith of Forth, between Leith and New-
haven, and Kinghorn, Burntisland, and Dysart ;’ and whereas
the favourable result anticipated from the said recited acts for
No. IV.- BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT. 35
establishing the ferries therein mentioned, between the south and
north shores of the Frith of Forth, has not been experienced, and
it is necessary to make better provision for the public accommo-
dation ; and whereas the erection of a low-water pier at Burnt-
island on the north shore, in connection by means of steam or other
vessels with the pier at Granton on the south shore, with access by
means of an improved road from Burntisland to Kinghorn, will be
of great public utility; and whereas Walter Francis, Duke of
Buccleuch and Queensberry, and John Gladstone, Esquire, of
Fasque, are, or claim to be, proprietors of a portion of the ground
on which the said pier might advantageously be built, and are
willing, at their own cost, to build a sufficient low-water pier, and
to establish a convenient and regulated ferry, upon obtaining the
exclusive right to such pier and the right to such ferry for the
period, in the manner, and to the effect, hereinafter mentioned;
and whereas the trustees under the statute labour and turnpike
road acts of the county of Fife, hereinafter recited, acting for the
Kirkaldy district of roads, in consideration of the great benefit
which such ferry will confer upon the said county and the public,
by opening and extending the intercourse of the said county both
with the south and north of Scotland, are willing to complete the
access between the said pier and the town of Kinghorn, as herein-
after described; but as these purposes cannot be effected without
the authority of Parliament—May it therefore please,” &c.
SECT. I.-Enacts “That it shall be lawful to the said Duke and
the said John Gladstone to erect such pier and establish such
ferry in manner hereinafter set forth; provided that such pier
shall not obstruct the entrance to the harbour of Burntisland, or
the access to the piers of the said harbour, in the judgment of a
competent person to be appointed by the Lords Commissioners of
the Admiralty.”
SECT. II.-Plans and sections deposited with the Sheriff-Clerk
to be open to inspection on payment of one shilling, and copies
may be had at the rate of threepence for every one hundred words
which shall be evidence.
SECT. III.-Errors and omissions in the plans, book of refer-
ence, or schedule, to be corrected.
SECT. IV.-Certified copies of plans or corrections thereof to
be evidence. -
SECT. V.-Works to be executed : Provided the Duke and
Mr Gladstone “shall do as little damage as can be, and shall
make full compensation,” &c.
36 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. VI-Breadth of land for the approaches to the pier
“shall not exceed 120 yards without the consent, in writing, of
the owners and occupiers of the land so required.”
SECT. VII.-Not to deviate from section, nor more than 80
yards from plan.
SECT. VIII.-Houses and enclosed grounds not to be taken
unless specified in the schedule. -
SECT. IX.-Land tax and poor's rate to be made good.
SECT. X-‘And whereas the probable expense of making the
said pier and other works and approaches by this act authorised
to be constructed by the said Duke and the said John Gladstone,
and the expense of the steam-boats to be provided by them for
the said ferry, will amount to the sum of twenty-five thousand
three hundred and forty pounds, of which sum three fourth parts
have been subscribed by the said Duke and the said John Glad-
stone, binding themselves, their heirs, executors, administrators,
and assigns, for the payment; be it therefore enacted, That the
said Duke and the said John Gladstone, their heirs, executors,
administrators, and assigns, shall be, and they are hereby,
required to pay the sums respectively subscribed by them, or
such parts or proportions thereof as shall from time to time be
called for by the treasurer for the time being, to be appointed in
virtue of this act; and it shall be lawful for such treasurer to
sue and recover the same, with full costs of suit, in any court of
law or equity, together with lawful interest on any unpaid sum
or sums from the time when the same shall be called for as afore-
said.”
SECT. XI.-Power to enter upon, take, and use the lands de-
scribed in the said plans and book of reference.
SECT. XII.-Enacts that the Duke and Mr Gladstone shall,
though the expense should exceed the estimate, complete the pier,
with all quays, wharfs, &c.
SECT. XIII-The pier to be completed in four years from the
passing of the act.
SECT. XIV.-Penalty for obstructing construction of pier.
No. IV.-BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT, 37
SECT. XV.-No works below high-water mark without the
consent of the Admiralty.
SECT. XVI.-Cranes, weighing machines, &c.
SECT. XVII.-Certificate of the Sheriff of the county of Fife
to be evidence that the pier is completed, &c.
SECT. XVIII.-Enacts “That the limits of the pier for the pur-
poses of this act shall be the pier and a space within high-water
mark, bounded as follows—that is to say, on the east by a line
commencing at a point on the shore at the distance of three
hundred yards from the pier, and running from the said point
due south to a point in the Frith of Forth at the distance of five
hundred yards, and from thence by a line running due west to a
point at the distance of six hundred yards, and from thence by a
line running in a northerly direction to the east pier-head at the
entrance of the harbour of Burntisland.”
SECT. XIX.-Power to ferry trustees to contract for the inte-
rim use of Granton pier.
SECT. XX.--When pier completed, and ferry established, the
former ferry acts repealed.
SECT. XXI.—Saving the rights of Leith and Newhaven.
SECT. XXII.-Pier not to be used unless with consent and under
regulations to be established by the proprietors, under a penalty not
exceeding ten pounds: “Provided always, that if the said Duke
and the said John Gladstone shall grant such license or autho-
rity to any person or body, it shall not be lawful for the said
Duke and the said John Gladstone to take any higher rates for
the use of the said pier than one-fifth part of the ferry rates
hereby granted upon the several and respective passengers,
articles, and things, contained in the schedule B hereunto
annexed.”
SECT. XXIII.-Establishes the ferry with all the rights and
privileges usual to ferries in Scotland; and allows extra charges
at extra hours.
SECT. XXIV.-Obliges the proprietors to maintain three well-
built steam vessels; one of these shall pass the ferry eight times
-----
38 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
daily, and repass as often, between 1st April and 1st October, and
six times betwixt 1st October and 1st April—the proprietors, how-
ever, not to be obliged, unless otherwise required by the Post-
master-General, to provide more than three passages from each
side on Sundays. Notice of hours of sailing and alterations to
be given three times in some newspaper published and circulated
in the counties of Fife and Edinburgh.
SECTs. XXV & XXVI.-Power to erect light-houses and lay
down buoys.
SECT. XXVII.-Beacons and lights not to be altered without
consent of the Commissioners of Northern Light-houses.
SECT. XXVIII.-Obligation to convey her Majesty’s mails
across the ferry.
SECTs. XXIX & XXX.-Mail carriages to be conveyed under
such regulations as the Postmaster-General shall require.
SECT. XXXI.-Proprietors of ferry to receive remuneration
for conveying the mails.
SECTs. XXXII. to XXXIV.-Services to Post-Office to be in-
creased, diminished, or discontinued.
SECT. XXXV.-Penalty on refusal or neglect to carry mails
not exceeding £20.
SECTs. XXXVI. & XXXVII.-Remuneration for carrying the
mails to be settled by arbitration.
SECT. XXXVIII.-Number of passages may be reduced under
the sanction of a general meeting of the Commissioners of Supply
for Fife.
SECT. XXXIX.-Rates to be taken not to exceed the sum or
sums in the schedule B: “Provided always, that such sums shall
include all rates or dues claimable by the said Duke and his heirs
and successors, in respect of any such passengers and articles
being embarked or landed at the pier at Granton.”
No. IV.-BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT. 39
SECT. XL.-Rates may be levied by distress.
SECT. XLI.-Passengers refusing payment may be appre-
hended by the master of the vessel, officers, and servants, belong-
ing to the ferry, and constables, jailors, and peace officers, and
taken “before one of the sheriffs or one of the nearest justices
of the peace of the said counties of Fife or Edinburgh, who may
Summarily grant warrant to imprison such person until he shall
pay the said rate.”
SECT. XLII.-Proprietors may reduce the rates and again
raise the same to any sums not exceeding the amount hereby
authorised to be taken, but the said rates shall at all times be
charged equally.
SECT. XLIII.-Disputes concerning rates or charges of dis-
tress to be settled by Sheriff or Justice of the counties of Fife or
Edinburgh.
SECT. XLIV.-List of rates to be set up on a conspicuous part
of the pier. * * * *
SECT. XLV.-Enacts that the ferry rates shall be applied—1st,
In paying the expense of the act; 2d, In paying the expense of
the works; and 3d, “The residue shall be paid to the said Duke
and the said John Gladstone for their own proper use and behoof.”
SECT. XLVI.-Power to lease rates.
SECT. XLVII.-The proprietors from “time to time to appoint
a superintendent, treasurer, clerk, and collector, and such other
officers as they shall think fit, with such salaries and allowances
as they think reasonable, and to remove such treasurer,” &c.;
and to “take sufficient security from the treasurer, collector, and
other officers, for all monies to be by them respectively received
in the execution of this act.”
SECT. XLVIII.-Offices of clerk and treasurer to be separate,
and neither to hold any place of profit or trust under the act other
than that of clerk or treasurer, under the penalty of one hundred
pounds, which any person may sue for before the Court of Session,
or the Sheriffs of Fife or Edinburgh, with full costs of suit,
40 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XLIX.—Enacts “That if any such treasurer, clerk, collec-
tor, or other officer, exact, take, or accept, on account of any-
thing done by virtue of his office, any fee or reward whatsoever,
other than the salaries, rewards, or allowances allowed by the
said Duke and the said John Gladstone, he shall forfeit fifty
pounds to any person who shall sue for the same as aforesaid.”
SECT. I.-Officers to account to the proprietors.
SECT. L.I.—Remedy against officers failing to account.
SECT. LII.-Not to discharge sureties.
SECT. LIII.-Empowers the proprietors to cause an annual ab-
stract of accounts to be prepared on or before the thirty-first of
January, duly audited and certified by the clerk, and shall trans-
mit a copy of the account to the Sheriff-Clerk of Fife. This
account to be open to the inspection of the public on payment of
one shilling for each inspection. A failure on the part of the pro-
prietors to prepare and transmit this account subjects them to a
penalty of twenty pounds for every such omission.
SECT. LIV.—Gives the proprietors power to make bye-laws,
provided such are not repugnant to the law of Scotland, nor the
provisions of the act.
SECT. L.V.-Penalties not exceeding five pounds for enforcing
bye-laws.
SECTs. LVI. to LXI-Bye-laws to be confirmed; copy of pro-
posed bye-laws to be open to inspection; publication of bye-laws;
such bye-laws to be binding on all parties; defacing boards; evi-
dence of bye-laws.
SECT. LXII.-Combustible matter on pier to be removed.
SECT. LXIII-Service of notices upon the proprietors may be
by delivering the same personally to the clerk of the ferry, or to
some inmate, at his usual place of abode, or by leaving the same
at the office of the clerk; in case there be no clerk, or his place
of abode be unknown, then to the treasurer or collector.
SECT. LXIV.-Authentication of notices.
No. IV.-BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT. 41
Sect. LXV.—Tender of amends.
SECT. LXVI.-Power to purchase lands.
SECT. LXVII.-Parties under disability enabled to sell and
convey.
SECTs. LXVIII. to LXX.—Compensation to be made for price
of or damage to lands.
SECT. LXXI.—Purchase of lands for annual feu-duty.
SECT. LXXII.-Payment of feu-duty to be charged on the
ferry rates.
SECT. LXXIII.-Conveyances of lands may be according to
the form in schedule (C and D), and shall be effectual on being
registered in the General Register of Sasines within sixty days
of their last date.
SECTs. LXXIV & LXXV.-Costs of conveyances.
SECTs. LXXVI. to LXXXII.-Payment or consignation of pur-
chase-monies, and their application.
SECT. LXXXIII.-Party in possession to be deemed the
QWIler.
SECT. LXXXIV.-Costs in cases of money deposited.
SECTs. LXXXV & LXXXVI.-Payment of price to be made.
previous to entry, except to survey, &c., otherwise a penalty of
ten pounds.
SECT. LXXXVII.-Decision of justices not conclusive as to
right.
SECT. LXXXVIII.-Proprietors to give notice of their inten-
tion to take lands.
SECT. LXXXIX.-Parties interested in lands to state their
claims.
F
42 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XC.—Proceedings in case of refusal to deliver possession
of lands.
SECT. XCI.-Dispute as to compensation to be settled by jury.
SECT. XCII.—Claims not exceeding two hundred pounds to be
settled by sheriff or two justices of Fife.
SECTs. XCIII. to CVII.-Proceedings in jury cases.
SECT. CVIII.-Reference of dispute as to compensation to the
sheriff or two justices of Fife.
SECT. CIX, to CXI.—Power to purchase the interest in lands,
the purchase whereof may have been omitted by mistake.
SECT. CXII.-Parties not to be required to sell part of a house
if willing to sell and convey the whole thereof.
SECT. CXIII-Superiorities not to be affected.
SECT. CXIV.-Enacts “That after the expiration of four years
from the passing of this act all the powers hereby granted to the
said Duke and the said John Gladstone for constructing the said
pier, or otherwise in relation thereto, shall cease to be exercised,
except as to so much of the said pier as shall then be completed,
and except such powers as shall hereby be declared to be conti-
nued for a longer period.”
(RAILWAY CLAUSE.)
SECT. CXV.—Enacts “That in the event of a railway being
hereafter established through the county of Fife, terminating at
Burntisland, the said Duke and the said John Gladstone shall
give every reasonable facility for connecting the same with the
said pier, and shall adapt the said pier to the accommodation of
any such increase of traffic as may arise through the said rail-
way; and if, after such railway shall be completed to the said
intended pier, the directors or other persons in the management
thereof shall at any time, or from time to time, require the said
Duke and the said John Gladstone to grant a diminution of the
rates hereby authorised to be charged upon manufactured goods.
or upon the raw article unmanufactured carried along such rail-
way and shipped at the said intended pier, or landed upon the
said pier, and loaded bona fide for transportation along the said
No. IV.-BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT. 43
railway, and the said Duke and the said John Gladstone shall
disagree to such diminution, or if any dispute shall arise respect-
ing the fulfilment of any of the obligations herein contained in
respect of such railway, then, and in such cases, or either of them,
the matter at issue between the parties shall be settled by three
arbiters, who shall have full power to determine upon and fix
such diminution as they shall think just and reasonable under
the circumstances, and of whom one shall be appointed by the
said Duke and the said John Gladstone, another by the directors
or other persons in the management of the said railway, and the
third by the two persons so appointed; and if the said Duke and
the said John Gladstone shall not appoint such arbiter within one
month after being required by the said directors or other persons
in the management of such railway so to do, then the sheriff of
the county of Fife shall appoint such arbiter; or if the arbiter
appointed by the said Duke and the said John Gladstone, or in the
case aforesaid by the said sheriff, shall not within one month of his
appointment agree with the arbiter appointed by such directors or
other persons as to the third arbiter, then such third arbiter shall be
appointed by the said sheriff of the county of Fife; and the deci-
sion of such three arbiters upon the matter referred to them, or of
a majority of them if they shall differ in opinion, shall be final
and conclusive, and not subject to review in any court whatever :
Provided always, that if any such diminution shall at any time
be awarded, nothing herein contained shall diminish or shall
imply a diminution of any other of the rates hereby granted than
the rates on manufactured and unmanufactured goods.”
SECT. CXVI.-Enacts “That it shall be lawful for the magis-
trates of Burntisland to contract and agree with the said Duke
and the said John Gladstone regarding the modifying, com-
pounding, reducing, or foregoing, all or any part of the rates,
duties, and customs at present exigible by the said magistrates,
within the said burgh and the harbour thereof, and otherwise in
relation to the said pier and ferry during the continuance of this
act; anything in an act passed in the third year of the reign of
his Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled ‘An act for regu-
lating the mode of accounting for the common goods and revenues
of the royal burghs of Scotland,’ to the contrary notwithstand-
ing : Provided always, that no such contract or agreement shall
prevent the said magistrates, after the expiration thereof, from
again exercising all the rights and privileges of the said burgh in
relation to such rates, duties, and customs, conferred by charter
or otherwise, as fully and freely as if such contract or agreement
had not been made.”
SECT. CXVII.-In case of question as to the insufficiency of
the works, at the expiration of three years after the ferry shall have
44 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTEs.
been opened, reference shall be made to the Right Hon. Robert
Lord Viscount Melville or James Andrew Earl of Dalhousie;
and the proprietors to be bound to acquiesce in their decision.
SECT. CXVIII.-Commissioners of supply may sue for execu-
tion of works.
SECT. CXIX-Trustees may wind up the affairs of the present
ferries.
SECT. CXX.—“The said ferry trustees shall, out of the rates
leviable on the said ferry, satisfy and pay such proportion of the
expense of obtaining and passing this act as shall be due by them
in respect of the said ferries.”
SECT. CXXI.—Enacts “That nothing herein contained shall
repeal or impair any liability or obligation imposed and binding
upon the said ferry trustees, the commissioners of supply, or the
heritors of the county of Fife, under or by virtue of the said
recited acts or any of them; or the right of any person or body
to insist and sue for the fulfilment of any such liability or obli-
gation.”
SECT. CXXII.-Obliges the proprietors, twelve months pre-
vious to the expiration of the act, to offer to the commissioners
of supply of Fife, or to any other party authorised by Parliament,
their whole interest in the pier and works connected with the
ferry, and also the boats, &c., at such a price as the proprietors
shall think just. If the offer be accepted by two-thirds of the
commissioners of supply, at a meeting specially called ; and if
the commissioners being disposed to purchase shall differ with
the proprietors as to the value, the question shall be referred to
three arbitrators—one appointed by the proprietors, another by
the commissioners, and the third by the two arbitrators so to be
named. On their award the commissioners shall be bound to
purchase, and the proprietors shall be bound to sell, the property
at the price fixed: “Provided always, That neither the said com-
missioners of supply nor the said Duke and the said John Glad-
stone shall at any time take any higher rates or duties at or in
respect of the said pier than the rates and duties hereby granted,
without the sanction of Parliament: Provided also, That nothing
in this clause contained relating to such sale and purchase shall
in any way extend to or affect the rights and interests of the said
Duke of Buccleuch in and to the said pier and harbour at
Granton.”
No. IV. BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT. 45
SECT. CXXIII-Agreement may be made for transferring the
works to the commissioners of supply at any time during the
term of the act.
SECT. CXXIV.-Penalties to be summarily recovered before
the sheriff or one or more justices of the counties of Fife or Edin-
burgh.
SECT. CXXV.-Penalties to be levied by distress.
SECT. CXXVI.-Imprisonment in default of distress.
SECT. CXXVII.-One-half of the penalties, the application
whereof is not otherwise provided for, shall be awarded to the
kirk-session of the parish in which the offence shall have been
committed, and the other to the informers.
SECT. CXXVIII.-Penalties to be sued for within six months.
SECT. CXXIX.-Penalty on witnesses making default.
SECT. CXXX.—Transient offenders to be sued under authority
of the act.
SECT. CXXXI.—Conviction to be drawn up according to form
in schedule (E) annexed to the act.
SECT. CXXXII.-Proceedings not to be quashed for want of
form or removed into any superior court.
SECT. CXXXIII & CXXXIV.-Distress how to be levied, and
not to be unlawful for want of form.
SECT. CXXXV.-Parties may appeal to quarter sessions on
giving security.
SECT. CXXXVI.-Court to make such order as they think
reasonable.
SECT. CXXXVII.-Warrants, &c., may be enforced in any
other county.
46 PART I.--—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. CXXXVIII.-Sheriffs may proceed to hear and deter-
mine any civil causes or prosecutions for rights or penalties accord-
ing to the provisions of the small debt act 10 Geo IV., c. 55.
(EIGHT ROAD CLAUSEs.)
SECT. CXXXIX.-After reciting the road acts 57 Geo. III.,
cap. 52; 47 Geo. III., cap. 12; 10 Geo. IV., cap. 84; 10 Geo.
IV., cap. 61 ; proceeds—“And whereas the trustees of the
Kirkaldy district of roads, acting under the said recited act of
the tenth year of the reign of his Majesty King George the
Fourth, being the third of the said last-recited acts, are desirous
and willing, as aforesaid, to make, improve, and maintain, the
aforesaid road from the pier-gates along the harbour of Burnt-
island to the western extremity of the main street of Burntisland,
and from thence to the town of Kinghorn, as described in the
said plans, and including therein a portion of the street of Burnt-
island at present forming a part of the Great North Road; be it
therefore enacted, That it shall be lawful for the said trustees of
the Kirkaldy district of roads to enter upon and take possession
of the lands and heritages described in the said plan and book of
reference and schedule in relation to the said road, according to
the lines, with the power of deviation, described in the said plan,
and to make and maintain the said road.” All the powers, provi-
sions, tolls, and penalties, granted and imposed by the Fife turn-
pike act (10 Geo. IV., cap. 84) apply to this road.
SECT. CXL.—Trustees authorised to borrow money on the
security of the tolls of the Kirkaldy district.
SECT. CXLI.-Road to form one of the roads of Kirkaldy dis-
trict.
SECT. CXLII.-Trustees of Kirkaldy district and of the Great
North Road may agree jointly for the maintenance of that portion
of the road in the town of Burntisland heretofore forming part of
the Great North Road, and hereby placed under the trustees of
the Kirkaldy district.
SECT. CXLIII.-Limits the time for purchasing property for
the road to the space of four years.
SECT. CXLIV.-Road to be finished within four years.
SECT. CXLV—“Such proportion of the expense of obtaining
and passing this act as regards the said road shall be defrayed
No. IV.-BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT. 47
by the trustees of the said Kirkaldy district of roads out of the
tolls and duties leviable on the said roads.”
SECT. CXLVI.-Enacts “That all monies which shall be
received by the said trustees on or in respect of the said road
authorised by this act to be made, improved, and maintained,
shall be applied as follows, that is to say:—
“Firstly, In making, improving, maintaining, and keeping in
repair, the said road, and putting this act into execution
with reference thereto :
“Secondly, In paying and discharging any interest which may
from time to time become due and be owing in respect to
any money borrowed upon the credit of the tolls upon the
said Kirkaldy district of roads:
“Thirdly, In paying and discharging any interest which may
from time to time become due and be owing in respect to
any money which may be borrowed on the credit of the
tolls to be collected on the said road hereby authorised to
be made:
“Fourthly, In reducing, paying off, and discharging, any prin-
cipal sums of money which may be owing upon the credit
of the tolls upon the said Kirkaldy district of roads, and
thereafter in reducing, paying off, and discharging, any
principal sums of money which may be borrowed on the
credit of this act.”
SECT. CXLVII.-Trustee or clerk under this act, if not other-
wise interested, shall be competent witnesses in actions.
SECT. CXLVIII.-* Nothing in this act contained, or the
powers to be exercised in consequence thereof, shall be construed
to injure or derogate from the rights of the commissioners for
the superintendence and management of the harbour and docks
of Leith.”
SECT. CXLIX.—Interpretation of words.
SECT. C.L.—“That this act shall commence and take effect from
and after the passing thereof, and shall continue for twenty-five
years after the establishment and opening of the said ferry for
the use of the public, and no longer, excepting as regards the
right to the said pier or other works which shall be the property
of the said Duke and the said John Gladstone, and their respec-
tive heirs and assignees, unless conveyed by them under the
provisions of this act, notwithstanding the expiration of this act
in other respects.”
SECT. CLI.-Public act.
48
PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
Schedules referred to in the foregoing act:—
SCHEDULE (A.)
Property to be taken specifying the numbers in the plan, de-
scription of property, owners or reputed owners, lessees or re-
puted lessees, occupiers, and parishes.
“SCHEDULE (B.)
“Rates to be taken :-
8.
Passengers, first cabin l
Ditto, second cabin 0
Children under twelve years
of age half price.
And for the following animals,
articles, and things, which
are to be carried upon deck,
VIZ. I-
Coaches with four wheels,
drawn by two or more
horses 8.
Chariots, chaises, or other
four-wheeled carriages,
drawn by two or more
horses
Four-wheeled carriages,
drawn by one horse 4
Two-wheeled ditto, ditto ~ 2
Hearse 10
Cart, loaded 3
I)itto, empty 2
Waggons in proportion to their
size.
Saddle or carriage horse, or
led horse
Cart or waggon horse
Stallion
Mule or ass
IBull
Cow, ox, or heifer-
Small Highland ditto *
Calf, sow, or hog-
Sheep or goat
Lamb or kid
Sheep-dog or colley-
Other dogs
Goods or merchandise, per
barrel bulk --~~
Grain, per bag or boll not ex-
ceeding 6 imperial bushels 0
Herring, per barrel bulk O
Iron, steel, lead, or other
metals, per ton-------~ 4
Potatoes, turnips, or carrots,
per boll of 400 lbs.
Plough or pair of cart-wheels 0
*s
***
****
****
i;
.4
Puncheon or pipe, if empty-
Other empty casks in propor-
tion.
Timber, per square foot.…
Parcels, from 2d. to
Harrows, each pair.…~
Pair of fanners
Millstone
Sickles or hooks, per bundle-
Meal, malt, or bran, per boll
or bag of 6 imperial
bushels
Flour, per sack --~~
Baggage (carriers'), per cwt.-
Other baggage, per cwt.--~~
Beef, pork, butter, &c. per
barrel of 32 gallons--~~
Bricks, tiles, or slates, per 100
Ground and biscuit bark, per
ton
Batons, each
Bottles, per chest packed, and
per gross empty-
Boat or yawl.….
Cables of hemp and cordage
rigging, per ton
Cordage in coils, per ton
Cables of iron, per ton.
Crates of glass or stoneware-
Fruit, per chest
Furniture per barrel bulk-
Hemp (clean), per ton
Hemp (Codilla), per ton ~
Wooden hoops, per bundle-
Iron hoops, per ton
Hides, dressed or undressed,
per ton
Leather in bales, per ton ~.
Hops, per pocket------
Ditto, per bag.
Indigo, per chest
Lathwood, per fathom
Logwood, per ton
Linseed, per hogshead ~
Other casks in proportion.
Mahogany, per ton ~~~~
º
****
**
sº
*******
-*
§
:
8
:
No. IV.-BURNTISLAND AND GRANTON ACT. 49
S. d. 8, d.
Molasses, per puncheon ~ 2 0 | Ditto, per hogshead ~ 1 6
Oakum, per ton 6 0 | Ditto, per half ditto.--~ 0 9
Oil, per tun of 2 puncheons.-- 6 0 || All lesser casks, each...~ 0 3
Other packages in proportion. Tobacco, per ton ~ 6 0
Pipe staves, per 100 --~ 8 0 | Tallow or tin, per ton- 5 ()
Barrel ditto 4 0 | Tar or pitch, per barrel J 0 6
Rags, linen or woollen, per Tea, per chest 0 6
ton ~ 5 0 | Smaller packages in proportion.
Salt, sand, and shot, per ton ~ 5 0 | Tree nails, per 1000 -------- 5 0
Shovels or spades, per bundle Trees in mats, per barrel bulk - 0 6
of six 0 3 | Vitriol, per carboy, full- O 6
Stones, per ton of 10 feet.…. 5 0 | Ditto, ditto, empty ~ 0 2
Sugar, per hogshead -- 6 0 || Wool, per barrel bulk --~ 0 6
Ditto, smaller packages, per Whalebone, per ton ~ 5 0
Cwt. 4 | Whiting and chalk, per ton.-- 5 0
Spirits or wine, per pipe or Yeast, per hogshead. ~ 1 0
cask exceeding 60 and not In proportion for a less quan-
exceeding 120 gallons----~ 2 6 tity.
“All goods shall be chargeable either by barrel bulk or gross weight, in the
option of the collector. -
“All other articles not here enumerated shall be charged at the same rates,
or in proportion thereto, at which articles of the like kind or description are
in the above schedule authorised to be charged. No rate shall be charge-
able upon the ...; of any passenger unless the same shall exceed a
barrel bulk; nor shall any rate be chargeable for infants in arms; nor for
vagrants travelling with legal passes.
“And for vessels sailing at any extra or other hour than the hours at which
the vessels plying the ferry are required to sail by this act, the said Duke
and the said John Gladstone shall be entitled to charge in respect of each
such vessel a sum not exceeding four pounds four shillings.”
SCHEDULE (C & D.)
Forms of conveyances upon an absolute purchase or in con-
sideration of a feu-duty; the conveyances to be in favour of
Walter Francis Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry and John
Gladstone, Esq. of Fasque, their heirs and successors.
SCHEDULE (E.)
Form of conviction before one of her Majesty’s justices of the
peace for the county of Fife.
[Solicitors for the act, Richardson & Connell, Fluyder Street,
Westminster.]
NO. W.
LEVEN BRIDGE AND ROAD ACT.
2 AND 3 VICTORIA, CAP. 48.
(Royal Assent, 1st July 1839.)
This act is intituled “An act for building a bridge over the river
Leven, in the county of Fife, and otherwise improving the road
from Boreland Loan to Scoonie Bridge.” The preamble recites
the former and present turnpike acts of the county of Fife, viz.,
30 George III., cap. 93; 37 George III., cap. 180; 47 George
III., cap. 11; and 10 George IV., cap. 84; also the present
general turnpike act 1 and 2 William IV., cap 43. The preamble
then proceeds:
“And whereas the trustees acting under the said first four
recited acts were authorised to repair, alter, and keep in repair,
amongst other roads the road from the turnpike road at the foot
of the Boreland Loan above Dysart, by East Wemyss, Moor-
edge, and the Sawmill Ford, or thereby, till it joins the turn-
pike road near to Scoonie Bridge, leading through or into the
parishes of Dysart, Wemyss, Markinch, and Scoonie; but, in
consequence of there being no bridge on the same across the
river Leven, the utility and convenience of the said road is
greatly impaired, and it would be highly advantageous to the
public, and to the inhabitants of the said county, if a suitable
bridge were built over the said river, and further powers were
granted for improving the said road; but as the same cannot be"
effected without the aid and authority of Parliament: May it
therefore please,” &c.
The act then repeals the above-mentioned Fife turnpike act of
10 George IV., cap. 84, so far as it relates to said road.
SECT. II.-Extends the above-mentioned general turnpike act of
1 and 2 William IV., cap. 43, to said bridge and road authorised
to be made.
SECT. III.-Appoints as trustees for executing all the purposes
of the act “James Erskine Wemyss of Torry and Wemyss, cap-
No. v.-LEVEN BRIDGE AND ROAD ACT. , 51
tain in her Majesty’s Royal Navy; Charles Maitland Christie of
Durie, in the said county; John Peter, junior, of Kirkland
Works; John Balfour of Leven Mills, James Anderson of Durie
Foundry, and John Haig of Cameron Distillery—all in the said
county, and three persons to be named, elected, and appointed,
as after mentioned, and their successors, to be elected or ap-
pointed in manner hereinafter mentioned;” provided no person
shall be capable of acting or of being elected as a trustee, unless
he shall be twenty-one years of age or upwards, and shall be
possessed of real or personal estate, separately or together, of the
clear value of £500, after payment of his debts.
SECT. IV.-Enacts, “That it shall and may be lawful for the
said trustees, or any three or more of them, and they are hereby
authorised and required at one or other of the three first general
meetings to be holden in pursuance of this act, to elect any num-
ber of persons, not exceeding three in the whole, to be trustees
for the purposes of this act, together with the said trustees
hereby appointed,” &c.
SECT. V.-Enacts, That whenever any trustee shall die, resign,
or refuse to act, the surviving or continuing trustees shall elect
some fit and proper person to be a trustee in his room.
SECT. VI.—Appoints the times of meetings of the trustees.
SECT. VII.-Authorises the making of the bridge and road.
SECT. VIII.—Recites the authority of the trustees under the act
47 George III., cap. 12 (one of the Fife statute labour acts), to
appropriate and set apart, from the general funds of the county,
arising from the conversion of statute labour from the plough-
gates of lands leviable within the same, a sum not exceeding two
shillings and sixpence sterling on each ploughgate of land within
the county, being the highest sum which, in any one year, can,
under the provisions of the Fife statute labour act, be applied to
building bridges, the expense of which exceeds £300: And fur-
ther, as doubts might arise whether under the provisions of the
Fife statute labour act the trustees thereof would be authorised
to appropriate any of their funds towards building the bridge,
and it was expedient to remove such doubts—therefore it was
enacted, that it should be lawful for the statute labour trustees
to pay over from the general bridge money funds of the said
52 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
county to the trustees under this act such sums or sum as to the
said statute labour trustees might appear just and proper; pro-
vided always that such sums or sum “shall be applied towards
building the bridge hereby authorised to be built, or to repaying
the monies borrowed on account thereof, and to no other use or
purpose whatsoever.”
SECT. IX. —Gives power to erect toll-bars.
SECT. X-Fixes the maximum tolls that may be taken on the
bridge as follows:—
“For every person on foot or otherwise, with liberty to re-
pass the same day free of toll ................................... . £0 0 0}
For every horse or other beast of draught whatsoever, draw-
ing any coach, &c., each time of passing........................ 0 0 3
For every horse or other beast of draught whatsoever, draw-
ing any taxed cart, each time of passing........................ 0 0 2
For every horse or other beast of draught whatsoever, draw-
ing any waggon, wain, or cart, or other such like carriage,
each time of passing.................................................. 0 0 2
For every horse or other beast of burden whatsoever, laden
or unladen, and not drawing, each time of passing......... 0 0 1
For every horse or other beast whatsoever, whereon any
person shall ride, or which shall be led, each time of pass-
ing........................................................................ 0 0 1
For every score of oxen or neat cattle, and so on in propor-
tion for any greater or lesser number, each time of pass-
ing...........................: tº e s º a s e e º ºs e º e s ºr e º & º e i s tº e º e º 'º º ... • * * * * * * * * * * * * 0 0 10
For every score of calves, hogs, sheep, lambs, or goats, and
so on in proportion for a greater or lesser number, each
time of passing........ ... a e s a s a e a s = e s : « s is s a n e s w w w w s a s e º is e º 'º a s is a s º º e º & " ? 8 º' 0 0 5
For every carriage moving or propelled by steam or machi-
nery, or by any other power than animal power............. 0 2 02?
SECT. XI.—Fixes the maximum tolls to be taken at the toll-bars
on the road as follows:—
“For every horse or beast of draught, drawing any coach, &c.,
where only one is drawing........................................” 360 0 9
And when more than one is employed in drawing any such
carriage.............. ........................ * * * * * s a c e o e e s e s a e º e a e o 'º a s " - 0 1 0
For each horse or beast not exceeding six, and for one horse
or beast of draught, drawing a taxed cart...................... 0 0 6
For every horse or beast of draught, drawing any waggon,
&c., where only one is drawing, and where the carriage
and loading thereof taken together shall not exceed 25
cwt......................................................................” 0 0 4
And where such carriage and loading shall exceed 25 cwt.,
and shall not exceed 30 cwt........................................ 0 0 6
And where any such carriage and loading shall exceed 30
cwt., and shall not exceed 35 cwt................................. 0 0 8
And where any such carriage and loading shall exceed 35
cwt., and shall not exceed 40 cwt................................. 0 0 10
And in addition for every cwt. which such carriage and
No. V.-LEVEN BRIDGE AND ROAD ACT. 53
loading shall weigh above 40 cwt., and not exceeding 45
And for every cwt. which such carriage and loading shall
weigh above 45 cwt ................................................ 0 0 6
And for every horse or other beast of draught that shall be
employed in drawing any such waggon, wain, cart, or
other like carriage, when more than one, for each such
additional horse or beast of draught............................. 0 0 2
For every horse, mule, or ass beast, whereon any person
shall ride............................................................... 0 0 3
For every horse or mule, unladen and not drawing.......... ... 0 0 2%
For every score of oxen or neat cattle............................ . 0 1 8
And so in proportion for any greater or lesser number.
For every score of calves, hogs, sheep, lambs, or goats........ 0 0 10
And so in proportion for any greater or lesser number.
For every carriage, moving or propelled by steam or machi-
nery, or by any other power than animal power.............. 0 2 0”
SECT. XII.-Broad-wheeled waggons of a certain description
to pay two-fifths only of the toll payable by other waggons.
SECT. XIII.--Double tolls for wheels not having a flat sur-
face.
SECT. XIV.-Penalty for drawing timber, except on carriages.
SECT. XV.-Fractional part of a halfpenny in toll to be con-
sidered a halfpenny, and exacted.
SECT. XVI.-Old ferries and fords between the mouth of the
river Leven and the ford known by the name of the Kirkland
Ford, including that ford, to be discontinued.
SECT. XVII.-Occupiers of any farm on both sides of the
river, or their families or servants, may pass and repass the
river, on the business of the farm, without payment of toll.
SECT. XVIII.-Ferry boats to be provided in case of accident
to bridge.
SECT. XIX.—Bridge not to be built until ferries are pur-
chased.
SECT. XX.-Use of Kirkland and Sawmill Ford foot-bridge
continued to occupiers of Kirkland Works and Leven Mills re-
spectively.
54 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XXI.—Annual abstract of accounts to be transmitted
to the sheriff-clerk on or before the 1st January in each year,
showing, under distinct and separate heads, the total receipts
and expenditure of all funds levied under this act during the
year ending on the 11th day of November immediately preceding,
with a statement of the balance of the same, which abstract shall
be open to the inspection of the public on payment to the sheriff-
clerk of a fee of one shilling for each inspection, and one shilling
for each hour of said inspection after the first : Failing the trus-
tees preparing and sending said annual abstract, they shall for-
feit a sum not exceeding forty shillings for each day after the
first of January during which they shall so fail, to be recovered
by summary process by any person who shall prosecute for the
Sællſle.
SECT. XXII-Tolls on bridge to cease when debts paid.
SECT. XXIII.-If land not contracted for within three years,
power to take property on compulsion to cease.
SECT. XXIV.-The monies to be raised under authority of
this act, and also all tolls hereby granted, are to be applied by
the trustees in the order and manner following:—1. In paying
the costs of the act, and of the surveys, plans, sections, and esti-
mates for the bridge and road; 2. In paying the expense of
building the bridge and making the road; 3. After the bridge
and road are completed and open, then the tolls granted by the
act should be applied by the trustees in paying for the mainte-
nance and repair of the bridge and road, and all salaries of offi-
cers and incidental expenses relating to the execution of the act;
4. In paying interest of borrowed money; 5. In providing and
investing a sinking fund to be applied towards the gradual ex-
tinction and liquidation of the debts which might be incurred
under authority of the act.
SECT. XXV-The act to be in force for the term of thirty-one
years, from and after the passing thereof; and from thence to
the end of the then next session of Parliament.
SECT. XXVI.-The act to be a public act.
NO. VI.
RINROSS-SHIRE STATUTE LABOUR ACT.
7 GEO. IV., CAP. 69.
(Royal Assent, 5th May 1826.)
THIS act is intituled “An act for regulating and converting the
statute labour in the county of Kinross, and for more effectually
making and repairing the highways within the said county;” and
the preamble is in these words:
“Whereas an act was passed in the forty-third year of the
reign of his late Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An
act for regulating and converting the statute labour of the county
of Kinross, and for more effectually making and repairing the
highways within the said county :’ And whereas the said act has
expired, and it is expedient and necessary that new and more
extended powers should be granted for regulating and convert-
ing the statute labour of the said county, and making and repair-
ing the highways within the same ; but these purposes cannot be
accomplished without the authority of Parliament: May it there-
fore please,” &c.
SECT. I.-Enacts, “That every person possessed in his own
right, or in the right of his wife, of lands in the said county of
Kinross, entitling him to be a commissioner of supply for the
same ; and the eldest son, or apparent heir, of every person so
qualified, and one of the tutors, curators, or trustees of every pupil,
minor, fatuous or furious person, possessed of land as aforesaid,
and the factor or special mandatory for the time being of every
non-resident heritor possessed of land as aforesaid, in the ab-
sence of his constituent ; shall be trustees or commissioners for
making, altering, widening, repairing, upholding, and keeping in
repair, the great and cross roads, highways, lanes, and bridges,
and for levying and applying the conversion of the statute labour
within the said county, and for executing all the powers by this
act to them given and granted.”
SECT. II.-Appoints the times of meetings of the trustees.
The annual general meeting to be at Kinross on 30th April.
SECT, III.-Power of general meetings to review, direct, and
56 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
control the proceedings of the trustees of the districts; and the
trustees and officers of such districts, on being required, shall
produce the books and accounts of such districts, and a summary
of their proceedings.
SECT. IV.-Debts under former act to be preferable.
SECT. V.-Arrears to be recovered by the trustees of this act.
SECT. VI.-Trustees to have power to compel officers, &c.,
under former act to account.
SECT. VII.-Trustees to appoint a clerk and such other officers
as they shall think necessary, with suitable salaries, to be paid
out of the funds of the different districts, in proportion to their
valued rent.
SECT. VIII.-Enacts, “That for the more easy and effectual
execution of the powers hereby granted, the said county shall be
divided into the three following districts; videlicet, The first or
Kinross district, comprising the parishes of Kinross and Orwell,
and that part of the parish of Forgandenny which lies within
the said county; the second or Portmoak district, comprising
the parish of Portmoak and that part of the parish of Arngask
which lies within the said county; and the third or Cleish dis-
trict, comprising the parish of Cleish and that part of the united
parishes of Fossaway and Tulliebole which lies within the said
county.”
SECT. IX.-Appoints the times of district meetings. The
annual meetings to be—Cleish District, First Friday of April;
Portmoak District, Second Friday; and Kinross District, Third
Friday of April.
SECT. X.-Enacts “That a ploughgate of land within the said
county, in respect of the statute labour, shall be held and deemed
to be equal to fifty acres of land, whether plantations, arable or
pasture lands, or seventy pounds sterling of gross rent, in the
option of the proprietor, and so in proportion for fractional parts
of a ploughgate.”
SECT. XI. & XII.-Power to convert the ploughgates, not
exceeding £1, 5s. Sterling each, to be paid by the heritor or life-
renter, with recourse on the occupier.
Sect. XIII–Conversion of statute labour for chaises and
carts—each four-wheeled chaise, drawn by two or more horses,
No. VI, KINROSS-SHIRE STATUTE LABour ACT. 57
let for hire, at £1, 10s.-each two-wheeled chaise, &c., drawn by
one horse, let for hire, 15s.-all waggons, carts, &c., drawn by
two or more horses, let for hire, 10s.-all waggons, carts, &c.,
drawn by one horse, let for hire, 5s.
SECT. XIV.-In place of personal services, the trustees are
authorised to assess all householders, cottagers, labourers, and
tradesmen of every denomination, in a conversion of such num-
ber of days’ labour, not exceeding six, as shall be considered pro-
portioned to their circumstances: “ declaring that the masters
and employers of all journeymen shall, in the first instance, be
liable in and obliged to pay the conversion of the statute labour
assessed upon the journeymen in their employment, and shall
have recourse for payment thereof upon the said journeymen for
whom they shall be so obliged to pay, and be entitled to the
same diligence for the recovery thereof as is competent to the
trustees for levying the conversion of the statute labour under
this act; but declaring that servants bona fide hired by the year
or the half-year for specific wages, and all householders renting
a house, which, with the yard and other premises, does not ex-
ceed the yearly rent of two pounds sterling, shall be and are
hereby exempted from personal statute services, or payment of
the converted values thereof, altogether; and that it shall be
lawful to and for the said trustees of the said respective districts,
or any three of them, to exempt and free from payment of the
before-mentioned composition of personal statute labour all such
persons within the district to which such trustees belong as shall
appear to be in indigent circumstances, or proper objects to be
exempted from payment thereof.”. -
SECT. XV.-Rate of conversion of days’ labour to be fixed at
annual meetings at any sum not exceeding the ordinary price
of labour in that part of the country.
SECT. XVI.-Heritors to make a return of the number of
ploughgates to the clerks of the several districts, and specify
their option as to the mode of conversion. Power to direct a
valuation to be made where return is considered low. If no re-
turn, trustees to direct a valuation to be made. List of plough-
gates may be amended from time to time.
SECT. XVII.-Power to examine occupiers of land as to their
rent or extent.
SECT. XVIII-Power to appoint persons to make up lists of T
H
58 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
persons within each district keeping chaises, coaches, barouches,
landaus, gigs, waggons, wains, carts, or other carriages, liable in
a conversion of statute labour, and of all householders and
others liable in a conversion for personal services.
SECT. XIX-Clerks of districts to give notice when lists are
completed that they are open to inspection. Persons aggrieved
entitled to appeal. Day of hearing appeals to be fixed.
SECT. XX.-Copies of adjusted lists to be entered in minute-
book, and collector to levy accordingly. Notice of day of collec-
tion. Lists of persons in arrear to be made up, and the sheriff
or a justice of the peace to grant summary warrant for recovery
thereof. Proprietors advancing statute labour money entitled to
like diligence against tenants.
SECT. XXI.-Persons obtaining warrants improperly to be
liable in damages. Collectors liable if proper diligence be not
done. -
SECT, XXII.-Statute labour money shall be expended upon
the roads and bridges within the districts for which the same
shall be levied. When bridges or roads are within two districts,
both districts liable in proportions to be fixed at meeting of dis-
tricts interested.
SECT. XXIII.-List of roads for repair to be made up. No-
tice of application to have a new road added to list, &c. Any
trustee or other person may appeal against a resolution of the
meeting, inserting, or refusing to insert, a new road on the list.
SECT. XXIV.-Power to borrow money.
SECT. XXV.-Power to assign the funds in security of money
borrowed.
SECT. XXVI.-Form of bond of assignation.
SECT. XXVII.-Bonds to be transferable by indorsation.
Form of transfer.
SECT. XXVIII.-Trustees not personally liable for money
borrowed.
No. VI.-KINROSS-SHIRE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 59
SECT. XXIX.-Funds vested in trustees. Funds of each dis-
trict to be applied within the same.
Szot. XXX-Funds to be allocated to different roads. Allo-
cation not to be altered till money borrowed thereon be paid off.
SECT. XXXI.-Allocation to be made on application of one
or more trustees or other respectable persons, and those apply-
ing to be answerable for proper expenditure.
SECT. XXXII.-Allocation to be applied to the road for
which granted. -
SECT. XXXIII-Allocation not to be paid till work com-
mences, when it may be drawn by instalments by order of the
persons to whom granted on the collector of the district.
SECT. XXXIV.-Vouched accounts of expenditure to be
lodged with the clerk to the district.
SECT. XXXV.-Unappropriated or unexpended money shall
remain at the disposal of the trustees of the district.
SECT. XXXVI.-Trustees of each district to appoint clerks,
collectors, surveyor, and other officers, for carrying this act into
execution.
SECT. XXXVII.-Orders and proceedings to be entered in
books, which shall be open for inspection. Books to be evi-
dence.
SECT. XXXVIII.-Books of account to be kept by the dis-
trict clerks, and to be open for the inspection of trustees and
creditors without fee or reward; and the trustees or creditors
shall or may take copies of or extracts from the books, or any
parts thereof, without paying anything for the same. Clerk
refusing inspection shall forfeit a penalty not exceeding five
pounds.
SECT. XXXIX.-Officers to account and pay balances when
required, otherwise diligence by poinding ; which failing, the
sheriff or justices shall commit the defaulter to the house of cor-
rection, or common jail of the county, for a period not exceeding
six calendar months.
60 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XL.-Penalty of twenty pounds on unqualified persons
acting as trustees.
SECT. XLI.-No trustee to hold any place of profit under the
like penalty, and trustees at all meetings shall defray their own
charges and expenses of every kind.
SECT. XLII.—Same person not to be clerk and treasurer un-
der the penalty of one hundred pounds.
SECT. XLIII.-Power to alter and repair roads and bridges
within the districts, and to make new lines with bridges there-
upon, with power to widen any of the roads through unenclosed
ground, or ground enclosed on one side only, to the breadth of
thirty feet, including ditches or water runs, without any recom-
pense from the trustees; with power to increase breadth to forty
feet upon the trustees making reasonable compensation.
SECT. XLIV.-Incorporated persons, &c., empowered to convey,
SECT. XLV-Gardens, &c., not to be encroached upon without
consent.
SECT. XLVI.--When persons neglect or refuse to treat, the
value to be ascertained by the sheriff and a jury.
SECT. XLVII.-Expenses of proceedings before a jury.
SECT. XLVIII.-Jurymen and witnesses refusing or failing
to attend liable in a penalty not exceeding five pounds.
SECT. XLIX-Lands, houses, and other premises, required
by the respective trustees, in pursuance of this act, shall be
vested in them by discharge of the price or value or by consig-
nation.
SECT. L. to LII.-Application of compensation money.
SECT. L.III.-Court may order expenses of purchases to be
paid by the trustees.
SECT. LIV.-In case of not making out titles, &c.
SECT. L.V.--Where questions rise touching the title.
SECT. LVI.-Power, on fifteen days' notice, to carry roads
through ministers’ glebes upon adding a corresponding quantity,
according to the determination of the sheriff and jury.
No. VI.-KINROSS-SHIRE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 61
SECT. LVII.-Valued rent not altered in respect of ground
taken.
SECT. LVIII.-Old roads to be shut up on application to
justices of the peace, and ground disposed of for the purposes of
this act.
SECT. LIX.—Ground not wanted to be offered to the person
from whom it was originally purchased, or to the adjoining pro-
prietor, at a valuation.
SECT. LX.—Power to trustees to get materials for making or
repairing roads and foot-paths, or building or repairing any
bridge, &c., from any common land or waste without paying any-
thing—the trustees filling up the pits or quaries, and levelling or
fencing, and paying or tendering damage done by going through
enclosed or arable land, &c.
SECT. LXI.-Notice to be given before materials taken from
enclosed lands, rivers, or water-courses.
SECT. LXII.-Penalties not exceeding five pounds on persons
carrying off materials.
SECT. I, XIII.-Power to make and maintain side drains so as
to be least injurious to the adjoining proprietor or occupier.
SECT. LXIV.-Power to make side ditches and water-courses.
SECT. LXV.—Bridges to be made on sides of roads.
SECT. LXVI.--Water, &c., to be conducted across the road as
prescribed by trustees.
SECT. LXVII.—Power to carry off nuisances laid on road.
SECT. LXVIII.-Trees and hedges on side of road to be pruned
by the proprietor or occupier—the hedges to the height of five feet
from the level of the road, &c.
SECT. LXIX.-Provisions against encroachments on road.
SECT. LXX.—Notice of building on side of road to be given.
SECT. LXXI.—Mile-stones and direction-posts may be erected,
and penalty not exceeding five pounds to be paid by any person
wilfully injuring the same,
62 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTEs.
SECT. LXXII.-Persons committing nuisances on roads to for-
feit a sum not exceeding forty shillings.
SECT. LXXIII.-Regulations for drivers.
SECT. LXXIV.-Contractors, &c., not to lay nuisances on road.
SECT. LXXV.-Proprietors to fence pits within twelve feet of
any road under penalty not exceeding five pounds per day.
SECT. LXXVI.-Animals not to be pastured on roads under
penalty not exceeding five shillings and expenses.
SECT. LXXVII.-Side ridges to be made.
SECT. LXXVIII.-Gates to open inwards.
SECT. LXXIX.-Trustees to erect parapets.
SECT. LXXX.—Windmills, &c., not to be erected on sides of
road.
SECT. LXXXI.-Owners of waggons, &c., to cause their names
to be painted thereon.
SECT. LXXXII.-Damages and charges in cases of dispute to
be settled by justices.
SECT. LXXXIII.-In case of non-payment of compensation
for damages, &c., by the trustees, &c., the same to be levied on
the goods vested in the trustees, &c., or their treasurer.
SECT. LXXXIV.-Power to secure transient offenders.
SECT. LXXXV.-Prosecutors to recover by action before the
sheriff or justices of Kinross-shire.
SECT. LXXXVI.-Mode of recovery of penalties.
SECT. LXXXVII.-By summary process.
SECT. LXXXVIII.-Power to appeal on ten days’ notice.
SECT. LXXXIX.-Judgment of sheriff and quarter sessions to
be final.
SECT, XC.—Prosecution to be within six months.
No. VI.-KINROSS-SHIRE STATUTE LABOUR ACT. 63
SECT. XCI.-Trustees may act as justices or jurymen.
SECT. XCII.-Indemnity for acts done since expiry of the
former act 43 Geo. III., c. 56.
SECT. XCIII.—Trustees shall sue and be sued in name of their
district clerks, except in any question involving the interest of the
whole districts, or any two of them, in which case the trustees
shall sue and be sued in the name of the clerk for the trustees
of the county.
SECT. XCIV.-Expenses of act to be assessed on the proprie-
tors or life-renters of the county of Kinross in proportion to their
valued rents.
SECT. XCV.-Public act,
NO. VII.
KIN R O S S-S H I R. E., &c. R O A D S.
1 AND 2 WILL. IV., CAP. 71.
(Royal Assent, 6th September, 1831.)
THIS act is intituled “An act for more effectually making and
repairing certain roads in the counties of Fife, Kinross, Perth,
and Clackmannan ; ” and its preamble is in these words:—
“Whereas an act was passed in the fiftieth year of the reign of
his Majesty George the Third, intituled ‘An act for more
effectually making and repairing certain roads in the counties of
Fife, Perth, Kinross, and Clackmannan:’ And whereas another
act was passed in the fourth year of the reign of his late Majesty
King George the Fourth, intituled ‘An act for regulating turn-
pike roads in that part of Great Britain called Scotland:’ And
whereas the trustees appointed by the said first-recited act have
proceeded to put the same in execution, and considerable pro-
gress has been made in making, amending, repairing, and main-
taining, the roads therein mentioned; on which purposes they
have expended considerable sums of money, which they have bor-
rowed on the credit of the tolls and duties granted by the said
first-recited act—a large portion of which sums of money is still
due and owing, and cannot be repaid, nor can the said roads be
completed, and repaired, and kept in repair, unless the powers
conferred by the said first-recited act be continued and enlarged;
but the same cannot be effected without the aid and authority of
Parliament: May it therefore please,” &c.
SECT. I.-Repeals the said act 50 Geo. III., cap. 72.
SECT. II.-Enacts, “That instead of the said act hereby
repealed, this present act shall, from and after the passing hereof,
commence, take effect, and be put in execution, for and during
the term hereinafter mentioned, for the purpose of surveying,
making, amending, improving, widening, altering, straightening,
repairing, and keeping in repair, the following roads, made, or
authorised to be made, by the said first-recited act of the fiftieth
year of the reign of his Majesty George the Third, viz.:-
“l. The road from Dunfermline by Lochend, Balmule, and Nivingston, to
.#ºth Road at the Bridge of Kinross, and to the Alloa road west
O 10016: .
No. VII. KINROSS-SHIRE, ETC. ROADS. 65.
“2. The road from Saline to the Great North Road, commonly called the
Stone Gang Road:
“3. The road from the Great North Road at or near where the road from
Saline joins it, east till it shall join the road leading from the Plasterer's
Inn to the Kirk of Beath (a):
“4. The road from the Nivingston Road at or near Burt's coal-hill, by
Lochend, Redcraigs, Outh, Hillside, and Powmill, towards Auchterarder, as
far as Yetts of Muckhart:
“5. The road from the Townhill Road, near the Town Green of Dunferm-
line, by Bellyoman, King's Seat, and north of Meikle Beath, until it shall
join the Great North Road south of the Kirk of Beath, and that branch of
the road leading by Lassodie Mill north of Cant's-dam, until it shall join the
Great North Road north of Netherton (b):
“6. The road from the Dunfermline and Saline turnpike road, at or near
Bambo bridge, through the lands of Carnock, Comrie, West Grange, and
Brucefield, until it shall join the turnpike road leading from the town of
Kincardine to the town of Alloa, at or near the village of Kennet:
“7. The road leading from the said Dunfermline and Saline turnpike road
near West Luscar, by Clune, Drumtuthil, Coaltown, and Lochend, to the
Dunfermline and Nivingston Road near Meldrum's Mill, with that branch
of road leading from the last-mentioned line by Craigluscar and Myriehall
to the Saline or Stone Gang Road (c):
* 8. The road from the Hillfoot Road at a point about a mile west from
Dollar, by upper Sheardale, Mellock, the Forest Mill, Hareshaw Mill, south
to or near Whitehills, Burwen, or Rantrey Wood, until it shall join the turn-
pike road from Newmill to Kincardine (d):
“9. The road from the Hillfoot Road by Carnbo and Thomanean to the
Great North Road, with a branch from the same until it shall join the
Kinross and Alloa Road at or near Tulliebole :
“10. The road from the Great North Road to Cupar by Auehtermuchty:
* 11. The road from Auchtermuchty by Mournipea, Lumquhat Mill, and
Pitcairly, to Den Mill, where it joins the Newburgh turnpike road; with a
braneh from Pitcairly, by Weddersbie Den, to the said road leading from
the Great North Road to Cupar, near Rossie; with the branch of road from
Pitcairly by Macduff's Cross, to the road from Abernethy to Newburgh:
“12. The road from the Great North Road, at or near Blairathort, by Kin-
neswood and Scotland-well, to the town of Leslie, with the branches thereof
to Milnathort and Kinross, by Burleigh and Lethangie:
“13. The road leading from the said road by Kinneswood and Scotland-
well to Leslie, across the Gullet Bridge, east of Kirkness to Kinglassie :
“14. The road from Leslie to Nivingston through the lands of Balbedie,
HKirkness, the Bracklys, and by Barns, through the Red Moss; and the
road from Kirkness, by the Shank of Navity and the Binn to the Great
North Road; and for carrying into effect the several other purposes herein-
after mentioned, according to the true intent and meaning of this act.”
SECT. III.—Power of recited act (4 Geo. IV., cap. 49) extended
to this act.
[This—4 Geo. IV., cap. 49—was the first general turnpike act for Scotland;
and it has since been repealed and replaced by the existing general turn-
pike act—l and 2 Will. IV., cap. 43.
SECT. IV.—Enacts, “That the justices of the peace and com-
missioners of supply of each of the said respective counties of
#: c d.—The act has not been put in operation as to these roads—Nos. 3, 5, 7,
and 8.
* s
66 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
Perth, Kinross, Fife, and Clackmannan, and every heritor of
those counties, being, or who shall be during the continuance of
this act, in his own right or the right of his wife, in the actual
possession of the dominium wtile of lands valued in the cess-books
thereof at one hundred pounds Scots or upwards, and the eldest
son of every such heritor; as also one of the guardians or trus-
tees of every minor possessed of lands of the valuation aforesaid;
as also every person in whom lands of the valuation aforesaid are
vested in trust, but where such lands are so wested in more than
one person, then only one of such persons; as also the chief
magistrate of the royal burghs of Cupar and Dunfermline for the
time being, and the sheriff of each of the said counties—shall be,
and they are hereby, appointed trustees for putting this act, and
all and every the powers and authorities hereby granted, into
execution.”
SECT. V.—Appointed the first meeting of the trustees under
the act to be held at Kinross on the fourth Wednesday after the
passing of the act, and an annual general meeting of the trustees
to be held at Kinross on the third Wednesday of April thereafter
—three a quorum of all meetings.
SECT. VI.-Trustees authorised to name committees “for the
more immediate direction and management of the affairs of the
different lines of road before described”—any two of such com-
mittee a quorum. The committees to have power to let the toll-
duties leviable on such road.
- SECT. VII.-Trustees may sue and be sued in name of their
clerk and treasurer.
SECT. VIII-Tolls and duties to be liable for former and
future debts.
SECT. IX.-Covenants and agreements under former acts to
continue in force.
SECT. X.-Books, &c. to be given in evidence.
SECT. XI.-Former officers continued until first meeting.
SECT. XII.-No person holding any official situation under this
act—as clerk, treasurer, receiver, collector, superintendent, or
surveyor—shall directly or indirectly hold any interest in any
contract under the act, under the penalty of one hundred pounds
sterling.
> *
No. VII.-KINROSS-SHIRE, ETC. ROADS. 67
SECT. XIII.-Officers under former acts to account.
SECT. XIV.-Enacts, “That the said trustees, or any person or
persons authorised and appointed by them, are hereby empowered
to demand and take, and cause to be demanded and taken, at
each of the gates or turnpikes already set up and erected, or
which may hereafter be set up and erected, in virtue of the said
recited act of the fourth year of the reign of his late Majesty
King George the Fourth, and of this act, a sum not exceeding the
tolls, rates, or duties hereinafter specified, before any horse or
carriage, or other beast or vehicle in respect of which the same
shall be payable, shall be allowed to pass through any such gate
or turnpike ; that is to say—
“For every horse or other beast of draught, when more than two, drawing
any coach, barouche, chariot, landau, chaise, hearse, or any other such four-
wheeled carriage, a sum not exceeding one shilling and sixpence:
“For every horse or other beast of draught, when only two, drawing any
coach, barouche, chariot, landau, chaise, hearse, or any other such four-
wheeled carriage, a sum not exceeding one shilling:
“For every horse or other beast of draught, when only one, drawing any
coach, barouche, chariot, landau, chaise, hearse, or any such four-wheeled
carriage, a sum not exceeding one shilling:
“For every person who shall be sitting upon any coach-box, barouche-
seat, or other seat on the outside of any four-wheeled carriage, not being a
stage-coach and not driving the same, if drawn by six horses or other beasts
of draught, a sum not exceeding sixpence; if drawn by four horses or other
beasts of draught, a sum not exceeding twopence; and if drawn by two
horses or other beasts of draught, a sum not exceeding one penny:
“For every horse or other beast of draught drawing any chaise, curricle,
chair, or other such-like carriage with two wheels, when drawn by more
than one horse or other beast of draught, a sum not exceeding one shilling;
and when drawn by only one horse or other beast of draught, a sum not
exceeding ninepence; and in addition to the said rates respectively:
“For every stage-coach, long-coach, diligence, or carriage of the like
kind, drawn by two horses, and licensed or employed to carry not more than
six inside passengers, and having no outside passengers, a sum not exceeding
one penny; and having outside passengers at any time or for any part of the
journey, for every such outside passenger a sum not exceeding one halfpenny:
“For every stage-coach, long-coach, diligence, or carriage of the like
kind, and drawn by three or more horses, and licensed or employed to carry
not more than four inside passengers, and having not more than two outside
passengers, a sum not exceeding sixpence :
“If more than four inside passengers, and having not less than two, nor
more than five outside passengers, a sum not exceeding eightpence half-
penny; and for every outside passenger above five a sum not exceeding one
€nn V -
pe, If more than four and not more than six inside passengers, and having
not more than two outside passengers, a sum not exceeding tenpence:
“If more than four and not more than six inside passengers, and having
not less than two or more than five outside passengers, a sum not exceeding
one shilling and twopence; and for every outside passenger above five a
sum not exceeding one penny halfpenny:
“If licensed or employed to carry more than six and not more than eight
inside passengers, and having not more than two outside passengers, a sum
not exceeding one shilling and twopence:

68 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTEs.
“If more than six and not more than eight inside passengers, and having
not less than two nor more than five outside passengers, a sum not exceeding
one shilling and ninepence; and for every outside passenger more than five
a sum not exceeding twopence:
“If more than eight and not more than ten inside passengers, and having
not more than two outside passengers, a sum not exceeding one shilling and
elevenpence:
“If more than eight and not more than ten inside passengers, and having
not less than two and not more than five outside passengers, a sum not
exceeding two shillings and eightpence halfpenny; and for every outside
passenger more than five a sum not exceeding twopence halfpenny:
“If more than ten inside passengers, and having not more than two out-
side passengers, a sum not exceeding two shillings and tenpence; and for
every additional inside passenger above ten, having two outside, a sum not
exceeding fourpence; and for every additional outside passenger above two,
and licensed to carry ten inside passengers, a sum not exceeding three-
pence:
“For every waggon or other such-like carriage, where any such-like
carriage and the loading thereof taken together shall not exceed sixteen
hundred weight, a sum not exceeding fourpence:
“And where such carriage and loading shall exceed sixteen hundred
weight, and shall not exceed twenty hundred weight, a sum not exceeding
sixpence:
“And where such carriage and loading shall exceed twenty hundred
weight, and shall not exceed twenty-two hundred weight, a sum not exceed-
ing eightpence:
“And where such carriage and loading shall exceed twenty-two hundred
weight, and shall not exceed twenty-five hundred weight, a sum not exceed-
ing ninepence: -
“And in addition to the said tolls there shall be levied, and taken in all
cases where such carriage and loading shall exceed twenty-five hundred
weight, and shall not exceed thirty hundred weight, a sum not exceeding
one penny for every one hundred weight which such carriage and loading
shall weigh above twenty-five hundred weight:
“And for every one hundred weight which such carriage and loading
shall weigh above thirty hundred weight, and not exceeding forty hundred
weight, a sum not exceeding twopence:
“And for every hundred weight which such carriage and loading shall
weigh above forty hundred weight, a sum not exceeding one shilling:
“And in addition to the above rates upon every such waggon, cart, or
other such carriage, for every horse or other beast of draught which shall be
employed in drawing the same, a sum not exceeding one penny:
“For every saddle-horse, or other beast of burden, a sum not exceeding
threepence:
“For every horse, or other beast of burden, laden or unladen, and not
drawing, a sum not exceeding twopence halfpenny:
“For every ox or neat cattle, a sum not exceeding one penny:
“For every calf, hog, sheep, lamb, or goat, a sum not exceeding one half-
penny:
“For every horse, or other beast of draught, drawing any waggon, cart,
or other such-like carriage, of such an unusual form as to render the ordi-
nary weighing-machine used at the toll-bar not capable of weighing it, a
sum not exceeding one shilling.”
SECT. XV.-Power to exempt waggons, &c., having certain
breadth of wheels from certain proportions of the tolls.
No. VII.—KINROSS-SHIRE, ETC. ROADS. 69
SECT. XVI-Tolls to be paid only once a-day for passing and
repassing—the day to be computed from twelve at night to
twelve of the succeeding night, “unless the same shall so pass
with a new loading or rider, in which case they shall pay every
time they so pass.” Proviso as to horses drawing stage-
coaches.
SECT. XVII.-Tolls to be leviable only once in six miles—the
party producing a ticket to show that toll had been paid at a
gate within the distance of six miles.
SECT. XVIII.--—“Provided nevertheless, and be it enacted,
That nothing herein contained shall prevent the said trustees, if
they shall deem it expedient, from levying or causing to be levied
the tolls and duties hereby granted at any gate or gates specified
in the schedule annexed to this act, marked (A), although within
six miles of each other, or although within six miles of any other
gate or gates now existing, or which may be hereafter erected
under this act, and also at any gate or gates not specified in the
said schedule, although within six miles of any gate or gates
therein specified.”
SECT. XIX.-Old rates to continue till the first general meet-
ing under this act.
SECT. XX.-Power to erect fences and side bars.
SECT. XXI-Power to shut up unnecessary bye-roads.
SECT. XXII.--Tolls and duties, together with the property of
every gate or turnpike, toll-house, building, garden, bridge,
mile-stone, post, rail, and all road materials, and every other
matter and thing belonging to the said roads, shall be vested in
the trustees appointed by virtue of this act.
SECT. XXIII.-Persons liable by any particular law or custom
in repair of roads or bridges to continue so.
SECT. XXIV.-4: And be it enacted, That in case any sum or
sums of money shall hereafter be given or applied from the funds
raised by the conversion of the statute labour of the county of
Fife to the improvement or repair of the said road from the
Great North Road to Cupar by Auchtermuchty, a sum not less
than one-tenth part of the sum so applied shall be given and
applied for the same purpose, from the funds raised by the con-
version of the statute labour of the county of Kinross.”
70 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
*
SECT. XXV-Enacts that the produce of the tolls shall, after
payment of the expenses of the act, be applied towards making
and maintaining the roads, after paying interest of money bor-
rowed, and establishing a sinking fund for payment thereof, to
such extent as the trustees think necessary. Penalty for misap-
plication of the funds.
SECT. XXVI.-Expenses of act to be paid out of the first and
readiest monies received, levied, or borrowed, by virtue of this
act, “in proportions corresponding to the amount of the tolls
and duties levied on the said several roads.”
SECT. XXVII.-Public act.
SECT. XXVIII.-The powers of this act shall commence from
the passing thereof, and continue during thirty-one years, and
from thence to the end of the next session of Parliament.
“SCHEDULE (A)—Referred to in this act.
“Description and situation of toll-gates at which toll is to be
demanded and levied, although the said gates may be at
present or hereafter situated within six miles of each other or
of any other gate or gates not herein specified.
“1. The toll-bar at or near Pitcairly, on the road from Auch-
termuchty by Mournipea, Lumquhat Mill, and Pitcairly to Den
Mill
“2. The toll-bar at or near Cuthil-Muir, on the road from the
Great North Road to Cupar by Auchtermuchty.
“3. The toll-bar at Milnathort, on the road from the Hillfoot
Road by Carnbo and Thomanean to Milnathort.
“4. The eastern toll-bar and the Saline side bar on the “road
from the Dunfermline and Saline turnpike road at or near Bambo
Bridge, through the lands of Carnock, &c., to the turnpike road
leading from Kincardine to Alloa at or near the village of
Kennet.’
“5. The Carslogie toll-bar on the road from the Great North
Road to Cupar by Auchtermuchty.”
[Solicitors for the act—Moncrieff, Webster, and Thomson,
1, Old Palace Yard, Westminster.]
NO. VIII.
T H E G R. E. A. T N OR T H R O A D A C T.
10 GEo. IV., CAP. 61.
(Royal Assent, 14th May 1829.)
THIS act is intituled an “An act for more effectually making,
amending, widening, repairing, and maintaining the Great North
Roads leading from the North Queensferry and from the harbour
of Burntisland, both in the county of Fife, by Kinross, to the
city of Perth; and also the road from the said North Queens-
ferry to the town of Dunfermline; ” and the preamble is in these
words:
“Whereas an act was passed in the forty-ninth year of the
reign of his late Majesty King George the Third (1809), intituled
‘An act for more effectually making and repairing the Great North
Road leading from the North Queensferry in the county of Fife
to the city of Perth and to the town of Dunfermline:’ And
whereas another act was passed in the second year of the reign of
his present Majesty King George the Fourth (1821), intituled “An
act to consolidate an act for making and repairing the road leading
from the North Queensferry in the county of Fife to the city of
Perth and to the town of Dunfermline, with an act for making
and repairing certain roads in the counties of Fife, Kinross,
Perth, and Clackmannan:’ And whereas another act was passed in
the fourth year of the reign of his present Majesty King George
the Fourth, intituled ‘An act for regulating turnpike roads in
that part of Great Britain called Scotland:’ And whereas the
said two first-recited acts have, by the trustees therein appointed,
been put into execution, and the roads therein mentioned have
been altered, amended, repaired, and maintained, for which pur-
poses various sums of money have been borrowed on the credit
of the tolls by the said two first-recited acts granted and made
payable, which sums of money still remain due and owing; but,
as the said two first-recited acts are about to expire, such sums
of money cannot be repaid, nor can the said roads be effectually
made, amended, maintained, and kept in repair, nor certain in-
tended alterations and improvements thereon be carried into
effect, unless the powers conferred by the said two first-recited
acts be continued and enlarged, which cannot be effected without
the aid and authority of Parliament: May it therefore,” &c.
sk
72 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. I.-Repeals the said recited acts of the 49th Geo. III.,
cap. 31, and 2d Geo. IV., cap. 28. g
SECT. II.-Enacts, that from and after the passing of this
act it shall take effect and be put in execution for surveying,
making, &c., the “Great North Roads leading from the North
Queensferry in the county of Fife to the city of Perth, and from
the harbour of Burntisland, also in the county of Fife, to the city
of Perth, and also the road from the said North Queensferry to
the town of Dunfermline, for making and maintaining an altera-
tion in the line of the said Great North Road in that part of it
between Kinross and Perth which is situated in the county of
Rinross, and for carrying into effect,” &c.
SECT. III.-Enacts that the powers of the recited general
turnpike act 4th Geo. IV., cap. 49 (since repealed and super-
seded by 1st and 2d Will. IV., cap. 43), shall be extended to
this act.
SECT. IV.-Enacts, “That the justices of the peace and com-
missioners of supply for each of the said respective counties of
Perth, Fife, and Kinross, and every heritor of those counties,
being in his own right or in the right of his wife in the aetual
possession of the dominium utile of lands valued in the cess-books
thereof at one hundred pounds Scots or upwards, and the eldest
son of every such heritor; as also one of the guardians or trus-
tees of every minor possessed of lands of the valuation aforesaid;
as also the Lord Provost of the city of Perth and the chief ma-
gistrate of each of the royal burghs of Inverkeithing and Burnt-
island for the time being, the sheriff-depute of each of the said
counties, and in the absence of the sheriff-depute of Fifeshire the
sheriff-substitute of the western district or division of the same,
and in the absence of the sheriff-depute of Perthshire the Sheriff-
substitute of the eastern district or division of the same, and in
the absence of the sheriff-depute of Kinross-shire the sheriff-
substitute of the same, shall be and they are hereby appointed
trustees for putting this act, and all and every the powers and
authorities hereby granted, into execution.”
SECT. V.-Oath of qualification of trustees.
SECT. VI.-First meeting of trustees to be held at Kinross on
the fourth Wednesday after the passing of the act, and an annual
general meeting of the trustees shall be held on the third Wed-
nesday in April in all succeeding years during the continuance
of this act; “provided always, that if it be the intention of any
of the said trustees to propose at such annual general meetings
*
No. VIII.-GREAT NORTH ROAD ACT. 73
any alteration of the present toll-bars, or the duties to be col-
lected thereat, or the erection of any new toll-bars, two at least
of the said trustees shall be bound to give sufficient notice
thereof in writing to the clerk of the said trustees, to enable him
to give notice thereof in any two newspapers published in Edin-
burgh at least fourteen days before the day of such meeting,
which advertisements shall specify the names of the trustees by
whom such notice is given, and the business which they mean to
bring before the same.”
SECT. VII.-The trustees, or the major part of them present
at any meeting, shall have power to adjourn, and at all annual or
special general meetings six trustees shall be a quorum—two of
those present being of the county of Perth, two of the county of
Fife, and two of the county of Kinross; if there shall not be such
quorum at any meeting, then the clerk, by notice to be affixed on
all the turnpike-gates on the said roads, and also by advertise-
ment in two newspapers published in Edinburgh, shall appoint
the trustees to meet ; at such meeting so to be called by the
clerk, any two or more trustees then attending, though they should
not form a quorum before specified, nor be from the different
counties, are authorised to proceed and transact business.
SECT. VIII.-* The tolls and duties hereby authorised to be
levied shall be and are hereby made subject and liable to the
payment of all sums of money now due and owing, or which may
become due or owing, on the credit of the said two first-recited
acts hereby repealed, and also to the payment of all money which
shall or may hereafter be borrowed on the credit of this act, and
of all interest due and to become due for the said sums respec-
tively.”
SECT. IX.-Covenants and agreements under former acts to
continue in force.
SECT X.—Books, &c., to be evidence.
SECT. XI.-Former officers, except treasurers, to continue;
without prejudice to the treasurer's re-election.
SECT. XII.-Treasurer and clerk not to be the same person.
SECT. XIII.-All persons who have been employed, or who
shall have received any tolls or other monies, under the two
repealed acts, to account.
# k
74 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XIV.-Map or plan of the proposed alteration on that
part of the Great North Road betwixt Kinross and Perth, and of
the intended new line, to be lodged with the clerk of the peace,
to remain there, and be open to inspection.
SECT. XV.-Omissions or misnomers not to prevent execution
of the act.
SECT. XVI.-Trustees may enter upon lands for making roads.
SECT. XVII-Trustees not to deviate from plan beyond a
certain extent.
SECT. XVIII.-Houses, &c., not to be taken without consent
of the owners.
SECT. XIX-Property not to be taken after five years.
SECT. XX.-Power to alter lines with consent of the owners
of property.
SECT. XXI.—“And be it further enacted, That the said trus-
tees shall be and they are hereby empowered to continue or to
erect gates or turnpikes at the sides of and across the said roads,
and from time to time to alter the situation of such gates or turn-
pikes, or any of them : Provided nevertheless, that the site of the
first turnpike or gate at the side of and across the said North
Road nearest the North Queensferry shall be north of the point
where the road leading from Inverkeithing by Aberdour joins the
said road; and the said trustees, and person or persons duly
appointed or authorised by them, are hereby authorised and
empowered to demand and take, or cause to be demanded or
taken, at each of such gates or turnpikes already set up and
erected, or which may hereafter be set up and erected, in virtue
of this act, a sum not exceeding the tolls, rates, or duties follow-
ing, videlicet:—
“For every horse or other beast of draught, when more than two, draw-
ing any coach, barouche, chariot, landau, chaise, hearse, or any other such
four-wheeled carriage, a sum not exceeding one shilling and sixpence:
“For every horse or other beast of draught, when only two, drawing any
coach, barouche, chariot, landau, chaise, hearse, or any other such four-
wheeled carriage, a sum not exceeding one shilling:
“For every horse or other beast of draught, when only one, drawing any
coach, barouche, chariot, landau, chaise, hearse, or any other sueh four-
wheeled carriage, a sum not exceeding ninepence:
“For every person who shall be sitting upon any coach-box, barouche-
seat, or other seat on the outside of any four-wheeled carriage, not being a
3%
No. VIII.—GREAT NORTH ROAD ACT. 75
stage-coach, and not driving the same, if drawn by six horses or other beasts
of draught, a sum not exceeding sixpence; if drawn by four horses or other
beasts of draught, a sum not exceeding twopence; if drawn by two horses or
other beasts of draught, a sum not exceeding one penny:
“For every horse or other beast of draught drawing any chaise, curricle,
chair, or other such-like carriage with two wheels, when drawn by more than
one horse or other beast of draught, a sum not exceeding one shilling; and
when drawn by only one horse or other beast of draught, a sum not exceed-
ing ninepence:
“And in addition to the said rates respectively—
“For every stage-coach, long-coach, diligence, or carriage of the like kind,
drawn by two horses, and licensed or employed to carry not more than six
inside passengers, and having no outside passengers, a sum not exceeding
one penny; and having outside passengers at any time, or for any part of the
journey, for every such outside passenger a sum not exceeding one half-
penny: *
“For every stage-coach, long-coach, diligence, or carriage of the like kind,
and drawn by three or more horses, and licensed or employed to carry not
more than four inside passengers, and having not more than two outside pas-
sengers, a sum not exceeding fivepence:
“If not more than four inside passengers, and having not less than two
nor more than five outside passengers, a sum not exceeding eightpence
halfpenny; and for every outside passenger above five a sum not
exceeding one penny:
“If more than four and not more than six inside passengers, and having
not more than two outside passengers, a sum not exceeding tempence:
“If more than four and not more than six inside passengers, and having
not less than two nor more than five outside passengers, a sum not
exceeding one shilling and twopence; and for every outside passenger
above five a sum not exceeding one penny halfpenny:
“If licensed or employed to carry more than six and not more than eight
inside passengers, and having not more than two outside passengers, a
sum not exceeding one shilling and twopence:
“If more than six and not more than eight inside passengers, and having
not less than two nor more than five outside passengers, a sum not
exceeding one shilling and ninepence; and for every outside passenger
more than five a sum not exceeding twopence:
“If more than eight and not more than ten inside passengers, and having
not more than two outside passengers, a sum not exceeding one shilling
and elevenpence:
“If more than eight and not more than ten inside passengers, and having
not less than two and not more than five outside passengers, a sum not
exceeding two shillings and eightpence halfpenny; and for every out-
side passenger more than five a sum not exceeding twopence half-
penny:
“If more than ten inside passengers, and having not more than two out-
side, a sum not exceeding two shillings and tenpence; and for every
additional inside passenger above ten, having two outside, a sum not
exceeding fourpence; and for every additional outside passenger above
two, and licensed to carry ten inside passengers, a sum not exceeding
threepence :
“For every waggon, cart, or other such-like carriage, where any such
carriage and the loading thereof taken together shall not exceed sixteen
hundred weight, a sum not exceeding fourpence :
“And where such carriage and loading shall exceed sixteen hundred
weight, and shall not exceed twenty hundred weight, a sum not exceed-
ing sixpence:
ić
76 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATURES.
e
“And where such carriage and loading shall exceed twenty hundred
weight, and shall not exceed twenty-two hundred weight, a sum not
exceeding eightpence:
“And where such carriage and loading shall exceed twenty-two hundred
weight, and shall not exceed twenty-five hundred weight, a sum not
exceeding ninepence:
“And in addition to the said tolls there shall be levied and taken, in
all cases where such carriage and loading exceed twenty-five hundred
weight, and shall not exceed thirty hundred weight, a sum not exceeding one
penny for every one hundred weight which such carriage and loading shall
weigh above twenty-five hundred weight:
“And for every one hundred weight which such carriage and loading shall
weigh above thirty hundred weight, and not exceed forty hundred
weight, a sum not exceeding twopence:
“And for every hundred weight which such carriage and loading shall
weigh above forty hundred weight, a sum not exceeding one shilling:
“And in addition to the above rates upon every such waggon, cart, or
other such carriage, for every horse or other beast of draught that shall
be employed in drawing the same, a sum not exceeding one penny:
“For every saddle-horse or other beast of burden, a sum not exceeding
threepence :
“For every other horse or other beast of burden, laden or unladen, and
not drawing, a sum not exceeding twopence halfpenny:
“For every drove of oxen or neat cattle, a sum not exceeding one shilling
and eightpence per score, and so in proportion for any greater or less
number:
“For every drove of calves, hogs, sheep, lambs, or goats, a sum not exceed-
ing tenpence per score, and so in proportion for any greater or less number:
“For every horse or other beast of draught drawing any waggon, cart, or
other such-like carriage, for the weighing of which no machine is or shall be
provided, a sum not exceeding one shilling.”
SECT. XXII.-Regulations concerning breadth of carriage
wheels. Certain broad wheels to pay only two third parts of
the tolls above granted, others only one half of the tolls above
granted. “Every person claiming the privileges granted to broad-
wheeled carriages shall permit the same to be examined and
measured by any person employed in the collection of the said
tolls.”
SECT. XXIII-Tolls to be paid once a-day for passing and
returning, to be computed from twelve at night to twelve of the
succeeding night, unless the same shall so pass with a new load-
ing, in which case they shall pay every time they so pass.
Proviso as to horses drawing stage-coaches, &c.
SECT. XXIV.--Tolls to be leviable once only in the six miles
upon producing the proper ticket, “save and except at the first
and second turnpike gates or toll-bars nearest the North Queens-
ferry, at which the tolls or duties hereby granted are hereby
directed to be levied, although the same shall not be six statute
>k
No. VIII.-GREAT NORTH ROAD ACT. 77
miles distant from each other, provided such second turnpike or
gate shall be six statute miles distant from the North Queens-
ferry; and also save and except the tolls or pontage duties
leviable at the Bridge of Earn, which shall continue payable as
heretofore.”
SECT. XXV.-Rates of tolls authorised by the former acts to
continue until Whitsunday 1830; the trustees to have power to
remove any side bar; and it shall be competent to them “to
make a farther reduction of the said rates of toll, to take down
or remove any toll-bar, or to grant exemption at the same, upon
their causing intimation to be given in writing of their intention
so to do to the whole creditors of the trust, and provided the
same shall not be objected to by creditors entitled to one-fourth
in amount of the debt in security of which the said tolls shall
then stand assigned, within one calendar month after intimation
shall have been made to them respectively.”
SECT. XXVI.-Power to erect fences and side bars, and levy
the above-mentioned tolls and duties thereat.
SECT. XXVII.-Power to shut up unnecessary bye-roads.
SECT. XXVIII.-The tolls and duties hereby granted,
together with the property of every gate or turnpike, toll-house,
building, garden, &c., belonging to the said roads, shall be vested
in the trustees.
SECT. XXIX.-Power to keep the old lines of road open, and
to collect tolls thereon; provided, that if any person driving
cattle prefer using the old lines of road they shall receive deduc-
tion from the tolls not exceeding 8d. per score ; or driving calves,
hogs, sheep, lambs, or goats, a deduction not exceeding 4d.
SECT. XXX.-Persons liable in the repair of the roads or
bridges to continue so.
SECT. XXXI.—Footpaths to be made.
SECT. XXXII.-Trees not to be planted within twenty feet
from the centre of the road.
SECT. XXXIII.-Power of appeal by any one thinking himself
aggrieved, within six calendar months, to the justices of the
county within which the same shall have taken place.
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78 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XXXIV.-‘‘The produce of the said tolls and duties so
to be raised, levied, and collected as aforesaid, and all the monies
arising by virtue of this act, shall, after payment of the expenses
of preparing, applying for, procuring, and passing this act, as
hereinafter provided, be applied towards making, maintaining,
and improving, the said roads, and paying the interest of the
money borrowed, subscribed, advanced, or owing, at the time;
and the surplus shall be appropriated annually to extinguish the
principal of the said debt, and to no other purpose.”
SECT. XXXV.-The expenses of the act to be paid out of the
first and readiest monies received, levied, or borrowed, by virtue
of this act.
SECT. XXXVI.-Public act.
SECT. XXXVII.-Act to commence from and after the
passing, and to continue from thence during the term of thirty-
one years, and from thence to the end of the next session of
Parliament.
NO. IX.
R IN R O S S A N D A L L O A R O A. D.
10 GEo. IV., CAP. 91.
(Royal Assent, 22d May, 1829.)
THIS act is intituled “An act for repairing and keeping in repair
the road from Kinross, in the county of Kinross, to Alloa, in the
county of Clackmannan;” and the preamble is in these words:
“Whereas an act was passed in the thirty-seventh year of the
reign of his late Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An
act for making and repairing the road from Kinross, in the county
of Kinross, to Alloa, in the county of Clackmannan;’ and an-
other act was passed in the forty-eighth year of the reign of his
said late Majesty, intituled ‘An act to continue the term and
enlarge the powers of an act for repairing the road from Kinross,
in the county of Kinross, to Alloa, in the county of Clackman-
nan:’ And whereas by the said recited acts certain persons were
appointed trustees, who have proceeded to put the same in execu-
tion, and great progress has been made in making and repairing
the roads therein mentioned, and considerable sums of money have
been borrowed and are still owing on the credit of the tolls there-
by granted; and the said acts being about to expire, the said
sums of money cannot be repaid, nor can the said roads be com-
pleted and repaired, and kept in repair, unless the term and
powers of the said acts be continued and enlarged, and the said
acts be amended, or new powers be granted : And whereas an
act was passed in the fourth year of the reign of his present Ma-
jesty King George the Fourth, intituled ‘An act for regulating
turnpike roads in that part of Great Britain called Scotland:”
May it therefore,” &c.
SECT. I.-Repeals the said acts of the 37th and 48th Geo. III.
SECT. II.-Powers of statute 4 Geo. IV., cap. 49 (late gene-
ral turnpike act) applied to this act.
SECT. III.-Covenants under the repealed acts remain in force.
SECT. IV.-Books under the repealed acts may be given in
evidence. *
SECT. V.-Former officers except the treasurer to continue;
without prejudice to the treasurer’s re-election.
SECT. VI.-Same person not to be clerk and treasurer.
SECT. VII.-Persons who have received tolls or other money
under the former acts to account to the trustees for executing
this act.
sk
80 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. VIII.-“All and every person who is at present or here-
after shall be, in his own right or in the right of his wife, in the
actual possession and enjoyment as proprietor or life-renter of the
dominium wtile of lands, and through which the said road passes,
valued in the cess book of the counties of Clackmannan and Kin-
ross at the sum of one hundred pounds Scots, and the eldest son
of every such proprietor or life-renter, and the factor, chamberlain,
or proxy of every peer of the realm possessing the aforesaid qualifi-
cation, shall be and are hereby appointed trustees for making,
repairing, widening, altering, and maintaining the said road de-
scribed in the said first-recited act—viz., from the turning down to
the Mary Bridge of the road from Alloa to Clackmannan by Gate-
side to the bridge at the Linmiln, and from thence to the Forest
Mill, and so proceeding by Woodside to Wellhall, and from
thence by the north side of Gibson’s Craig to the Powmill Bridge,
and from thence by the north side of Bridgeland and south of
the village of Crookmill joining the Kinross county road, and so
along the said road to Kinross; and for putting into execution
all the other powers and authorities in and by this act given and
granted.”
SECT. IX.—Trustees appointed by this act may elect five or
any lesser number of trustees to act along with them who shall
possess the same value of land in the counties of Kinross or
Clackmannan.
SECT. X-A majority of trustees present at general meet-
ings shall decide—the whole number present not being less than
three ; the chairman, in case of equality of votes, to have a vote
and casting vote.
SECT. XI.-The trustees to meet at Alloa on the third Mon-
day after the passing of the act, and thereafter yearly hold a
stated annual general meeting on such day and at such places
as the first meeting may appoint.
SECT. XII.-Power to continue or erect turnpike gates, and
also such number of toll-houses, with proper gardens adjacent
thereto, as shall appear expedient—the site of each toll-house
and garden not to exceed the eighth of an acre—and from time to
time to alter their situations.
SECT. XIII.-* And be it further enacted, That the said trus-
tees, or any person or persons duly authorised by them, shall be
and they are hereby authorised and empowered to demand and
take, or cause to be demanded and taken, at the several gates or
turnpikes which shall be continued or erected by virtue of this
act, a sum not exceeding the rates and duties hereinafter specified,
before any carriage, horse, or other cattle, shall pass through any
:*
No. IX. —KINROSS AND ALLOA ROAD. 81
gate or turnpike to be continued or erected on the said roads;
(that is to say)—
“For every horse or beast of draught drawing any coach, barouche, chariot,
landau, chaise, calash, chair, hearse, gig, phaeton, or other such carriage,
or any stage-coach, long-coach, or diligence, or carriage of the like kind,
where the number drawing is six, one shilling and one penny; and where
it exceeds six, at the rate for each of the proportion of six shillings and
sixpence, divided among the whole number employed in drawing the same ;
where three, four, or five horses or other beasts of draught, are employed in
drawing, one shilling; where two horses or beasts of draught are employed
in drawing, ninepence; where only one horse or beast of draught is employed
in drawing, one shilling and threepence:
“For one horse or beast of draught drawing any taxed cart, ninepence:
“For every horse, ox, or beast of draught exceeding two and not exceeding
six, drawing any waggon, wain, or cart or other such carriage, one shilling;
and when the number exceeds six, at the rate for each of the proportion of
six shillings, divided among the whole number employed in drawing the
S㺠Iſle :
“For every horse or beast of draught drawing any waggon, wain, cart, or
other such carriage, where such carriage and the loading thereof taken to-
gether shall not exceed fifteen hundred weight, where one only is drawing
such carriage, fourpence, and where two are drawing such carriage, three-
pence; and where such carriage and loading exceeds fifteen hundred weight
and does not exceed twenty hundred weight, where only one horse or beast
of draught is drawing the same, fourpence-halfpenny, and where two are
drawing, threepence-farthing; and where such carriage and loading exceeds
twenty hundred weight and does not exceed twenty-five hundred weight,
where one horse or beast of draught only is drawing, fivepence, and where
two are drawing, threepence-halfpenny; and where such carriage with the
loading exceeds twenty-five hundred weight and does not exceed thirty
hundred weight, where one horse or beast of draught is drawing, fivepence-
halfpenny, and where two are drawing, threepence-three-farthings; and
where such carriage with the loading amounts to thirty-one hundred weight,
and one horse or beast of draught is drawing, sixpence, and where two are
drawing, fourpence; and where any such carriage with the loading exceeds
thirty-one hundred weight, then in the proportion for each horse, where not
more than two are drawing, of one penny for each additional hundred weight:
* For every horse, mule, or other beast, laden or unladen, and not draw-
ing, the sum of twopence:
“For every drove of oxen, neat cattle, mules, asses, horses, or fillies un-
shod, the sum of two shillings and sixpence per score, and so in proportion
for any greater or less number:
“And for every drove of calves, hogs, sheep, lambs, goats, the sum of
tenpence per score, and so in proportion for any greater or less number.”
SECT. XIV.--Carriages rolling a flat surface to pay only two-
thirds of the above tolls.
SECT. XV.--Tolls payable once a-day only on producing a
proper ticket, unless with a new loading; the distance not ex-
ceeding four miles from the toll-gate where the ticket was got,
provided that any carriage, cart, &c., with fresh or new loading
or hiring, passing a second time or oftener, shall pay toll each
time.
SECT. XVI—“Provided always, That it shall not be lawful
to charge the tolls hereby granted for or in respect of any horse
# !
82 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
or other beast-travelling on the said road, betwixt the town of
Kinross and the western extremity of the said road, at more than
four toll-gates the same day, whatever number of turnpikes or
side gates the said trustees may find it necessary to erect on the
said line of road.”
SECT. XVII.--Tolls, toll-houses, gardens, &c., vested in the
trustees.
SECT. XVIII.-* And whereas the said road has of late, in
consequence of the necessity of applying the tolls in discharging
and paying up a portion of the debt affecting the same, become
bad and out of repair, and it will be necessary to borrow a further
sum of money for repairing the same, which the said trustees will
have difficulty in raising, unless the sum to be so raised be made
a preferable debt upon the tolls hereby granted; be it therefore
enacted, That the tolls, and all the monies arising by virtue of
this act, shall be applied in the first place towards the expense of
passing and procuring this act; in the second place, towards the
repayment of any money to be borrowed upon the credit of the
said tolls, for putting the said road into a state of repair as afore-
said, and the interest to become due thereon ; in the third place,
towards the repairing and maintaining the said road, and in keep-
ing the same in repair; and lastly, towards the repayment of the
monies due and owing at the passing of this act upon the credit
of the tolls leviable under the said recited acts of the thirty-
seventh and forty-eighth years of the reign of his said late Ma-
jesty King George the Third, and the interest due and to become
due thereon.”
SECT. XIX.-“And be it further enacted, That the said trus-
tees shall within six months after the passing of this act give
notice, by public advertisement at least three times in a news-
paper usually circulated within the counties of Clackmannan and
Kinross, and by circular letters addressed to all the known cre-
ditors upon the said road, to lodge with the clerk particular notes
of their several claims upon the road, and upon the same being
adjusted the treasurer shall make up a statement of all the debts
due upon the said road, and which shall be entered in the books
of the trust, and the sums so entered shall be declared to be the
debts for which the roads are liable by virtue of this act; and if
no further claims shall be made and established within three
years from the passing of this act, any debt not so claimed shall
be held as lapsed,” &c. #
SECT. XX.-Trustees may enter upon lands to be taken for this
act. SECT. XXI-Toll collectors may give evidence.—SECT.
XXII.-Public act. SECT. XXIII.-This act shall commence
from its passing, and continue from thence during the term of
thirty-one years, and from thence to the end of the then next ses-
sion of Parliament.
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No. X.
G E N E R. A. L T U R N P I K E A CT.
1 AND 2 WILL. IV., CAP. 43.
(Royal Assent, 15th October, 1831.)
THIS act is intituled “An act for amending and making more
effectual the laws concerning turnpike roads in Scotland;” and
the preamble and Sect. I. bear—
“Whereas an act was passed in the fourth year of the reign of
his late Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled ‘An act * for
regulating turnpike roads in that part of Great Britain called
Scotland:” And whereas experience has shown that the said act
may be amended in various particulars; and whereas it is expe-
dient that farther regulations should be made, and that all the
public general acts of Parliament concerning turnpike roads in
Scotland should be consolidated in one act.—Be it therefore
enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and
Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the
authority of the same, That the said recited act; as also an act
passed in the Parliament of Scotland in the year of our Lord one
thousand six hundred and sixty-one, intituled ‘Act for planting
and inclosing of grounds;’ and an act passed in the Parliament
of Scotland in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred
and sixty-nine, intituled ‘An act for repairing highways and
bridges;’ and an act passed in the Parliament of Scotland in the
year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and seventy, intituled
‘Act concerning highways;’ and an act passed in the Parliament
of Scotland in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred
and eighty-five, intituled ‘Act in favours of planters and inclosers
of grounds;’ and an act passed in the Parliament of Scotland in
the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty-six,
intituled ‘Additional act anent highways and bridges;’ and an
act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his Majesty King
George the First, intituled ‘An act for amending and making
more effectual the laws for repairing the highways, bridges, and
ferries, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland;’ and an
* The act here recited and repealed was passed 4th July, 1823, and was the first
general turnpike act for Scotland. Its preamble bore—“Whereas it is expedient
that the laws now in force for the general regulation of turnpike roads in that part
of Great Britain called Scotland should be consolidated, and that farther regula-
tions should be made in regard to the same—Be it therefore enacted,” &c.
84 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTEs.
act passed in the eleventh year of the reign of his Majesty King
George the Third, intituled ‘An act for widening the highways
in that part of Great Britain called Scotland;’ and an act passed
in the twelfth year of the reign of his Majesty King George the
Third, intituled ‘An act for the regulation of carters, carriages,
and loaded horses, and for removing obstructions and nuisances
upon the streets and highways within that part of Great Britain
called Scotland;’ and an act passed in the thirty-third year of
the reign of his Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An
act for repealing the duties on coals, culm, and cinders, brought
or carried coastwise into Scotland, and for granting other duties
on licenses to sell certain distilled spirituous liquors in lieu
thereof; ” in so far as they relate to turnpike roads and keepers of
toll-bars, shall be and the same are hereby repealed : Provided
always that the said recited acts, notwithstanding hereof, shall
remain in force as heretofore as to all other roads not being
turnpike, and as to all other matters to which they may relate.”
SECT. II.-“And whereas it is of great importance that one
uniform system should be adhered to in the laws for regulating
the management and maintenance of turnpike roads throughout
Scotland; be it therefore enacted, That from and after the pass-
ing of this act, all the enactments, provisions, matters, and things
in this act contained, shall extend to all local acts of Parliament
now in force, and to all acts of Parliament which shall here-
after be passed, for making, widening, turning, amending, regula-
ting, repairing, or maintaining any turnpike road in Scotland;
save and except as to such enactments, provisions, matters, and
things as shall be expressly varied, altered, or repealed by any
such act that shall be hereafter passed.”
SECT. III.-The “qualification of trustees for carrying into
execution the powers and provisions of this act, and of every
local turnpike act now in force, or which shall hereafter be in
force, in Scotland, shall be such as are or shall be enacted and
contained in each such local turnpike act respectively.” Trustees,
when required, must depone that they are qualified before they
shall act as trustees.
SECT. IV.-Trustees not to act where interested. Persons
acting not being qualified to forfeit twenty pounds.
SECT. W.-Trustees may act as justices.
SECT. VI.-Lenders of money not disqualified from acting as
trustees, &c.
SECT. VII.-‘And be it enacted, That the trustees of any
turnpike road, having met under authority of any local act of
No. X.-GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 85
Parliament, may from time to time adjourn, to meet at such
place and at such time as they shall appoint; and at all their meet-
ings such trustees shall pay and defray their own expenses; and all
their orders and determinations in the execution of any such act
shall be made, and all powers and authorities derived therefrom
or hereby vested in them shall be exercised, at meetings to be
held in pursuance thereof or of this act (except in cases other-
wise particularly provided for), by the major part of the trustees
who shall be present, the whole number present not being less
than the quorum fixed by the act under which such trustees shall
be appointed; and that a preses shall in the first place be ap-
pointed at every meeting, who, in case of an equal number of
votes (including the vote of the preses) shall have the casting
vote; and that no order or determination, at any meeting of the
said trustees, once made, agreed upon, or entered into, shall be
revoked or altered at any subsequent meeting unless notice of
the intention to propose such revocation or alteration shall have
been given at a previous meeting holden for the same road, and
entered in the book of proceedings of such meeting, and shall
have been transmitted by post to every trustee not present at
such previous meeting who shall have been present at the meet-
ing where such order or determination was made; and such
notice shall also be published by two several advertisements in
some newspaper usually circulated in the shire in which such
road or the principal part thereof is situated, ten days at least
previous to such subsequent meeting, or by affixing the same for
two consecutive Sundays on the church doors of the parish or
parishes within which such road is situated, and on all the toll-
bars then erected upon such road, fourteen days at least before
such meeting.”
SECT. VIII.—Two trustees may call a meeting.
SECT. IX.-Trustees may divide roads into districts, and name
committees for their management—three to be a quorum of
committees.
SECT. X.-Trustees to appoint “clerks, collectors, treasurers,
superintendants, surveyors, and other officers, with reasonable
salaries or allowances for their trouble.”
SECT. XI.-Treasurer to give security, “unless where all the
monies collected on any such road shall be lodged in an account
to be opened in the name of the trustees thereof with the Bank
of Scotland, the Royal Bank of Scotland, or the Bank of the
British Linen Company of Scotland, or any of the branches of
the said Banks.”
86 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XII.-Clerk not to be liable in any penalty for acting
as clerk and treasurer if monies are lodged in bank.
SECT. XIII.-Officers not to be concerned in any contract.
SECT. XIV.-4: And be it enacted, That all orders and proceed-
ings of the trustees of every turnpike road, together with the
names of the trustees present at every meeting, shall be entered in
a book to be kept by the clerk to the said trustees for that purpose,
and be signed by the preses of the meeting at which such orders
or proceedings shall be from time to time made or had ; and that
such books shall be opened at all seasonable times to the inspec-
tion of any of the trustees, without fee or reward; and such
books or extracts thereof, signed by the clerk, shall bear faith
and be received in evidence in all courts of justice, committees
of Parliament, and elsewhere, in the same manner as extracts of
proceedings of courts of law in Scotland, without any proof of
there being such books or extracts.”
SECT. XV.-‘And be it enacted, That the trustees of every
turnpike road shall direct a book to be provided and kept by
their clerk or treasurer for the time being, in which book such
clerk or treasurer shall enter true and regular accounts of all
sums of money received and expended on account of the road for
which he shall act, and of the several articles, matters, and
things for which such sums of money shall have been dis-
bursed, and which book shall at all seasonable times be open
to the inspection of any of the said trustees, or of any creditor on
the tolls collected and taken on the road to which such book re-
lates, or of any person who shall have paid any of the tolls autho-
rised to be taken on such road; and any such trustee, creditor,
or other person, may take copies of the said book or any part
thereof without paying anything for the same, but every such
person, not being a trustee or creditor, shall pay one shilling to
the clerk or treasurer for each such inspection; and the said book
shall be produced by the said clerk or treasurer at all meetings
of the said trustees; and in case any clerk or treasurer shall not
permit or shall refuse to permit any such trustee, creditor, or
other person, to inspect any such book, or to take such copies
as aforesaid, or in case such clerk or treasurer shall refuse or
neglect to produce such book at any meeting of the said trustees,
such clerk or treasurer shall forfeit and pay any sum not exceed-
ing five pounds to any such trustee, creditor, or other person, who
shall prosecute for the same, with the expenses of process or pro-
ceedings.”
SECT. XVI.-Trustees may pursue and be pursued in name of
their clerk or treasurer.
No. X. —GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 87
SECT. XVII.-Officers to account. Proceedings on officers
misconducting themselves.
SECT. XVIII.-‘And be it enacted, That the trustees of every
turnpike road shall and they are hereby required, either by them-
Selves or some committee of their number, annually to examine
the vouchers and audit and settle the accounts of the respective
clerks and treasurers appointed by them, and to examine into
the state of the revenues and debts, distinguishing bonded from
floating debts, of the several roads for which they shall act as
trustees, and to make up abstracts of such accounts, which ab-
stract shall contain a statement of the revenues and debts of the
trust, and also an account of all bonds given by the trustees, and
the dates thereof; which said abstracts of accounts and state-
ments shall be signed by not less than three of the trustees.”
SECT. XIX.-Trustees may accept subscriptions for making
any particular part of the roads.
SECT. XX.-Payment of subscriptions to be enforced.
SECT. XXI.—Power to borrow money on the credit of the tolls
of every turnpike road, and to assign the tolls in security.
SECT. XXII.-Form of assignation, and form of transference
by indorsation.
SECT. XXIII.-Trustees may borrow money on annuity, and
may assign the toll-duties in security.
SECT. XXIV.-Trustees not personally liable for repayment of
money borrowed, nor for payment or performance of any obliga-
tion of which he shall not have bound himself personally as an
individual, independent of his office as trustee under any turn-
pike act.
SECT. XXV.-Contracts and agreements under other acts
expired or repealed to remain good until the same are performed.
SECT. XXVI.-Books of account and proceedings under former
acts to be evidence.
SECT. XXVII.-Officers appointed under any former acts to
continue under renewed act.
%
88 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XXVIII.-Plans to remain with the clerk to the peace,
and be open to inspection. - *... . . . .
SECT. XXIX.-Roads may be made notwithstanding error in
the description of owner or occupier.
SECT. XXX.—Sheriffs, &c. empowered to take affidavits of
notices. Form of affidavit.
SECT. XXXI.—Proof of handwriting of sheriff to be deemed
sufficient.
SECT. XXXII.-* And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful
for any turnpike trustees to continue or erect toll-bars on any
turnpike road or on the sides thereof, as also toll-houses, and to
design suitable gardens for the toll-gatherers, not exceeding one-
eighth part of an acre; and the right and property of such bars,
houses, and gardens, are hereby vested in the said trustees: Pro-
vided always, that no toll-bar shall hereafter be erected by autho-
rity of this or of any turnpike act, unless the same be ordered by
the trustees at a meeting of which and of the purpose whereof
fourteen days’ public notice shall have been given in any news-
paper usually circulated in the shire in which such road or the
principal part thereof is situated, and by affixing the same upon
all the toll-bars erected on such road which shall not be farther
distant than six miles from the place where such toll-bar is pro-
posed to be erected, and also on the church-door of the parish
within which such toll-bar is proposed to be erected.”
SECT. XXXIII.-‘‘And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful
for the trustees of every turnpike road, at a meeting to be held
for that purpose (of which one calendar month’s notice shall be
given in writing, to be affixed on all the toll-bars upon such road,
and by advertisement in any newspaper circulated as aforesaid),
from time to time to lessen and reduce the tolls granted by any
turnpike act, or to take down and remove any toll-bar erected by
authority of this or of any local turnpike act, and in like manner
to advance any of the tolls, so that the several and respective
tolls do not exceed the tolls allowed to be demanded and taken
by such turnpike act, and again to erect the toll-bar that may
have been so taken down, and collect tolls thereat : Provided
nevertheless, that where the whole money borrowed on the credit
of the tolls shall not have been discharged, no toll shall be re-
duced, nor toll-bar removed, without the consent in writing of the
persons entitled to three-fourths of the money remaining due
upon such respective tolls, and of such trustees as shall have be-
come personally liable for the same.”
sk
No. X. —GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 89
SECT. XXXIV.-Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for the trus-
tees of every turnpike road, at a meeting appointed for the pur-
pose, to let by public roup the tolls of the several bars erected as
aforesaid ; and in case no bidder shall offer, or in case the said
tolls shall not be let by public roup, it shall then be lawful for the
said trustees to let the same by private tender: Provided always,
that no such tolls shall be let for a longer time than three years,
and that at all such lettings the trustees shall be entitled to bid
for the tolls so to be let, either by themselves or their clerk or
their treasurer, or any other person by them respectively autho-
rised, such person declaring that he is authorised to bid by the
said trustees.”
SECT. XXXV.-Enacts, “That the trustees of every turnpike
road shall provide for every tolſ-bar a printed or painted sche-
dule or table, containing the name of the toll-bar, with a list of
the tolls payable at such bar, and also the name of every other
bar which shall be cleared by the payment of toll at such bar;
and shall provide for every bar, payment at which shall clear any
other bar, tickets denoting the payment of toll, and mentioning
the bars so cleared, one of which tickets shall be delivered to the
person paying the toll, and which shall also have printed or
written thereon the day of the month on which the same is de-
livered ; and on the production of such ticket at any bar cleared
by the payment of the toll at the bar where such ticket was de-
livered, the person producing the same shall pass through such
other bar without paying any additional toll.”
SECT. XXXVI.-Enacts, “That no toll shall be demanded or
taken at any bar erected by authority of this or of any turnpike
act, for any horses or carriages attending his Majesty or any of
the royal family, or returning therefrom.”
SECT. XXXVII.-Enacts, “That no toll shall be demanded or
taken at any such toll-bar as aforesaid from any person, for any
horse or other beast of draught, or for any waggon, cart, or other
carriage, employed in or returning empty from carrying or con-
veying, or going empty to carry or convey, any materials for
making or maintaining any turnpike or statute labour road, or for
building, rebuilding, or repairing any bridge or toll-house on any
turnpike or statute labour road, and no other matter or thing
whatsoever, or otherwise employed on account of any such road
and for the purposes of the same, and for no other purpose, or
going before or returning empty after being so employed; or for
any horse or other beast of draught, or carriage, employed only in
carrying or conveying, or going or returning empty before or after
having been employed only in carrying or conveying, on the same
day, on the turnpike road on which such gate is placed, any ploughs,
harrows, or other implements of husbandry, or any hay, straw,
M
90 PART I.—ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
manure, dung, fodder for cattle or corn in the straw produced on
any farm, or seaweed or materials for draining collected and used
on such farm, or other produce of the same, from one part of any
such farm to another; or for any horses or other beasts of hus-
bandry, or any sheep or cattle, going to or returning from their
usual pasture or watering place, or going to be or returning from
being shoed or farried at their usual smithy, or going to or re-
turning from plough or harrow ; or from any person going to or
returning from his, her, or their usual place of religious worship; or
from any clergyman going to or returning from visiting any sick
parishioner, or on other his parochial duty within his parish ; or
from any person attending the funeral of any person who shall
die and be buried within the parish, or going to or returning from
such funeral, at any toll-bar within the same parish; or for any
horse or other beast of draught or burden, or carriage of what-
ever description, employed or to be employed in conveying the
mails of letters and expresses under the authority of his Majesty’s
Postmaster-General, either when employed in conveying, fetching,
or guarding such mails or expresses, or in returning back from
conveying the same, except in so far as such horse or other beast
of draught, or carriage, are specially made liable to the payment
of tolls and duties by virtue of an act made in the fifty-third year
of the reign of his Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An
act to repeal the exemption from toll granted for or in respect of
carriages with more than two wheels carrying the mailin Scotland,
and for granting a rate for postage as an indemnity for the loss
which may arise to the revenue of the post-office from the pay-
ment of such tolls;” nor shall any toll be demanded or taken for
the horse of any officer or soldier on march or on duty; or for
any horse or other beast, or any waggon, cart, or other carriage,
employed only in carrying or conveying, or going or returning
empty before or after having been employed only in carrying or
conveying, the arms or baggage of any such officers or soldiers,
or any sick, wounded, or disabled officers or soldiers; or for any
waggon, cart, or other carriage whatsoever, or for any horse or
other beast of draught drawing the same, employed in conveying
any ordnance or barrack or commissariat or other public stores of
or belonging to his Majesty, or for the use of his Majesty’s forces,
or going or returning empty before or after having been so em-
ployed; or for any carriage conveying volunteer infantry, or
for any horse furnished by or for any person belonging to any corps
of yeomanry or volunteer cavalry or infantry, and rode by him in
going to or returning from any place appointed for and on the
days of exercise, inspection, or review, or on other military duty;
or for any horse or carriage used by any clerk, treasurer, super-
intendent, surveyor, or other officer acting under any turnpike
trustees, when employed exclusively on the business of the road
on which he is travelling; or for any horses, cattle, or carriages
which shall not travel altogether above one hundred yards on any
No. X. —GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 91
road in whole or in part, before or after passing any bar at which
toll-duty is leviable for using the same: Provided always, that
if any person shall claim or take the benefit of any exemption, not
being entitled thereto, every such person shall forfeit and pay a
*
sum not exceeding five pounds; and in all cases the proof of ex-
emption shall be upon the person claiming the same.”
SECT. XXXVIII.-Enacts, “That nothing under one hundred
weight shall be reckoned a loading in any waggon, cart, or other
such carriage; and that every such carriage passing with any-
thing under such weight, and returning on the same day with a
loading, shall be liable in only one payment.”
SECT. XXXIX.-Enacts, “That all horses travelling for
hire under the post-horse duties acts, having passed through
any toll-bar drawing any carriage in respect of which any
toll shall have been paid, shall on returning through the turn-
pike-gate at which the toll shall have been paid, and the
other gates (if any) cleared by such payment, either without
such carriage, or drawing such carriage, the same being empty,
and without a ticket denoting a fresh hiring, be permitted to pass
toll-free, although such horses or carriage shall not have passed
through such turnpike road on the same day; provided that such
horses so travelling shall return before nine of the clock of the
morning succeeding the day on which they first passed the turn-
pike-gate at which the toll shall have been paid.”
SECT. XL-Enacts, “That where any horse or horses shall pass
through any toll-bar not drawing any carriage, and a toll shall be
paid on such horse or horses at such turnpike-gate, and the same
horse or horses shall return drawing any carriage on the same
day, or before nine of the clock of the morning suceeding the day
on which they first passed such gate, the toll paid on such horse
or horses on their originally passing shall be deducted from the
toll payable on the same when drawing the carriage to which they
shall be attached on their return, so that no higher toll shall on
the whole be taken than if such horse or horses had in the first
place passed through such turnpike-gate drawing the said car-
riage.”
SECT. XLI.-Enacts, “That the tolls made payable by local
turnpike acts shall be paid for and in respect of all horses or
beasts of draught drawing any stage-coach, diligence, van, cara-
van, or’ stage-waggon, cart, or other stage-carriage conveying
passengers or goods for pay or reward, every time of passing or
repassing: Provided always, that no such coach or carriage shall
be liable on account of any change of horses for any toll-duty
not otherwise exigible.”
92 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
SECT. XLII.-Enacts, “That the tolls made payable by local
turnpike acts shall be paid for and in respect of all horses or beasts
of draught let out to hire, and drawing any post-chaise, waggon,
or other carriage, every time of passing, whenever any new hiring
thereof shall take place.”
SECT. XLIII.-Enacts, “That where any carriage whatsoever
with four wheels shall pass through any toll-bar affixed to any
waggon or cart, such carriage shall be liable to the same toll
as if it had passed through drawn by two horses; and in case any
carriage whatsoever with two wheels only shall pass through
any toll-bar so affixed to any such waggon or cart as aforesaid,
such carriage shall be liable to the same toll as it would have
been if passing through and drawn by one horse only; and where
any horse shall be fastened to but not used in drawing any wag-
gon, cart, or other carriage, such horse shall not be liable to a
higher toll than a single horse, laden or unladen, as the case may
be.”
SECT. XLIV.—Enacts, “That if any person subject to the pay-
ment of any toll by any local turnpike act shall, after demand
thereof made, wilfully neglect or refuse to pay the same, it shall
be lawful for the person authorised to collect such tolls, at the
time when the same shall be due and payable, or within twelve
hours thereafter, taking such assistance as shall be necessary, to
seize and detain any horse, beast, cattle, carriage, or other thing
upon or in respect of which any such toll is imposed, or any car-
riage in respect of the horses or other beasts of draught drawing
the carriage on which such toll is imposed, or any of the goods
or effects of the person so neglecting or refusing to pay
(except the bridle or reins of any horse or other beast sepa-
rate from the horse or beast); and if the toll or any part thereof
so neglected or refused to be paid, and the reasonable charges of
such seizure and detention, shall not be paid within the space of
four days thereafter, the person so seizing and detaining may
complain to the sheriff or any justice of the peace for the shire,
who are hereby empowered, after hearing the person complained
of, or failing his appearance after forty-eight hours' notice per-
sonally or at his dwelling-place, to determine in a summary way.
any dispute that may arise about the amount of tolls due, or the
expenses of the proceedings, and to grant warrant to sell by pub-
lic roup any horse, beast, cattle, carriage, or thing so seized
and detained, or a sufficient part thereof; the surplus of the
money (if any) arising from such sale, and what shall remain un-
sold, to be returned to the owner thereof, after such tolls, and
the reasonable charges occasioned by such seizure and sale, and
other expenses of proceedings, shall be deducted.”
SECT. XLV-Enacts, “That if any person shall, with any
No. X. —GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 93
horse, cattle, beast, or carriage, pass to or from any turnpike road
over any land near or adjoining thereto (not being a public high-
way), such person not being the proprietor or occupier, or servant
or one of the family of the proprietor or occupier of such land,
with intent to evade the payment of any toll-duty; or if any pro-
prietor or occupier of any such land shall knowingly or willingly
permit any person (except as aforesaid) so to pass over such land
with such intent; or if any person, not being a toll-gatherer, shall
give, or if any person shall receive from any other person not being
a toll-gatherer, or shall forge, counterfeit, or alter any note or ticket
directed to be given, with intent to evade the payment of the
tolls; or if any person shall fraudulently or forcibly pass through
any toll-bar or fence connected therewith, with intent as afore-
said; or if any person shall take off or cause to be taken off any
horse or other beast of draught from any coach, chaise, waggon, cart,
or other carriage, at or before the same shall come to any toll-
bar, and after having passed such toll-bar shall add or put on
any horse or other beast of draught to such coach, chaise, wag-
gon, or other carriage, with intent to avoid any toll payable or
penalty imposed by this or any turnpike act—every person so of—
fending shall forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding five pounds
for each offence.”
SECT. XLVI.-Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for any turn-
pike trustees to erect weighing machines on any convenient part
of any turnpike road, so as not to interrupt the travelling along
the same, and to direct all waggons, carts, or other carriages,
carrying any load, and which shall come within one hundred
yards of such machine, to be weighed thereat, together with the
loading thereof.”
SECT. XLVII.-Enacts, “That if any person shall unload, or
cause to be unladen, any goods, wares, or merchandise, from any
horse or other beast of burden, waggon, cart, or other carriage,
at or before the same shall come to any toll-bar or weighing-
engine erected in pursuance of any turnpike act or of this act,
or shall load or lay upon such horse or other beast of burden,
waggon, cart, or carriage, after the same shall have passed any
such toll-bar or weighing-engine, any goods, wares, or merchan-
dise, taken or unladen from any horse or other beast of burden,
waggon, cart, or other carriage, belonging to or hired or bor-
rowed by any person, with intent to avoid the payment of tolls
payable for a loading or overweight—every person so offending as
aforesaid shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding forty shil-
lings for every such offence.”
SECT. XLVIII.-Enacts, “That the keeper of every toll-bar
where any weighing engine shall be erected, or any other person
appointed by the trustees of any turnpike road to the care of such
94 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTEs.
weighing-engine, shall weigh all such waggons, carts, or other
such carriages, which shall pass loaded through such bars respec-
tively, and which he shall believe to carry greater weights than
are allowed to pass without paying additional toll; and if any
toll-keeper, or person so appointed, knowingly shall permit any
such waggon, cart, or other such carriage, to pass through any
such toll-bar with greater weights than are allowed to be carried,
without payment of additional toll, on the road on which such
bar or weighing-engine shall be placed, and shall not weigh the
same, and receive such additional tolls as aforesaid, he shall for
every such offence forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five
pounds.” 3.
SECT. XLIX.—Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for any trus-
tee or surveyor of any turnpike road, if he shall suspect any
such connivance or neglect as aforesaid, to cause any waggon,
cart, or other carriage, which shall have passed through any
toll-bar where any weighing-engine shall be erected, and shall
not have passed above one hundred yards beyond such toll-bar,
to return to such weighing-engine, and be there weighed, with
the loading which passed through such toll-bar, in the presence
of such trustee or surveyor, upon requiring the driver thereof to
drive such carriage back to such weighing-engine, and upon pay-
ing or tendering to him the sum of one shilling for so doing,
which shall be returned to the person paying the same, if upon
weighing such carriage and the loading thereof it shall be found
above the weight allowed to be carried on such carriage without
payment of additional toll; and if the driver of any such car-
riage, being so requested to return with his carriage to such
weighing-engine, shall neglect or refuse so to do, he shall forfeit
a sum not exceeding forty shillings; and it shall be lawful for
any peace officer, or any other person being then present, upon
such neglect or refusal, to drive and take such carriage back to
such weighing-engine in order to be weighed as aforesaid.”
SECT. L.-Enacts, “That if any person, having the charge of
any waggon, cart, or other such carriage, shall not, when re-
quired thereto by any collector of toll-duties, permit the same to
be weighed, or assist in weighing the same, or shall evade, hin-
der, or obstruct the weighing of any such carriage, every such
person shall for every such offence forfeit and pay any sum not
exceeding five pounds.”
SECT. L.I.—Enacts, “That when two or more turnpike roads
meet at or near the same place, it shall be lawful for the trus-
tees of such turnpike roads respectively, at a meeting to be held
for that purpose, to fix upon some convenient place to erect a
weighing-engine upon, which will accommodate all such turnpike
roads, and by agreement among themselves at such meeting to
No. X.—GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 95
proportion the expenses which may attend the making, erecting,
maintaining, and keeping in repair, such weighing-engine, and
likewise to proportion the money arising from forfeitures to be
incurred for over weight at such weighing-engine amongst all
such turnpike roads, in such manner as to them shall appear just
and reasonable.”
SECT. LII.-Enacts, “That it shall be in the power of any
such trustees, and they are hereby authorised, if they shall think
fit, anything hereinbefore contained to the contrary notwithstand-
ing, to exempt from payment of any part of the toll-duties, not
exceeding one-third thereof, every waggon, cart, or other such
carriage as aforesaid with two wheels, having the sole or bottom
of the fellies of the wheels thereof of the breadth of five inches
or upwards, and being cylindrical—that is to say, of the same
diameter on the inside next to the carriage and on the outside, so
that when rolling on a flat surface the whole breadth thereof shall
bear equally on such flat surface, and that the opposite ends of
the axletrees of such carriages, as far as the same shall be in-
serted in the naves of the wheels, shall not form an angle with
each other, but shall be in the continuance of one straight line,
so that in each pair of wheels belonging to such carriages the
lower parts which shall rest on the ground shall be at the same
distance from each other as the upper parts of the said pair of
wheels, and, further, having the nails sunk level with the rings
on the wheels; and every waggon, cart, or carriage, with four
wheels, having the sole or bottom of the fellies of the wheels
thereof of the breadth of seven inches and a half or upwards,
and being cylindrical as before mentioned: Provided always,
that every person claiming the privileges granted to carriages
with wheels constructed as aforesaid shall permit the same to be
examined or measured by the surveyor of the trustees, and by
any person employed in the collection of the said toll-duties.”
SECT. LIII.-Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for the trustees
of every turnpike road, previous to letting the tolls, to compound
and agree, for any term not exceeding one year at any one time,
with any person using such road, for the passing of their horses,
cattle, or carriages, through any of the toll-bars to be erected on
such road or on the sides thereof, which composition shall be
paid in advance, and in default thereof the composition or agree-
ment with the person making such default shall thenceforth be
void; and all such composition money shall be paid and applied
in such manner as the tolls are directed to be paid and applied :
Provided nevertheless, that it shall not be lawful for any tacks-
man of tolls or toll-gatherer to compound with any person for
the payment of any tolls, or to accept any lower tolls than those
settled by the trustees of any turnpike road to be taken, or pay
back or return any sum of money to persons frequenting any
96 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
turnpike road, and paying the tolls thereon, with the intent of
avoiding the provisions of this act or of any turnpike act, under
a penalty for each such offence not exceeding twenty pounds.”
SECT. LIV.-Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for any such
trustees to enter into any agreement with his Majesty’s postmas-
ter-general as to the amount of tolls that shall be paid, or for any
mail-coach or other carriage travelling along any turnpike road,
without any limitation as to the amount of the tolls to be pay-
able, or the number of years for which such agreement shall sub-
sist : Provided always, and it is hereby declared, that no toll
shall be paid or payable under, or by virtue of, any such agree-
ment, which shall exceed in amount the toll that shall or may at
any time hereafter be directly or indirectly paid or received for
or in respect of any stage-coach whatever travelling along any
such turnpike road, and drawn by the same number of horses as
the mail-coach or other carriage which may be the subject of
such agreement.”
SECT. L.V.-Enacts, “That every tacksman of tolls and toll-
gatherer appointed by the trustees of every turnpike road shall
place on some conspicuous part of the fronts of their several toll-
houses or collecting-boxes his or her christian and surname,
painted in black on a board with a white ground, each of the
letters of such name to be at least two inches in length and of a
breadth in proportion, and that such board shall so remain at
such toll-house or box during the whole of the time that the
person whose name shall be expressed thereon shall be on duty
thereat; and every tacksman and toll-gatherer shall place on
the front of the toll-house, or otherwise erect at the toll-bar, so
as to be distinctly legible from the road, the schedule or table
hereinbefore directed to be provided by the trustees; and if any
tacksman or toll-gatherer shall not so place or erect such board
or schedule or table respectively, and so keep the same there
during the time such person shall be such tacksman or gatherer,
or shall demand or take a greater or less toll than such tacks-
man or gatherer shall be authorised to do, or shall demand or
take a toll from any person who shall be exempt from the pay-
ment thereof, and who shall claim such exemption, or shall
refuse to permit any person to read such board, schedule, or
table, or shall refuse to tell his or her christian and surname to
any person who shall demand the same, on being paid the said
tolls, or shall give a false name, or shall refuse or neglect to give
a ticket denoting the payment of the tolls, and naming and spe-
cifying the several toll-bars freed by such payment, or upon the
legal toll being paid or tendered shall unnecessarily detain or
wilfully obstruct any passenger from passing through any toll-
bar, or shall permit or suffer any obstruction to the passing through
any toll-bar, by the stopping or unnecessarily delaying of any carts
No. X. —GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 97
or carriages, or shall omit to take double toll-duty for any coach,
chaise, cart, or other carriage, required to have the owner's name,
surname, and place of abode, painted thereon, and not having
the same so painted or placed as hereinafter directed, or shalí
make use of any scurrilous or abusive language to any trustee,
Surveyor, traveller, or passenger—such tacksman or toll-gatherer
shall forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding five pounds for every
such offence; and it shall not be lawful to collect any toll-duty
at any bar where such board, or schedule, or table, shall not be
so placed or erected.”
SECT, LVI.-Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for any two
trustees of any turnpike road, upon the death of any toll-
gatherer appointed by the trustees, to appoint some other fit
person in his place until the next meeting of the trustees of such
road; and that if any person who shall be discharged from his
office by the trustees shall refuse to deliver up the possession of
the house, gardens, and pertinents, which he enjoyed in right of
his appointment to that office, within three days after notice of
his discharge shall be given to him or left at his house, or if
the wife or family of any such person who shall die as aforesaid
shall refuse to deliver up the possession of such house, garden,
and pertinents, within three days after such new appointment
shall be made as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the sheriff or
any justice of the peace for the shire where such toll-house shall
be, by warrant under his hand, to order a constable or other
peace-officer, with such assistance as shall be necessary, to enter
such house and premises in the day-time, and to remove the per-
sons who shall be found therein, together with their goods, out
of such house, and to put the person appointed to collect the tolls
at such place into the possession thereof.”
SECT. LVII.-Enacts, “That if any toll-gatherer or tacksman
of the tolls on any turnpike road shall fail to pay the stipulated
rent, or any instalment thereof, within one month after such rent
or any instalment thereof shall have been due and payable, it
shall be lawful for any two justices of the peace or the sheriff
of the county in which the gate at which such tolls are payable
is situated, on the complaint of the clerk or treasurer of such
road, to summon the tacksman so failing before them or him,
and to hear and determine on the said complaint in a summary
way; with power to such justices or sheriff, on being satisfied
that the rent or instalment thereof due has not been paid, to
grant warrant for the instant ejection of such tacksman, and all
persons acting for him, from the collection of such tolls, and
from the house, garden, and pertinents thereof; and it shall be
lawful for the trustees to let such tolls of new ; reserving always
to the trustees of such road a claim against such tacksman and
N
98 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
his sureties for the unpaid rents, and for all loss which may arise
by re-letting or otherwise collecting such tolls for the remainder
of the lease of such tacksman, and that notwithstanding the ejec-
tion aforesaid.”
SECT, LVIII.-Enacts, “That in case any toll-gatherer or
person acting as such shall offend against any of the provisions
of any turnpike act or of this act, whereby any penalty shall be
incurred, and shall abscond or absent himself or herself, so as
not to be found, then it shall be lawful for the sheriff or any
justice of the peace, before whom any such toll-gatherer or per-
son shall be convicted of any such offence, to order and adjudge
that the penalty incurred as aforesaid shall be paid by the tacks-
man of the tolls under whom such gatherer or other person shall
act.”
SECT. LIX.—Enacts, “That it shall not be lawful for the
justices of the peace for any shire or stewartry to grant to the
tacksman of the tolls or toll-gatherer, or other person situated
at any toll-bar, any license to sell any wine, ale, spirituous
liquors, or provisions, unless an application shall have been pre-
viously made to such justices by the trustees of the district of
roads within which such toll-bar shall be situated, recommending
that such tacksman, toll-gatherer, or other person, who from
time to time may be situated at such toll-bar, should be so
licensed as aforesaid.”
SECT. LX.—Trustees may enter upon lands for making roads.
SECT. LXI.-Power to widen roads to twenty feet without
making compensation, and to forty feet on making compensation.
SECT. LXII.-Trustees not to deviate above certain distances,
nor make use of any garden without consent of owner.
SECT. LXIII.-Lands may be purchased for improving roads.
SECT. LXIV.--When persons interested refuse or delay to
treat, the value may be ascertained by a jury. Power to sheriff
to summon a jury to fix the value of lands and buildings. She-
riff to adjudge payment of the sum awarded by the jury.
SECT. LXV.—Expenses of the proceedings how to be paid.
SECT. LXVI.-Penalty on juryman refusing to act.
No. X. —GBNERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 99
SECT. LXVII.-How lands and buildings may become the
property of the trustees.
SECT. LXVIII.-Proprietors under entail may burden their
estates for the purpose of making or maintaining any turnpike
road or bridge, not exceeding one year's rent.
SECT. LXIX.-Proprietors of entailed estates may renounce
damages.
SECT. LXX.—Old roads or bye-roads which shall have become
useless may be stopped.
SECT. LXXI.-Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for the trustees
of any turnpike road to exchange any old road or part thereof so
shut up, or any piece of ground or building no longer wanted by
the trustees, with the owner of any immediately adjoining land,
for any other land or building they may require for the purposes
of their trust; as also to sell and dispose of by public auction
any old road, toll-house, or other building or piece of ground
acquired by the said trustees for the purposes of the road, as
shall by them be adjudged to have become useless; and all such
exchanges or sales heretofore made or to be made are hereby de-
clared valid and effectual to all intents, without any disposition
or conveyance or infeftment whatsoever: Provided always, that
hereafter, before so selling and disposing of any such old road,
toll-house, building, or piece of ground, the trustees shall first
offer the same to the person from whose land the same shall have
been taken, or his heirs and successors in that land, and then, on
the non-acceptance of such offer, to any person whose lands shall
immediately adjoin thereto ; and if such persons shall refuse
(except on account of the price thereof) to purchase the same, on
oath being made before one of his Majesty’s justices of the peace
for the shire where such ground is situate, by some person in no
way interested therein, stating that such offer was made by such
trustees, and was refused, such oath shall be sufficient proof that
such offer was made and refused ; but in case such person shall
agree to purchase such ground, but shall not agree with respect
to the price, it shall be determined by a jury in manner herein-
before directed as to lands acquired by the trustees; and the
money to arise from such sale shall be applied to the purposes of
such turnpike road, but the purchaser shall not be answerable or
accountable for any misapplication of such money.”
SECTs. LXXII., LXXIII., LXXIV.-Application of compen-
sation money.
100 PART I.-ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
– , º r < .
SECT. LXXV.-In case of not making out titles, purchase-
money to be paid into the Bank of Scotland, or Royal Bank of
Scotland, or Bank of the British Linen Company, subject to the
order of the Court of Session.
SECT. LXXVI.--Where any question shall arise touching the
right to such money, the persons who have been in possession of
the premises shall be deemed entitled.
SECT. LXXVII.-The Court may order reasonable expenses
of purchases to be paid by the trustees in certain cases.
SECT. LXXVIII.-Power to carry any roads through minis-
ters’ glebes, making addition to glebe in proportion to ground
taken off.
SECT. LXXIX.-Valued rent not to be altered in respect of
ground taken.
SECT. LXXX-Power to get materials. Satisfaction for
materials, &c., to be given by trustees. Notice to be given before
materials are taken from enclosed lands.
SECT. LXXXI.-Penalty on taking away materials provided
for repairing turnpike roads.
SECT. LXXXII.-Enacts, “That it shall be lawful for the
trustees of every turnpike road to make and keep in repair foot-
paths on the same; and all such trustees are hereby required to
make and maintain a footpath on all such roads within two miles
of any city, burgh, or town, the population of which, within a
circle described with the radius of half a mile round the market
cross or centre of the market place thereof, shall amount to two
thousand souls; and if any such trustees shall fail to make or
maintain such footpath within the distance aforesaid of any such
city, burgh, or town, any five householders thereof finding caution
to pay the expenses of process, or any magistrate thereof, may
apply to the Sheriff by petition and complaint, who is hereby
authorised to ordain such footpath to be made or repaired, and
the expenses thereof to be paid out of the funds of the trust.”
SECT. LXXXIII.-Power to use adjoining ground as a tem-
porary road.
SECT. LXXXIV.-Trustees to make side drains.
No. X. GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 101
SECT. LXXXV.-Trustees to make ditches.
SECT. LXXXVI.-Regulations as to junctions of roads. Trus-
tees may remove mounds, projections, &c., upon the sides of any
road.
SECT. LXXXVII-Timber, stones, &c., left on roads may be
seized.
SECT. LXXXVIII.-Owners of adjoining lands to cut the
hedges and branches of trees prejudicing the road. If neglected
for ten days, surveyor may complain to justices, who may order
them to be cut. Penalty for neglect after order of justices.
SECT. LXXXIX.-Time of cutting or pruning hedges to be
between the last day of September and the last day of March.
SECT. XC.—Penalties on persons making encroachments.
SECT. XCI.-No houses, &c., to be erected on the sides of any
turnpike road within the distance of twenty-five feet from the
centre thereof, without consent of the trustees.
SECT. XCII.-Power to water roads.
SECT. XCIII.-Mile-stones and direction-posts to be erected.
SECT. XCIV.-Trustees shall erect parapets, &c., where neces-
sary.
SECT. XCV.-Parishes shall defray damages to parapets, &c.
SECT. XCVI.-Penalty on persons committing nuisances.
SECT. XCVII.-Enacts, “That if the driver of any cart, wag-
gon, or other such carriage, on any turnpike road shall ride on
the shafts or in or on any other part of such carriage, without
having and holding reins attached to each side of the bridle of
each beast of draught drawing such cart or carriage, or shall at
any time leave the same travelling on any such road without
having some person to guide the beast or beasts of draught
drawing the same, or shall allow to go at large any dog that may
be attending him, or his waggon, cart, or other such carriage, or
shall not chain or fasten the same to such waggon, cart, or car-
riage; or if the driver of any sort of carriage shall not keep to
the left or near side of such road on meeting or on being over-
taken by any other carriage or any rider, or shall wilfully prevent
102 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
any other person passing him or his carriage—such driver shall
for every such offence forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five
pounds, over and above the damages occasioned thereby.”
SECT. XCVIII.-Enacts, “That if one person act as the driver
of more than two carts, waggons, or other such carriages, on any
turnpike road, or if the hinder of two carts, waggons, or other
such carriages, when under the care of only one person, shall be
drawn by more than one horse, or if the horse of such hinder
cart, waggon, or carriage, shall not be attached by a rein
to the back of the cart which shall be foremost, and follow in the
same line therewith, the horse drawing such hinder cart not
being permitted to be further from the foremost than six feet—the
owner or driver of every such waggon, cart, or other carriage,
shall for each transgression in any of the points aforesaid forfeit
and pay a sum not exceeding forty shillings.”
SECT. XCIX.—Enacts, “That no waggon or cart travelling on
any turnpike road shall be driven by any person who shall not be
of the full age of fourteen years, under a penalty for each such
offence not exceeding forty shillings, to be paid by the owner of
such waggon or cart.”
SECT. C.—Persons opening up or conveying water across the
roads or causeways must repair them.
SECT. C.I.—No surveyor, contractor, or other person employed
on such road, shall leave obstructions or nuisances on roads,
under a penalty not exceeding five pounds, over and above the
damages occasioned thereby : “Provided always, that it shall be
lawful for any such surveyor, contractor, or other person, to have
on any such road, during daylight, any trestles or bars, in any
such manner as the trustees of such road may judge necessary to
prevent interruption of the work during the repairing of the road,
or to prevent carts or carriages from running in tracks injurious
to the road; provided always, that such trestles or bars shall at
all times be placed in such manner as not to be more inconve-
nient to passengers than may be necessary to prevent interrup-
tion to the work, or to prevent carts or carriages from running in
tracks injurious to the road.”
SECT. CII.-Proprietors to fence pits made near roads.
SECT. CIII-No animal to be pastured on the roads.
SECT. CIV.-Side ridges to be made on unenclosed lands.
SECT. C.W.-Gates to open inwards.
No. X. —GENERAL TURNPIKE ACT. 103
SECT. CVI.--Weeds to be cut by trustees.
SECT. CVII-No wind-mill, water-mill, steam-engine, or lime-
kiln, to be erected within one hundred yards of the turnpike
road.
SECT. CVIII.-Owners of waggons, carriages, &c., shall cause
their names to be painted thereon.
SECT. CIX.—Trustees may prosecute before sheriff and justices
at the expense of the trust.
SECT. CX-Proceedings for recovering toll-duties, penalties, &c.
SECT. CXI.—Summary process for recovery of toll-duties,
penalties, &c.
SECT. CXII.-Attendance of witnesses.
SECT. CXIII.-For securing transient offenders.
SECT. CXIV.-Power of appeal from any judgment of the
justices to the quarter sessions within three months. Judg-
ment of sheriff or quarter sessions to be final.
SECT. CXV-Warrants, &c., may be enforced in any other
county.
SECT. CXVI.-Existing causes not to be affected hereby, nor
the powers of sheriffs. +
SECT. CXVII.-Enacts, “That if the repairing or maintaining
of any turnpike road shall be neglected, or such road so badly
kept that travellers are injured, impeded, or obstructed in using
the same, any person having paid toll-duty thereon, and finding
caution to pay expenses of process, may present a petition and
complaint against the trustees of such road to the Court of Ses-
sion; and the said court is hereby authorised to receive the same,
and to adjudge and determine therein in a summary manner,
without abiding the course of the roll, and to pronounce such
orders and decrees as to the repairing and keeping of the road,
or otherwise, as the justice of the case shall seem to them to re-
quire, having due regard to the funds of the trust, and particu-
larly to determine whether the road is in such a state of repair
as to justify the levying of the toll-duties, or any proportion
thereof, levied by the said trustees, and also to determine as to
the expenses of such complaints and proceedings thereon; and if
any such complaint shall be found to be without probable cause,
the complainer shall be found liable, over and above the expenses
of process, in a penalty of twenty pounds, to be paid to the trus-
tees for the purposes of the trust; and it shall not be lawful to
104 PART I. ABRIDGEMENT OF THE STATUTES.
present any such complaint or institute any proceedings on any
of the grounds above mentioned before any other court or in any
other manner than as aforesaid.”
SECT. CXVIII.-All prosecutions for toll-duties, penalties, &c.
to be brought within six months.
SECT. CXIX.-Enacts, “That nothing herein contained shall
be construed or taken to extend to any of the roads and bridges
which are now or hereafter may be placed under the direction or
management of the Commissioners for Highland Roads and
Bridges under and by virtue of an act passed in the fifty-ninth year
of his Majesty King George the Third, intituled ‘An act to repeal
two acts made in the fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth years of the reign
of his present Majesty, for maintaining and keeping in repair cer-
tain roads and bridges in Scotland, to provide more effectually
for that purpose, and for the regulation of ferries in Scotland;"
or of an act passed in the fourth year of his late Majesty King
George the Fourth, intituled ‘An act for maintaining and keeping
in repair the military and parliamentary roads and bridges in the
Highlands of Scotland, and also certain ferry piers and shipping
quays erected by the commissioners for Highland roads and
bridges;’ or of an act passed in the fifth year of his said Majesty,
intituled ‘An act to amend two acts for maintaining and keep-
ing in repair the military and parliamentary roads in the High-
lands of Scotland;’ or of an act passed in the fifty-sixth year of
the reign of his said Majesty King George the Third, intituled “An
act for improving the road from the city of Glasgow to the city of
Carlisle;’ or of three several acts amending the same, passed in
the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth years of the reign of his said
Majesty, and in the first and second years of the reign of his late
Majesty King George the Fourth.”
ROAD STATISTICs.
33art àecomb.
ABSTRACT OF THE IN COME AND EXPENDITURE OF
THE ROAD TFUSTS CONSTITUTED UNDER THE
SEVERAL ACTS OF PARLIAMENT CONTAINED IN
THE FOREGOING ABRIDGEMENT.
IF O R T 1: I Bº Y E A R S 1841–42–43.
[These Accounts are not closed by the Trustees at any uniform period, some of them
being closed at Martinmas—others at the end of the year—others in spring—and
others at Whitsunday. In the following abstracts the accounts closed at Mar-
tinmas 1843, or Whitsunday 1844, or intervening periods, are held to be the
Accounts of the year 1843. All the Abstracts have been prepared from Accounts
obtained from the respective Treasurers, excepting those of the Fife Turnpikes
and Bridges, which have been prepared from the Trustees’ printed annual ab-
stracts. The object here being to show the ordinary working of the finances of
the Trusts, the floating balances at the commencement and termination of the
three years have not been stated in every instance. The amount of debts affect-
ing the Trusts, and the reduction thereof from surplus income, in course of the
three years, will be stated in Part III.]
No. I.
CUPAR DISTRICT STATUTE LABOUR.
(Under Fife Statute Labour Acts Nos. I. and II. of Abridgement.)
184, 1.
IN COM E.
1. Amount of statute labour assessment upon 1127### plough-
gates of land at 36s. each - - - - - £2029 19 8
[The Statute Labour Assessments are paid by the Collector direct
into the Trustees’ Bank Account, where the monies lie until
required for immediate expenditure.]
2. Amount of arrears of previous assessments taken credit for
in last account gºº &º gº ** ** ** **s 83 7 0
3. Unexpended balances of former allocations fººt yºg -- 38 0 3
INCOME 3.2151 6 11
- t--,
EXPENDITURE.
1. Payment of 2s. 6d. per ploughgate into the “Large Bridges
Account” with the British Linen Company (Cupar Branch), £140 19 4
Carry forward.…~£140 19 4
O
106 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
Brought forward.…~£140 19 4
2. Payments to Turnpike Trustees to be expended on turnpike
roads:—
To Cupar district ... -- ~ $611 0 10
Kinross and Pitcairly roads . . . . iść 6 &
*=
797, 7 4
3. Expended in maintaining the statute labour roads within .*
the Cupar district gº * ſº * * gº 828 14 3
[This sum was drawn from the bank as required in course of the
year upon drafts by the treasurer in favour of the contractor and
workmen, they producing accounts, certified by the road-surveyor,
showing the nature and extent of the work. In this district the
jºr has no intromission whatever with the Trustees’
4. Expenses of management:—
District clerk (Mr Thomas Horsbrugh), 325 0 0
General clerk, do. (this
district's proportion) sº gº tº 2 12 8
Road-surveyor and assessor of ploughgates
(Mr John Alexander) ... . . . . . 46 16 7
Treasurer (Mr George Christie) ... ... 15 0 0
Collector (Mr John Aitken) - - - 39 16 10 –
— 36129 6 1
5. Interest of £300 of debt at 4 per cent ... ... ... - 12 0 0
6. Arrears of assessments 1839–40–41 to be carried to next
account * gº ** ſº gº ſº gº ** 57 7 7%
ExPENDITURE..…#1965 14 7%
*-*-mºmºmº,
tºº-ºº:
—Q—
1842.
I N C O M E.
. Amount of assessment upon ploughgates at 36s. ** £2030 4 5
. Arrears taken credit for in last account tº gº tº 57 7 74
. Recovered of arrears 1831–38 ſº *** ** tº gº I 2 . 0
. Interest arising upon the Trustees’ account with the British
Linen Company … • - - - - - 48 14 0
INcome £2137 8 0}
:
EXPENDITURE.
1. Payment of 2s. 6d. per ploughgate into “Large Bridges Ac-
count” gº ºfte ... ... • - - - - £141 0 0
2. Payments to Turnpike Trustees to be expended on turn-
pike roads in Cupar district and Kinross district as before 797 7 4
3. Expended in maintaining statute labour roads within this
district . ** ſº * ** Pºº rºº ſº **3 956 l 9
4. Expenses of management:-
Officers’ salaries º tº ** * #138 15 6
Printing, advertising, and posts -, - 8 9 0
147 4 6
Carry forward.…~£2041 13 7
No. I.-CUPAR DISTRICT STATUTE LABOUR. 107
Brought forward---~£2041 13 7
5. This district's proportion of expense of survey of proposed
road to Burntisland pier ** *** * * * 40 6 11
6. Interest of debt paid . . . . gº &sº * rºs 5 12 4
7. Arrears of assessments to be carried to next account -- 57 4 9
ExPENDITURE.--~£2144 17 7
—C–-
1843.
B N C O M E.
1. Amount of assessment on 1128 ploughgates at 36s. -- £2030 7 11
2. Amount of arrears brought forward - *** *** ** 57 4 94.
3. Interest arising on the Trustees' bank account with the
British Linen Company ** ** ** ** ** 41 3 3
INCOME---> - £2128 15 113
F-
EXPENDITURE.
1. Payment of 2s. 6d. per ploughgate into “Large Bridges Ac-
count * * fººd ºf rºº tºu ** fººd sº £141 0 0
2. Payments to Turnpike Trustees:—
Cupar district ** ** ** tºº £611 0 10
Kimross and Pitcairly roads -- - -- 176 6 6
tº a gº tº a tº ſº tº 3 tº 787 7 4
3. Expenditure in maintaining statute labour roads within the
district ** º ** ſº **) tºº ** ſº 883 10 9
4. Expenses of management:- -
Officers’ salaries -., - ... * - £139 11 9
Printing, &c. - - *** * gººd 12 19 6
——— 152 11 3
5. Interest of debt of £300 - - -- **s tººs & 12 0 0
• 6. Arrears of assessments ~ - - - - - 57 4 93,
ExPENDITURE.--~£2033 14 13.
—Q–
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
INCOME. EXPENDITURE.
1841 ** ~ tºº ** sº gº 36.2151 6 11 £1965 14 7%
1842 ** ** tºº ** tº: ... 2137 8 § 2144 17 7
1843 **** sº ** ſº ** ** 2128 15 11 2033 14 14
Surplus income ** *** *** * * 273 4 7
#6417 10 11 £6417 10 11
sº-º-º-º: ºr
[There was a balance in favour of the Trustees at the end of 1840, which, with the above
surplus, produced a sum at the Trustees’ credit with the British Linen Company at 1st
May 1844 of L,767, 12s. 9d.]
NO. II.
ST A N D R E W S D IS T R. I C T S T A TU T. E L A B O U R.
( Under the Fife Statute Labour Acts, Nos. I. and II. of Abridgement.)
[In this district the statute labour money is expended along with the revenue from the turnpikes, as per the account No. XI, infra. Under the present head we
give the account rendered by the collector of the statute labour, money showing his receipts and payments. Similar accounts are annually prepared and
rendered as re
ds the collection of the statute labour money in the other. districts of Fife, but it is unnecessary to give them, as the amount of each assess-
ment appears duly in the corresponding accounts of the treasurers of the districts.]
184 Il-
MR JOHN AITKEN, COLLECTOR, IN ACCOUNT WITH THE STATUTE LABOUR TRUSTEES OF THE DISTRICT OF
ST ANDREWS, FOR STATUTE LABOUR ASSESSMENTS, ST ANDREWS DISTRICT
THE Col.I.ECTOR-Dr.
Amount of assessment, per survey £1879 10 7
IDEDUCT. ©
Over-stated to proprietors having property in different
parishes, viz.:-
Cameron parish £0 1 2;
Kingsbarns do 0 0 0}
0 1 3
AIDI). #1879 9 4
Under-stated to Kilconquhar parish--~£0 0 0}
Do to Largo do. 0 0 3
TJnder-summed Cameron do...~ 0 ° 9
ss=sºmeºmºsºm-º-º: 0 2 3%
Amount of survey #1879 11 7%
Deduct struck of, per minute of Trustees 11th May
1841 - 1 14 9%
#1877 16 10
THE CollecToR—Cr.
1841.
May 1. Remitted to John Bain, Esq., treasurer
of St Andrews district of roads-É848 19 4
June 1. Do 569 16 3
July 5. Do 105 3 10%
Aug. 2. Do 13 l 1
Oct. 1. Do 114 9 11%
Nov. 1. Do 16 16 6
Dec. 2. Do 21 4 3%
1842.
Jan. 3. Do *. 53 18 11%
Collector’s commission on £1877, 16s.
10d., at 1 per cent 18 15 6
Proportion of additional allowance of .
£50 from the county payable to the
collector from St Andrews district,
184] 18 6
Postages prepaid to 27th December
1841 0 1
Arrears at 27th December 1841, per list 97 3
O
6
7
£1877 16 10
ź

1842.
THE CollBCTOR-Dr. THE CoILECTOR-Cr.
To arrears £ 97 3 7 | Payments to the district treasurer on account of
To amount of assessment 1842, per sur- $ arrears 1841 £ 96 14 5
vey £1876 13 11} Do. Do. Assessment 1842-. 1807 15 2
Less over or under-stated Arrears at 2d March 1843, per list 32 5 7%
To collector's commission at 1 per cent.-flè 15 4
Additional allowance , 18 6. 0
—— 37 l 4
361973 16 6%
1843.
THE COLLECTOR-Dr. THE Collector—Cr.
To arrears £ 32 5 7:l Payments to the district treasurer on account of
To amount of assessment 1843, per survey 1874 11 10% alſTears £ 31 6 2%
Do. Do. assessment 1843- 1815 2 3
Arrears at 1st March 1844, per list 23 7 1%
To collector's commission £18 14 ll
Additional allowance 18 6. 0
Postages prepaid 0 1 0
f ºmºmºmº, 37 l 11
£1906 17 6. - #1906 17 6
* -

NO. III.
KIRKALDY DISTRICT STATUTE LABOUR.
(Under Fife Statute Labour Acts Nos. I. and II. of Abridgement.)
1 B 4, 1.
IN COM E.
Balances in bank accounts at end of 1840 - - -, 36.1270 4 9
Produce of assessment upon 807,487 ploughgates,
at 36s. gººs &º * **s ** *4 £1453 7 11
Less transferred to “Large Bridges Account,”
2s. 6d. per ploughgate tººs **) * tºº I00 18 8
1352 9 3
Cash borrowed on Kinglassie parish assessment -- ~ I00 0 0
Interest in the Trustees’ favour on their bank accounts *A* 46 18 10
INcoME #2769 12 10
EXPENDITURE.
Abbotshall Parish : Paid Mr H. Petheram, and expended by
him for the surveyor (Mr John M'Connell) on the statute
labour roads within this parish ... ... ... -- ~ £54 0 1
Auchtertool parish.….Paid Mr Petheram -. ** ** - 42 18 3
Auchterderran parish-Paid do. ** gº * ** 178 l 6
Ballingry parish -Paid do. -- ... -- - - 78 9 9
Burntisland parish ….Paid do. ** **** tºº **s 46 6 3
Dysart parish ~Paid do. -- **s * ** ... 208 7 4
IKirkaldy parish Paid do. * * * * * 23 12 0
Ringhorn paris Paid do. -- §º ** pººl • 171 16 2
Rennoway parish …Paid do. ** ** ** *** 100 7 4
Kinglassie parish.….Paid do. ... ... *** ** ... 226 0 8
Leslie parish Paid do. **s ** ** **s 96 10 10
Markinch parish Paid do. -- ſº ºw ** - 191 10 4
Scoonie parish JPaid do. fººts ** ** ** 91 18 IO
Wemyss parish --~~Paid do. -- ~ - ** • 0 12 10
#61510 12 2
Less thereof for stationery and printing - sº ſº 4 10 14
#1506 2 04
Leslie parish : Paid annual allowance to Leslie streets ... 12 0 0

Wemyss parish: Paid Captain E. Wemyss of Wemyss (to be
expended by him on the roads) proportion of accumulated
balances, £61, 4s. 10d.; and allocation for 1841, £78, 13s. 9d., 139 18 7
Abbotshall parish: Paid for damage done to a house in improv-
ing Loanswell road º gº ºf gº ** *g J 10 0 0
Kenmoway parish : Paid Mr Lawson a balance due him on his
expenditure ~ * ~ * ~ Pºe fººd rºs 6 13 4
Carry forward...~£1674 13 1.1%
No. III, KIRKALDY DISTRICT STATUTE LABOUR. 111
brought forward - £1674 13 1.1%
Expenses of Management :-
Surveyor (Mr John M'Connell) º tºº #375 0 0
Clerk (Mr William Douglas) ... ... ... 22 2 0
Treasurer (Mr Matthew Beveridge) ſº 12 2 0
Retired surveyor (Mr Joseph Norval), one and
a-half year's allowance - 15 0 0
Collector (Mr Matthew Beveridge), poundage
of 1 per cent., £14, 10s. 8d.; and additional
allowance, £13, 10s. 11d. -- ſº ** 28 I 7
Assessor (Mr Matthew Beveridge), for making
up ploughgate list and calculating the same, 10 0 0
Stationery and printing in road-surveyor's ac-
Count - tºº, gºsº **g ** *.*, fºr 4 10 l;
Advertising meetings and other incidents 7 8 8
• - — 174 4 4%
ExPENDITURE.---É1848 18 4
—‘O-
1 B 4, 2. *
IN COM E.
Produce of assessment upon 809.035 ploughgates, at 36s. #1456 2 7
Less transferred to “Large Bridges Account” pºº Rºs 10I 2 6
391355 0 1
Composition for personal services from burgh of Kirkaldy 15 0 0
Interest on bank account fººts ** was nº avº. Nº 22 5 1
Income...~£1392 5 2
EXPENDITURE.
Paid Mr H. Petheram for Mr M'Connell, surveyor, and ex-
pended by him on the statute labour roads in the district,
excepting Wemyss parish gº gº ** -- ~ £1055 15 0
Paid Captain E. Wemyss, and expended by him on Wemyss
parish roads ** ** gº ** gººs * *** * 5 9
Annual allowance to Leslie Street Committee ~~ ~~ 12 0 0
Paid G. J. Lindsay, Esq., balance due on his road expenditure, 9 0 2
Paid Bailie Walker, Pathhead, for building a wall ... gººs 2 1 10
Paid the Turnpike Trustees from the assessments on the
parishes of Abbotshall, Auchtertool, Ballingry, Burntisland,
Kinghorn, Markinch, and Scoonie, to be expended on turn-
pikes -- ~ - - - - - - - - 776 0 0
Paid year's interest on Kinglassie road debt -- £5 0 0
And year's sinking fund ... - ... ... 5 0 0
10 0 0
Paid officers’ salaries and expenses of management, including
£2, 18s. 8d. for expense of assignation, in security of £100
borrowed on Kinglassie parish assessment ... ... tºº, 171 18 0}
fºxPENDITURE.-62115 0 9%
T 12 FART II.- ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
1843.
IN COM E.
Produce of Assessment on 806.7461 ploughgates, at 36s. £1452 0 2
Less transferred to “Large Bridges Account,” 2s. 6d. per
ploughgate *** ** fºr gºs º ºs sº fºss 100 16 9
** a tº £1351 3 5
Composition from burgh of Kirkaldy for personal services 15 0 0
Interest on bank account ** tºº ** fººt tºº, ** 6 0 10
INcome £1372 4 3
EXPENDITURE.
Paid Mr H. Petheram for Mr M'Connell, surveyor, and ex-
pended by him on the statute labour roads in the parish,
excepting Wemyss parish *** fºº} Peº ** gº £1094 10 10
Less thereof for surveyor's stationery, printing, and posts 8 8 7
3.1086 2 3
Paid Captain E. Wemyss and expended by him on Wemyss
parish roads ** fº tº tº gºaº fºre ** rºl 78 4 6 .
Annual allowance to Leslie Street Committee fºr ºf 12 0 0
Paid year's interest on Kinglassie road debt ... £4 15 0
And year's sinking fund ~ 2. ~ .. 5 0 0
9 15 0
Paid Turnpike Trustees from the parish funds of Abbotshall,
Auchtertool, Burntisland, Kinghorn, and Scoonie, to be ex-
pended on turnpikes - - - - - - - 70 0 0
Paid officers’ salaries and expenses of management **g 170 1 9;
ExPENDITURE..…#1426 3 6;
—“C–
RALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME, IEXPENDITU R.E.
1841 - ... ... ... -- £2769 12 10 £1848 18 4
1842 fºs ** *** ſº 1392 5 2 -- 2115 0 9;
1843 - ** ** ſº ** 1372 4 3 1426 3 6;
Surplus income tººs tºº *...*, ** ... 143 19 7
#5534 2 3 £5534 2 3
GENERAL STATE AT THE END OF 1843.
Balance at the Trustees’ credit on bank account gºw * 36135 1 5
Less due the treasurer -- * ** tºº ſº pºs **} 9 5 10
fºssmºsºsºs
Sum belonging to the roads in the district generally, and
bearing interest at 2 per cent. ... . . . $125 15 7
And by the sinking fund payments, the debt upon Kinglassie
parish roads—the only debt due by the Kirkaldy District
Statute Labour—has been reduced to £90, bearing interest
at 5 per cent. *** ** ** *** ** ** ** ... 90 0 0
*==
Nett Balance in favour of the Trust.--~£35 15 7

NO. IV.
D U N F E R M L IN E D IS T R. I C T S T A T U T E L A B O U R.
(Under Fife Statute Labour Acts, Nos. I. and II. of Abridgement.)
IN COME.
- 1841. 1842. 1843.
1. Amount of Statute Labour on Ploughgates of Land at 30s, each.......................................... £794 8 5 £794 8 5 || £793 9 l
Amount of Income.............................. £794 8 5 || 39794 8 5 £793 9 l
IEXPENDITURE.
1. Payment of 2s. 6d. on each Ploughgate, for building and repairing “large bridges,” the
expense of which exceeds £300................................................................................... £66 4 4 £66 4 0 £66 2 : 0
2. Sums allocated and paid towards repair of Statute Labour Roads ....................................... 528 0 4 528 6 2; 532 1 3}
1841 & 1842, 1843.
3. Do. towards repairs of Outh and Nivingstone Turnpike
tº e º se e s a s s a e e s a s e º 'º e s see e s se e s e s s e s a e s a e e a s a se e o e s s e s a e s a s se e s e e º e s e s e º a £84 6 0 £84 7 6
4 O do of Turnpike Roads in Dunfermline
District..................................................................... 0 0 15 0 0
ºmºsºmemams * == 104 6 0 104. 6 () 99 7 6
- £104 6 0 #999 7 6
5, Incidental Expenses to Assessor and Surveyor, &c,........................... tº e s tº e º e g º ºs e º 'º e º 'º a sº e º e º e º is sº e s is 1 5 4 0 19 9} 1 7 l;
6. Expense of Management:—
Surveyor and Assessor's Salary (Mr Robert Drysdale)................................................... 26 5 0 26 5 0 26 5 0
Clerk's Salary (Mr Robert Douglas) ........................................................................... 21 0 (0 21 0 0 21 0 0
Collector's per centage, including allowance for guaranteeing the entire assessment, and
paying same as allocated Ol demand e e º 6 s e º a s is e s tº º s a e º e a e s e e º e s 6 c e º s tº tº e e º e º e o a s s so e º 0 & 3 & 4 tº a tº a 9 s 6 & 5 º a ſº e = * * * * * 47 7 5 47 7 5 47 6 2
- £794 8 5 || £794 8 5 | £793 9 1
º

NO. V.
FI FE L. A. R. G E B R. I D.G. E. S.
(Under the Fife Statute Labour Act, No. II. of the Abridgement,
Sect. XXIV., and applicable to the building and repairing Bridges,
the eaſpense of which shall exceed £300.)
1841.
IN COME.
Sum at the credit of this Trust, 4th May 1841, including a sum
of £23, 3s. of interest stated against the collector - £1066 10 10
Cash from the Statute Labour funds of the four districts at **
the rate of 2s. 6d. per ploughgate, as follows:—
Cupar district 1127 tºº tº ºvº * º Rºs 140 19 4
St Andrews district 1094 . wº * Pºd ** fºs 130 10 4
Kirkaldy district 807 - - - - - - 100 18 8
Dunfermline district 529 -. * 66 4 4
Interest on the Trustees account with British Linen Company 41 13 9
*-****
INcome --~£1546 17 3
EXPENDITURE.
Certain allocations made, but none paid this year ... ... if 0
Clerk (Mr Thomas Horsbrugh) - - - - - - - - 10
Auditor (Mr William #: for this and the four district
bridge money accounts rºw rºw ºf RAN º fººd 5
:
.
ExPENDITURE...…~£15
-
-—Q-
1842.
IN COME.
Cash from the Statute Labour funds of the four districts at -
2s. 6d. per ploughgate - - - - - - 3438 12 2
Interest on Trustees’ account with the British Linen Company
(Cupar Branch) rve rºw rºw rve rºw rºw fº 23 6 6
tº-mºmºsºm-ºs- sºme-twº
IncoNE…~ £461 18 8
i-
- No. V.-FIFE LARGE BRIDGES. 115
EXPENDITURE.
Paid first and second grants to Trustees upon the new bridge at
Leven, under the act No. V. of the Abridgement ... -- $800 0 0
Paid towards expense of Balbirnie bridge ** * gº 807 7 3
Sum of interest stated against the collector, now discharged by
resolution of a general meeting of the Trustees rººp ºf 23 3 0
Clerk and auditor rºw raw raw rew rºw rae ºvº- 15 0 0
ExPENDITURE.--~£1645 10 3
—º-
1843.
INCOME.
Cash from the Statute Labour funds of the four districts at
2s. 6d. per ploughgate -- ~ - . . . . . . . . #3438 4 9
Interest on Trustees’ account with the British Linen Company
(Cupar Branch) tº rººt tº tº gº gº ºf 4 16 4
INCOME ~£443 I l
EXPENDITURE.
Paid farther towards expense of Balbirnie bridge ** - £674 0 0
Clerk and auditor ** ** pºs ſº ſº tºº ſºns 15 0 0
smººssmºs
ExPENDITURE.--~£689 0 0
======mºmºmºmºmº
immº- ºr tº Lº
IBALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME, EXPENDITURE.
1841 ** ** ** ** * gº #1546 17 3 # 15 0 0
1842 * *sº ** ~. gº c. 461 18 8 1645 10 3
1843 * tºº gº * gº * 443 I l 689 0 0
- Surplus income * Pºe 102 6 9
£2451 17 0 £2451 17 0
NO. VI.
FIFE L E S SER BRIDG E S.
CUPAR DISTRICT.
(Under the Fife Statute Labour Acts, No. I. and II of the Abridge-
ment, and applicable to Bridges, the expense of which amounts to £80,
and shall not exceed £300.)
184 l.
IN COME.
Sum at credit of this Trust with the British Linen Company
(Cupar Branch) 1st May 1841 ... . . . . £447 6 2
Interest in the Trustees’ favour ... " . . . . 0 6 11
Arrears of assessments for 1840 and preceding years rºad 83 17 2
Assessment of 20s. on each £100 of the valued rent of the dis-
trict, #93,466, 5s. 6d. Scots, laid on by general annual meeting
of the Road Trustees for the county, held at Cupar 4th May
1841 - - - - - - - - - - 77 17 10
Assessment at the same rate on the same valued rent, laid on
by the meeting of the Cupar District Trustees at Cupar, 13th
May 1841 - ... ... - ... ... -- ~ 77 17 10
INcome ić687 5 11
tº-3
EXPENDITURE.
Repairs of bridges in the district ... . . . . £602 14 8
Clerk (Mr Thomas Horsbrugh) - - - - - - 7 10 0
Surveyor (Mr John Alexander) gº fºr rvº Pº ºn 3 10 7
Collector (Mr John Aitken) º * º ... ... ... l 10 0
7
Arrears of Assessment ... º º * º *As fººd 21 19
- ExPENDITURE..…~£637 4 10
-Q-
1 & 4, 2.
INCOME.
Arrears brought forward . . . . . . # 21 19 7
Two assessments of 20s. each on the valued rent of the district T
as before, assessed 3d and 19th May 1842 ** **, *
Two repayments from collector and from Coalford bridge fund . 93 4 7
Income …~~£270 19 8
*-º-º-º:
No. VI. FIFE LESSER BRIDGES-CUPAR DISTRICT. 117
EXPENDITURE.
Repairs of bridges in the district - - - - - £70 0 11
Clerk, surveyor, and collector tºº tºº * pººl ſº ~ 13 6 4
Interest on bank account ſº ºw tº gº tº tº ~ 0 5 4
Arrears of assessment tºº * º gº ** gº ** 21 19 7
ExPENDITURE ...~£105 12 2
—º-
1 & 4, 3.
IN COME.
Arrears brought forward . . . . . . . . £ 21 19 7
Two assessments on the valued rent of the district as before,
2d and 16th May 1843 ſº - - £155 15 6
Less thereof assigned towards expense of a bridge
in the Kirkaldy district ... ... ... ... ... 31 6 11
— 124 8 7
Interest on the Trustees’ bank account ... . . . 4 10 7
INoomE...…~£150 18 9
F-
FXPENDITURE.
Repairs of bridges in the district ... . . . . £80 15 0
Clerk, surveyor, and collector . . . . . 13 13 10
ExPENDITURE..…:694 8 10
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
INCOME EXPENDITURE.
1841 ** º º ſºn tºº ſºns #687 5 11 #637 4 10
1842 ** tºº RA) Jºaº gº Fº 270 19 8 105 12 2
1843 fºu º Rºs gº asºn ſº sº 150 18 9 94 8 10
Surplus income . . . 271 18 6
£1109 4 4 £1109 4 4
*=mºmºsºmºmºmºmº
NO. VII.
FIFE L E ss E R BRIDGE s.
ST ANDREW S DISTRICT.
(Under the Acts, Nos. I. and II. of the Abridgement, and applicable to
Bridges above £80 and not exceeding £300.
1 34 1.
INCOME.
Sum at the credit of this fund, March 1841 . . . £160 0 1
Assessment of 20s. Scots on each £100 of valued rent of the
district, #118,442, 12s. 11d. Scots, laid on by Annual General
*ing of the Trustees for the County held at Cupar, May
Assessment at the same rate on the same valued rent laid on
by the District Meeting at St Andrews *As fººl fº 98 14 3
98 13 II
- Income.…~£357 8 3
EXPENDITURE.
Repairs of bridges in the district ... jº gº tº - #154 9 10
Clerk (Mr Stuart Grace) . . . . . . . 35 0 0
Surveyor (Mr H. Petheram) . . . . . . 20 0 0
Collector's commission at 1 per cent ... . . . º 1 15 0
Officer gº tººl 0 10 6
Arrears of assessments to be carried to next account ... No 28 10 11
ExPENDITURE..…#240 6 3
-Q-
1842.
IN COME.
Two assessments on Valued rent of the district laid on as be-
Arrears brought forward ... . . . . . . 28 10 11
INCOME -->{225 19 I
No. VII.-FIFE LESSER BRIDGES.–ST ANDREWS DIST. 119
ExPENDITURE.
Repairs of bridges in the district - - - - - £103 4 6
Clerk, Surveyor, Collector, and Officer º ** ** ... 27 5 6
Arrears of assessment carried forward .. gº ** gº 28 10 11
ExPENDITURE....…#159 0 11
—Q--
1.84 &.
IN COME.
Two assessments on the valued rent of the district as before £197 8 2
Less thereofassigned towards expense of a bridge in the Kirkaldy
district *g trº tºº, gº fº ſº gººd * gº gº 39 I 4 5
#9157 13 9
Arrears of assessment ... gºe *A4 sº gº gº *s 28 10 11
Interest on the Trustees’ bank account ſºs fºs gººs ... 1 19 0
Income.…~£188 3 8
EXPENDITURE.
Repairs of bridges in the district ~ :- - - - - - £53 -4 2
Clerk, surveyor, collector, officer, and 13s.6d. for advertising 27 19 0
Arrears of assessment to be carried to next account ** 28 10 II
ExPENDITURE..…~£109 14 1
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
INCOME. EXPENDITURE.
1841 ... ſº Raº ſº fººt ** - #357 8 3 #240 6 3
1842 * pºs ſº * * gºs tººk 225 19 1 159 0 11
1843 . . . . . . ~ 188 3 8 109 14 1
Surplus income ... ... • 262 9 9
#3771 11 0 £771 11 0
No. VIII.
FI FE L E S SER B R. I D G E S.
KIR, KALDY DISTRICT.
(Under the Acts, Nos. I. and II. of the Abridgement, and applicable
to Bridges above £80 and not exceeding £300.
1 B 4, 1.
INCOME.
Sum at the credit of this fund in bank account, spring 1841, £165 8 1
Assessment of 20s. Scots on each £100 of valued rent of the
district, £87,692, 3s. 8d. Scots, laid on by Annual General
Meeting of the Trustees for the County, at Cupar, 4th May
(No Assessment laid on by the District.)
Interest on bank account - * º *A. * ºw Avº 4 13 10
*-m-m-º-m
INCOME --~£243 3 7
EXPENDITURE.
Paid Mr H. Petheram, expended on building Teuchats bridge £125 0 0
Do. repairing other bridges - - - 12 10 8
£137 to a
Collector (Mr Matthew Beveridge), his poundage for collecting
aSSessment ** *** ** Pºs * tºº ſº gº ... 0 14 7
ExPENDITURE.-6138 5 3
—Q-
* 84 2.
INCOME.
"Year's Assessment on valued rent of the district, laid on as
before gº Raj Rºs * f* * rºad pº PAs 3 1 8
Interest on bank account … • - - - ... - 3 2 4
*-ºsse
No. VIII. FIFE LESSER BRIDGES.—KIRKALDY DIST, 121
EXPENDITURE.
Paid surveyor, and expended by him on the district bridges £68 2 9
Collector's poundage tº gº, wº, º fºe peº reº 0 14 7
egg 17 4
–G–
1 84 3.
IN COME.
Year's assessment on the valued rent of the district, laid on as
before gº tºº ** tºº fº ** *** ** rºl
Assessment of 20s, Scots, laid on by the meeting of the District
Trustees, at Kirkaldy, May 1842 àº; gº rºº ſº ... 73 I 8
Allocations from bridge-money of Cupar, St Andrews, and Dun-
fermline districts towards building Mareburn bridge in this
district fºg ºf ** gº gºsº **t Rºs fººe Peº 90
Interest on bank account ... . . . . . . . ... 2
#73 I 8
0 0
8 9
INCOME -..…~£238 12 1
* EXPENDITURE.
Paid surveyor, and expended by him in part of cost of Mareburn
bridge on Burntisland new road - - - - - £180 0 0
Do. expended on other bridges - *As ºf rºº, pººl 112 8 4
Paid expense of a plan, 42s. Printing, 12s. 6d. ſº * 2 14 6
Collector, his poundage gººs ** fºs ~ * ~ - 1 9 3
ExPENDITURE.-6296 12 1
—-Q-
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME. EXPENDITURE.
1841 ** fººt pººr jºº º º #243 3 7 #138 5 3
1842 s. ** ſº ſº * fºe rºº 76 4 0 68 17 4
1843 tºo ** Avº ** ** **** 238 12 1 296 12 1
Surplus Income … -- 54 5 0
#3557 19 8 £557 19 8
NO. IX.
FIFE L E S SER BRIDGES.
DUNIFERMLINE DISTRICT.
(Under the Acts, Nos. I. and II. of the Abridgement, and applicable to
Bridges above £80, and not exceeding £300.)
I 8 4, 1.
IN COME.
Sum at the credit of this fund in the treasurer's hand gº £29 2 10
Sum allocated from assessments laid on the county 7th May 1839
and 5th May 1840 - *** *A* ** gººd - ... 18 15 0
Assessment of 20s. Scots per £100 on the valued rent of the dis-
trict, #56,541, 4s. Scots, laid on by the General Meeting of the
Trustees at Cupar 4th May 1841 ** * * * 47 0 9
[No assessment laid on by the district.]
INcoME.--->4.94 18 7
EXPENDITURE.
Re-payment to A. M. Wellwood, Esq. of Garvock, sum advanced
by him for repair of Broomhead bridge ... ... ... £23 15 1.1%
Collector (Mr R. Douglas), his commission ... . . . 0 18 10
ExPENDITURE..…#24 14 9%
*s-s-ºs-ºs-
——
1842.
IN COME.
Year's assessment on valued rent of the district laid on as before £47 0 9
INCOME --~~~~£47 0 9
EXPENDITURE.
Baid repairs on bridges in the district ... . . . £71 5 2
Collector's commission • * ~ - - - - 0 18 10
Printing ** ** rºº tº ºvºv ºr rº, sº fºr I 2 6
ExPENDITURE...…~£73 6 6
mºmeºsºm
No. IX. FIFE LESSER BRIDGES.–DUNFERMLINE DIST. 123
1 34 3.
INCOME.
Year's assessment on valued rent of the district laid on as before £47 0 9
Less thereof allocated towards bridge in Kirkaldy district 18 18 8
IncomE--->~£28 2 I
EXPENDITURE.
Paid repairs of bridges in the district gº tº º fºu #31 10 8
Collector’s commission tººi tº ºs ** ſº ** gººd 0 18 10
Advertising and parcel - - - - - - - - 0 14 4
ExPENDITURE.
s:633 3 10
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME, EXPENDITURE.
1841 - - - - - - - £94 18 7 £24 14 93,
1842 ... ** yº ** pººl Fºr *sº 47 0 9 73 6 6
1843 ** jºy ** ſº ** gº ... 28 2 1 33 3 10
Surplus income ... . . . 38 16 3}
4,170 1 5 #170 1 5
No. X.
FIFE TU R N PIK E s.
CU PAR DISTRICT.
(Under the Statutes, 10 Geo. IV. c. 84, and 1 and 2 Wm. IV. c. 43,
Nos III. and X. of the Abridgement.)
1841.
INCOME.
I. From rents of fourteen principal toll-bars and four check-
bars, viz.:-
1. Cupar East ... . . . . . £509 0 0
2. Cupar South, and checks at Ceres and Clush-
ford - ** *** fºg º J. " .. 606 10 0
3. New Inn (this district's proportion, being
12}-20ths) rº, sº a º Aº, rºw tº 635 0 0
4. Strathmiglo ... ... -- " -- - - 128 0 0
5. Woodhaven sº **d *As *.*. *** 1 15 10 0
6. Joint Newburgh, and checks at New York and
west end of Newburgh - - - - 765 0 0
7. Balgarvie - gººd ºf rº, º zººs 152 0 0
8. Beansnook - tºº *g Rºº ** **s 48 10 0
9. Arnot's Comb ... zºº rººts ** f.º. 25 10 0
10. Letham -. *** Fºº fºg tºº *** ... 102 10 0
11. Rathillet ... ** fº ſº ** tºº 53 10 0
12. Struthers * ëº gº ºsº, tºº ** 52 0 0
13 and 14. Teuchats and Branxton - tºº 175 0 0
— £3368 0 0
[The toll-rents, as well as the coach toll-duties, are paid
by the tacksmen and coach proprietors direct into
the Trustees’ bank account, where the monies lie
till required for immediate expenditure. The
tacksmen pay their rents by monthly instal-
ments. The proprietors of the stage-coaches
ay their tolls by monthly instalments; and
the General Post-Office, Edinburgh, remit pay-
ment of the mail-coach tolls at stated periods.]
II. From the statute labour assessment upon these sixteen.
parishes—Abernethy, Abdie, Cults, Ceres, Cupar, Colles-
sie, Creich, Dairsie, Dunbog, Falkland, Kettle, Kilmany,
Monimail, Moonzie, Newburgh, Strathmiglo fº rºw 611 0 10
Carry forward...~£3979 0 10
No. X. —FIFE TURNPIKES_CUPAR DISTRICT. I25
Brought forward.…#3979 0 10
III. Coach toll-duties collected by the Trustees at
New Inn bar (12%-20ths), and at Cupar South
and East bars—all on the Great Road through
Fife; for Royal Mail (four horses) at Ås.
a-day; for the Union Coach, do. ; and for
the Victoria Coach (two horses) 2s. ; and for
the Perth Defiance (New Inn bar only), two
horses, 2s; in all ** * ºw &Mº 349 16 9
And collected at Newburgh bar for toll of
Perth Defiance ** tº º ºsº, 23 6 6
- - 373 3 3
IV. Composition for tolls on carriages and horses of medical
men in the district, viz.:-
Six one-horse carriages at 22s. each - º £6 12 0
Two riding-horses at 7s ~ -- ~ -- 0 14 0
-*- 7 6. 0
W. Miscellaneous:— -
Rent of old toll-house at Rathillet ... c. 40 10 0
Fine recovered for a road trespass ~ º0 4 6
Re-payment from bridge funds of a sum ad-
vanced from turnpike funds for building
Strathmiglo bridge ~ -- ~ - 62 12 0
*- 63 6 6
INCOME >~~£4422 16 7
ExPENDITURE.
.* -
I. On repairs of the turnpike roads within the dis-
trict, consisting of fifteen lines - - £1519 7 7
[This sum was drawn from the bank as required in
course of the year upon drafts by the treasurer in
favour of the contractor and workmen, they pro-
ducing accounts, certified by the road-surveyor,
showing the nature and extent of the work. In this
district the road-surveyor has no intromission
whatever with the Trustees’ funds.]
Allowance to Magistrates of Cupar for repair
of streets pºs *A* ** **g ºvº 15 0 0
Allowance to certain proprietors for privilege
of quarrying road metal, &c. a-v rººm 21 6 8
-* £1555 14 3
II. Maintenance of toll-bars, toll-houses, steelyards, and painted
tables of tolls, and amount of difference of interest
allowed to certain tacksmen on their deposits in security
of their toll-rents ** *** ** ºw ** ** ** 92 11 2
III. In payment of interest on £26,392,0s. 6d. of
debt, chiefly at 4 per cent. *.*, *.* £1154 0 6
Less interest received on year’s current bank
* accounts with the British Linen Company
(Cupar branch) aw fººt ** ** 74 13 10
1079 6 8
Carry forward...~£2727 12 1
126 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
IV. Expenses of management:—
Brought forward…f3727 12 1
Surveyor (Mr John Alexander) ... ... £85 18 3
[In addition to the turnpikes of this district, this
officer is also charged by the respective Trustees
with the following duties, viz.:-1. Surveying the
statute labour roads, Cupar district. 2. Survey-
ing the .#; Cupar district. 3. Surveying
Cupar and Kinross turnpike road under the Kin-
ross-shire act. And 4. Surveying the turnpike
road from Auchtermuchty by Pitcairlie to Glen-
burnie, under the same act. The revenue of all
which is annually proportionally assessed, to make
up his salary of L.150, since increased to L.200.]
District clerk (Mr Thomas Horsburgh) 43 7 8
Clerk to general meetings of Trustees for the
county (Mr Thomas Horsbrugh)—this dis-
trict’s proportion *** *** *** * 1 1 14 0
Sub-clerk to Woodhaven Road Trust (Mr
James Carstairs), half-year ... ... ..., 7 17 6
Treasurers (Messrs Christie and Aitken) 65 4 7
Advertising and rouping toll-bars - ... , 23 7 7
Advertising meetings of Trustees, share of
printing accounts, stationery allowances to
clerk and treasurer, and other incidental
expenses tºº *s *...* º gººd 44 5 2
— 281 14 9
V. Arrears of toll rents outstanding at end of 1841 ** ** 0 10 - 0
ExPENDITURE.---~~£3009 16 10
-G-
1 B 4 2.
IN COME.
1. From rents of fourteen toll-bars and four checks, above
enumerated ~~ ** **, * ~~ *A*. #3356 17 6
Less portion of rent of Branxton bar allocated
to St Andrews district ... fººts ** fººt 25 14 6
£3331 3 0
2. From statute labour of sixteen parishes as before ... *g 611 0 10
3. From mail and stage-coaches, collected by the Trustees as
before º ſº ** **i. £ºg ſº ** ** ... 384 19 9
4. Composition for tolls on carriages and riding horses of
medical men ** gººf Fº *a*, *** ** **, 7 17 0
5. Rent of old toll-house at Rathillet 10s., Cupar south bar £3 3 10 0
6. Dividend on an old debt of £2461, 18s. 10d., due by a former
treasurer on five lines of road ** º ** feº **s 65 I9 5
7. Arrears due by four tacksmen of toll-bars ... ** ** 32 3 4
INCOME ...…~£4436 13 4
EXPENDITURE.
. On repairs of the fifteen lines of road, including Cupar
streets and quarry damages, as before *...* ** rºw #1620 5 6
On maintenance of toll-houses, &c., including, as follows:—
Price of site of new toll-house at Cupar south toll £70 0 0
...sº
Carry forward.....~£70 0 0 £1620 5 6
No. X. FIFE TURNPIKES_CUPAR DISTRICT.
127
Brought forward...~£70 0 0 £1620 5
Cost of building the house .. iºs ** -- 172 7 2
Cost of altering the two gates there ... -- 16 12 0
Lodging for toll-keeper while house was building 2 15 0
Rent of late toll-house from Martinmas 1841 till
June 1842 at £8 per annum .. ** ** 4 7 5
County Rates for toll-houses in this district,
viz.:-Rogue money, constabulary, prisons,
new valuation, &c. *** *** ** *** 0 18 l ()
Oil for lamps at the four bars of Cupar, and at
New Inn and Newburgh bars ... ... .. 6 10 6
Repairing roof of Struthers toll-house tºº 2 12 0
Year's rent of Woodhaven toll-house - ** 3 0 0
Half-year's rent of Newburgh west bar toll-house 2 0 0
Year's rent of Beansnook toll-house tººs -- 4 0 0
Ditto of New York - - - tº 1 l 0
Feu-duty of Rathillet toll-house gº & - 1 O
Altering and repairing thirteen steelyards and
furnishing new weights fººd ºf Rººs 69 18 0
gººgºº, 357
3. Paid six tacksmen for difference of interest upon their de-
posits in security of rents betwixt bank rate and ordinary
rate ... ** º êº * **} tººs tºº. gº - 20
4. Paid year's interest of debt on roads, chiefly at 4 per cent.,
less interest on Trustees’ bank account ... ** ** 958
5. Salaries, advertising and rouping bars, &c., as above . . . 296
6. Expense of opinion of counsel as to tolls on broad-wheeled
carriages ... ... 4
7. Grant to David Balfour, tacksman of Balgarvie toll, on ac-
count of injury inflicted on him during night by a party
who disputed his toll charge * Asºº tºº gº tºº 5
8. Commission allowed to tacksman of Newburgh bar for collect-
ing “Defiance ’’ coach toll for the Trustees ** ** 1
9. Expense of transferring bonds upon the consolidation of the
fifteen separate trusts of this district ... ... -- ~ 43
10. This district’s proportion of survey of proposed road to Burnt-
island ~ - - - - - - - - 40
11. Arrears of rent due by tacksmen of three tolls - ** ~ 28
ExPENDITURE.J.3375
I
7
.
1 11
O
G
1843.
IN COME.
1. From rents of fourteen principal toll-bars and four checks, as
before—less proportion of rent of Branxton bar allocated to
St Andrews district -- - - - - • £3510
2. From statute labour of sixten parishes as before ... ~ 611
3. From mail and stage-coaches collected by the Trustees 422
6 9
0 10
6 5
*=ºma
Carried over...~~£4543 14 0
128 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
Brought forward…f4543 14 0
4. Composition for tolls on six carriages and two riding horses
of medical men - - - tº avºs º ... -- 7 6 0
5. Year's rent of Cupar and Rathillet old toll-houses - - 3 5 0
6. Arrears due by three tacksmen of toll-bars - * - 28 3 4
Income…~£4582 8 4
EXPENDITURE.
l. On repairs of the fifteen lines of road, including Cupar streets
and quarry damages, as before ** ºf ſº ... 36.1602 5 2
2. Maintenance of toll-houses, &c., as before ** &At rººs 47 5 1
3. Interest of debt as before . . . . sº feº ... 921 7 11
4. Salaries, advertising, and rouping bars, &c. - * * 306 12 10.
2. Arrears of rent due by tacksmen of three tolls ... ... 28 3 4
ExPENDITURE..…#2905 14 4
mºmºmº
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME. EXPENDITURE,
1841 ** º gº **s ** ** £4422 16 7 #3009 16 10
1842 zººs Fºs ** ** rºº -- 4436 13 4 3375 19 9
1843 tºº *.* *A* fºº **g fºº 4582 8 4 2905 14 4
Surplus income ... fººt gº a 4150 7 4
£13,441 18 3 #13,441 18 3
*======
No. XI.
FIFE TURNPIKE AND STATUTE LABOUR
ROADS.
ST ANDREW S DISTRICT.
(Under the Statutes 37 Geo. III., cap. 52; 47 Geo. III., cap. 12;
10 Geo. IV., cap. 84; and 1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 43. Nos. I.,
II, III, and X. of the Abridgement.)
1 34 1.
IN COME.
I. Arrears taken credit for in last year's account, viz.:-
Of rents of tolls tº tº gº.ºr tºº #209 7 11
Of statute labour assessment ** ** 134 18 5%
#344 6 4}
II. Rents of fourteen principal toll-bars and their checks for
the year from 11th March, 1841, to 11th March, 1842,
VIZ, --
1. Anstruther and checks ** **** J £202 10 0
2. Elie, and bar at Broomlees -- ** 224 10 0
3. Kelly tº ºt tºº ſº ** tºº 90 0 0
4 & 5. Loans and Higham ** *** ** 348 3 4
6. Lundin-Mill -- ~ -- ~ -- 269 16 8
7. Pittenweem ... -- gº tºº fºs 285 0 0
8. Ferry-Port-on-Craig ... . . . . . ~ 98 0 0
9. Guard-Bridge and bar at Edenside ... 443 3 4
10. Newport .. ** fºsº ** **g • 373 10 0
11. Pitscottie asºn ſº fººd gººs **** 3] 1 3 4
12. Argyle, St Andrews … -- ** ... 206 16 8
13. Shore Bridge, do. - ... -- ** 267 10 0
14. Marytown gºs gººs ** ** º 12 0 0
gºsºsºmºmºsºms 3132 3 4
III. Proportion received from Cupar district of rent of Branx-
ton Bar - &º tºº pºs * ** ** ** ** 33 4 6
IV. Composition exacted from Messrs Robert Haig & Co. for
year’s toll-duties at Guard-Bridge bar -- £45 0 0
V. Do. from the Bank of Scotland for do., as pro-
prietor of the lands of Seggie - - - 10 0 0
55 0 0
VI. Tolls upon mail and stage-coaches at Newport bar—
Mail-coach at 6d. per horse each passing £109 10 0
Stage-coaches at do. * gº ** 93 18 0
* 203 8 0
Carry forward.... £3768 2 23.
R
130 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
Brought forward. £3768 2 24
VII. Statute Labour money levied from the following twenty
parishes, viz.:-
St Andrews and St Leonards ... -- £269 18 l 1
ICemback * * * - -, - 48 16 6;
Leuchars - - - - - - 228 19 7
Forgan - - - - - - - - 110 14 83
Ferry-Port-on-Craig - - - - 30 7 8
Cameron gº *** * ** ** - 164 12 II
T)unino gº gº tº fºs gº gº 66 3 5.
Ringsbarns - - - - - - 101 17 6;
Largo wº gº ºf ſº, tº gº 148 10 1
Newburn * ** ** * pº ~ 70 0 9%
Rilconquhar ** * * * *** ** 146 4 5
lie ** sº º ** ** ** ~ 41 16 3
St Monance *** **s ~ -- ** 35 1 7%
Anstruther Wester tºº ** ** •- 18 13 9
.Anstruther Easter **** **s ** * 14 0 3;
Pittenweem -- *** *.*. ** ** - 11 9 6;
Kilrenny ... ** &º gº ** ** 69 13 24
Crail - tº *** ** tºº **s - 103 18 94
Carnbee .. f** fºº ** tºº, ** 198 10 6
361879 10 7
Less 2s. 6d. per ploughgate transferred to
“large bridges” account ** * 130 10
1749 0 3
INCOME --~£55.17 2 5%
EXPENDITURE.
I. On repairs and improvements of the turnpike and statute
labour roads within the district, per Mr John M'Connell,
Surveyor - - - ... . . . ... -- #2920 11 2%
II. On maintenance of toll-houses, toll-bars, steel-yards,
painted and printed tables of tolls, and oil for toll
6 10 3}
12 6 0
lamps - $º tºº gº tºº gº ſº tºº
III. Interest paid tacksmen on sums deposited by certain of
them in security of rents tº ºw gº tºº &º
IV. Interest of £15,173, 15s. 7#d. of debts affecting the turn-
pikes, at 4 per cent. ** gºº ſº :6640 4 3
And of £551, 16s. affecting the statute labour
25 3 2
roads * tºº * ** ** *
3665 7 5
Less interest on Trustees’ account for the
year with the Bank of Scotland, St Andrews 55 15 ll
*E=º
609 || || 6
V. Expenses of Management:—
Surveyor (Mr John M'Connell and his three assist-
ants) - gº tº * tº gº #400 0 0
Clerk (Mr Stuart Grace) *** *s. …, 45 0 0
Treasurer at St Andrews (Mr John Bain) 40 0 0
Do. Colinsburgh (Mr John Wood) 20 0 0
0 0
Carry forward …~ £505 #3548 19 0
No. XI.-TURNPIKE, ETC. ROADS—ST ANDREWS DIST. 131
Brought forward.…~£505 0 0 £3548 19 0
Inspector of nuisances (Mr Thomas Marr) 10 0 0
Collector of statute labour money (Mr John
Aitken) - - - - 18 15 6
And proportion of additional allow-
ance to him ſºv rººs 18 6. 0
— 37 l 6
552 1 6
Advertising and rouping toll-bars, printing articles of
roup, &c. ** * A.Aw Awº Asºº £15 17 1
Advertising meetings of Trustees, printing
accounts, postages, and incidental expenses 20 11 2
Expense of translation of bonds on certain
monies being called up ... -- ~ 35 2 4
— 71 10 7
VI. Arrears to be carried to next year's account:-
Of toll-bar rents ~ - - - £282 4 7
Of statute labour assessment ... ... ~ 18 0 8 -
* 300 5 3
ExPENDITURE --~£4472 16 4
—º-
184. 2.
INCOME.
I. Arrears of toll rents and statute labour brought forward £300 5 3
II. Rents of principal toll-bars and checks - - •- 3130 11 5
III. Proportion of rent of Branxton bar .. Pºw ** -- 33 4 6
IV. Compositions as before - - **s ** tºº ** 55 0 0
V. Tolls upon mail and stage-coaches at Newport bar ... 203 8 0
VI. Statute labour money from the same parishes as before, -
less 2s. 6d. per ploughgate to “large bridges” &^* 1746 7 11%
VII. Received half of surplus of sum set aside for improve-
ment of Coalford bridge—the other half paid to Cupar
district - - - - - -- ~ - c. 71 3 0
INCOME --~~~£5540 0 1%
EXPENDITURE.
I. On repairs and improvements of the turnpike and statute
labour roads within the district, per Mr John M'Connell,
Peº Peº rºs ~ £3465 12 11
Surveyor -- ~ -- ~~
II. On maintenance of toll-houses, &c. tºº ** rºsºs 5 16 8
III. Interest paid tacksmen on their deposits ** ** 14 17 11
IV. Interest on turnpike and statute labour road debts, less
year's interest on Trustees’ bank account - fººd 500 i 5
V. Expenses of Management:— -
Salaries ... ** ** a.As * - £546 4 8
Advertising and rouping tolls ... - 14 14 5
Allowancetotacksmen for expense of printed
pass tickets - rº avºe *As asºs 9 4 3
Advertising meetings of trustees, printing
accounts, &c. ... gº - Asºº • 21 12 1
Expense of translation of bonds ... .. 10 9 0
— 602 4 5
Carry forward.…~£4588 13 4
132 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
- Brought forward…~£4588 13 4
VI. Arrears to be carried to next account:—
Of toll-bar rents - ** nºw ** #353 3 6
Of statute labour assessment ** ** 32 5 7%
— 385 9 l;
ExPENDITURE …#4974 2 5;
—Q–
- 1 34 3.
IN COME.
I. Arrears brought forward - - - - - - £385 9 13
II. Rents of toll-bars and checks ** **, *, **s 3193 0 1
III. Proportion of rent of Branxton bar . . . . 33 4 6
IV. Compositions as before nº ºf ** 55 0 0
V. Tolls on mail and stage-coaches at Newport bar ** ... 213 18 0
VI. Statute labour money from the same parishes as before,
less 2s. 6d. per ploughgate to “large bridges” º 1744 5 10%
-**-**=ms
INGOME --~~£5624 17 7
EXPENDITURE.
I. On repairs and improvements of the turnpike and statute
labour roads within the district, per Mr M*Connell, *
surveyor .. º fºu avº rººf * **) ... 63331 14 1
II. On maintenance of toll-houses, &c. rºad 3610 2 4
Repair of steel-yards and new weights ... 69 7 6
gºmºsºm-º. 79 9 10
III. Interest paid tacksmen on their deposits ... - . 13 7 11
IV. Interest of turnpike and statute labour road debts, less
interest on Trustees’ bank account ** ** * 550 l 9
W. Expenses of Management:— -
Salaries *...* º fººd * rººs #557 17 7
Advertising and rouping bars, &c. - 19 18 7
Advertising meetings of Trustees, printing
accounts, &c. * º * tº- 23 13 6
Expense of translation of bonds - - 6 le 6
— 608 6 2
VI. Arrears to be carried to next account:—
Of toll-bar rents a.A.! º rºw * :9328 5 3
Of statute labour assessment ~ Nº. 23 7 14
e-g
351 12 4;
ExPENDITURE >>...~£4934 12 l;
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME. EXPENDITURE,
1841 - ... . . . . $55.17 2 5% #4472 16 4
1842 ... ... -- ~ -- ~ 5540 0 1% 4974 2 5%
1843 ** fººd ** gººs ** *.* 5624 17 7 4934 12 1%
Surplus income - - - 2300 9 3
*-* *s ***-se
º £16,682 0 2 £16,682 0 2
No. XII.
FI FE T U R N P T K E S.
KIR KAL D Y DISTRICT.
( Under the Satutes Nos. III. and X. of the Abridgement.)
184, 1.
IN COME.
I. Rents of ten principal toll-bars and two checks for the
year, viz.:-
1. and 2. East and West Bridge, Kirkaldy ** £1151 13 4
3. Gallatown and check tº ** ** ~ 945 16 8
4. and 5. Bennochy and Cluny and check fº gº.” 733 10 0
6. Windygates * ** Raº asºn º • 33 l l 8
7. Wellsgreen *** ** ** * * * * 142 18 4
8. Kirkton - Avº º ** ** ** ºw 271 10 0
9. Baidlin . pºsſ rºu wº- ** - 152 15 0
O
10. Newinn (ā-20ths) ~ 2. ~ - 416 5
£4145 10 0
II. Coach tolls at Kirkaldy, West Bridge bar, East Bridge,
Gallatown, New Inn, Windygates, and Baidlin—the -
mail at 9d., and other coaches at 6d. per horse - - 383 6 4
III. Cash from Great North Road Trustees, half of expense of
keeping up road from Burntisland harbour to their first
or “ Perth "bar on the Great North Road ... ... 8 17 9
~£4537 14 1
-*-*-*=º-
INCOME
EXPENDITURE.
I. Repairs and improvement of the turnpike
roads within the district, disbursed by Mr
M'Connell, surveyor, including allow-
ance of £50 for Kirkaldy main street, and
427,9s. 6d. for quarry damages ... #2780 l l 5%
Less surveyor's posts, printing, stationery,
and rents of rooms for paying men - 1 l 7 0
* £2769 4 5}
II. Maintenance of toll-houses, gates, and steel- -
Carry forward.…~£27 18 11 £2769 4 5%
134 PART II,_ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.,
Brought forward...~£27 18 11 #2769 4 5}
Gas-fittings, and gas and oil consumed at toll-
17 2 8;
bars * º gº ** **
Feu-duty of toil-houses " . . . . . . . 0 13 A
45 13 11:#
III. Interest of debts on turnpike roads at 5 per
cent. . ~~ ** #291 I 9
Less interest on Trustees current account
with Bank of Scotland, Kirkaldy ... -- 8 10 9
282 1 1 0
IV. Annual allowance to blind Andrew Matthew-
son, who was hurt in a quarry while in the
service of the Trustees ... ... --
V. Annual allowance to Mr Joseph Norval, re-
tired surveyor ... • - - - £40 0 0
Less retained on account of debt due by him
to the road Trustees ... ... gº Pº 20 0 0
10 10 0
20 0 0
VI. Expenses of management:—
Surveyor (Mr John M'Connell, and his three
-assistants) - ~ - - - #3280
District Clerk (Mr William Douglas) - 25
Treasurer (Mr Matthew Beveridge) - 45
Auditor (Mr Thomas Barclay) ... .. 10
General Clerk (Mr Thomas Horsbrugh)—
this district’s proportion of his salary - 12 17
36373 7 2
Expense of advertising and rouping bars,
allowance for refreshment to bidders at
- roup, printing hand-bills as to roup, printed
tables of tolls, and other items connected
with set of bars ~ : ..., 820 4 l;
Payments by surveyor for posts,
printing, stationery, and rents
of pay-rooms ** º 11 7
:
2:
31 II 13
404 18 3%
ExPENDITURE- #3532 17 8;
— Q–
1 8 4, 2.
IN COME.
I. Rents of toll-bars and checks - c. 363978 10 10
Less sum allowed per minute of Trustees to
tacksman of bars as a deduction because he
was non-suited in his attempt to exact toll
on carts passing with empty carboys, which
carts at the roup of the toll were sup-
posed liable **s ** ** * ... 10 0 0
33968 10 10
II. Mail and stage-coach toll-duties *** * ** ** 412 10 6
III. Allowance from Great North Road Trustees - - -- 12 8 2
IV. Composition from medical men for freedom from the whole
tolls in the district:— -
One gig at gº gº ºs *** ** 32 10 0
Carry forward...~£2 10 0 £4393 9 6
No. XII. FIFE TURNPIKES-KIRKALDY DISTRICT. 135
- Brought forward…~£2 10 0 £4393 9 6
Five horses at 15s. -- - - - 3 15 0
And from Mr William Douglas for freedom
for his farm produce at Bennochy bar - 5 0 0
- — l l 5 0
V. Amount of statute labour assessment received from the
parishes of Abbotshall, Auchtertool, Ballingry, Burnt-
island, Kinghorn, Markinch, and Scoonie . ** 776 0 0
*-*
INCOME.----~£5180 14 6
tº-ºº-ººm -
EXPENDITURE.
I. On repairs and improvements of the roads,
disbursed by Mr M'Connell surveyor £2905 4 9
And for main street of Kirkaldy ** 65 0 0
II. Paid towards making new road from Burntisland to King-
horn º ** *A* A*- -*. a.º. *** *A* -- 1725 19 3
[A cash credit for L.4000 was obtained by the Trustees from the National
Bank, Kirkaldy, to assist in making this road.]
III. Maintenance of toll-houses, gates, steelyards,
and gas and oil -- ~ - - £48 16 4
Correcting boards of new rates of toll-duty 4 0 6
Feu-duty of Bennochy and West Bridge
toll-houses Avº rº-e **6 ** gº 0. 5 8
53 2 6
IV. Interest of debt—less interest on Trustees’ bank account 216 6 3
V. Annual allowance to Andrew Matthewson #10 10 0
And one and a-half year’s to Mr Norval - 30 0 0
**smºmºmºmºsºme 40 10 0
VI. Expenses of management:—
Salaries - - - - - £364 4 5
Advertising and rouping bars, &c., includ-
ing £3,3s. for refreshment to bidders at
roup - tººs ** ºw * º 38 7 1
Advertising meetings of Trustees, printing
accounts, &c. -- ~ -- ~ 2 I 6%
—— 414 13 0}
VII. Arrears of toll-rents to be carried to next account ** 295 15 0.
*-*
ExPENDITURE.........f5716 10 9%
—Q–
1843.
IN COME.
I. Arrears of toll-rents broughtforward - - - £ 295 15 0
II. Rents of toll-bars and checks ... * ſº- ** - 3989. 6 10}
III. Mail and stage-coach toll-duty - - - ** 464 6
IV. Allowance from Great North Road Trustees -. * 16 3 10
W. Compositions from medical men (one gig and six horses)
and Mr Douglas tº avº *As gº tºº. ſº 12 0 0
VI. Received from Aytoun of Capledrae towards expense of
tram railway at Bennochy brae ... rººt pººr ~ :- 10 0 0
Carry forward.…~£4787 11 9
136 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
Brought forward----~£4787 Il 9
VII. Amount of statute labour assessment received from the
parishes of Abbotshall, Auchtertool, Burntisland,
Kinghorn, and Scoonie - - - pºe ** 70 0 0
IncomE.-----…#4857 11 9
EXPENDITURE.
I. Onrepairs and improvements of the roads disbursed by Mr
M'Connell, with £65 for main street of Kirkaldy, and
£2, 5s. for a drain at Gallatown tº º gºº #3452 9 9%
II. Paid farther towards making new road from Burntisland
to Kinghorn - - - - - - - - 2894 17 4 -
III. Maintenance of toll-houses, gates, steel-yards, gas and
oil, and feu-duties - pººl *g 96 TO 6
Sums allowed Latto and Co., tacksmen of
bars, for loss said to have been sustained by
them while the weighing-machines were re-
moved to be rectified ** tºº ** 14 0 0
Sum allowed the same parties towards ex-
pense of their process in the Sheriff Court
anent charging toll-duty at East Bridge bar
on road leading down to Kirkaldy sands 5 0 0
——— 115 10 6
IV. Interest of debt—less interest on Trustees’ bank account 215 17 5
V. Allowance to Andrew Matthewson ... ſºl{} 10 0
And to Mr Norval tº gº ** Pºw 20 0 0
——— 30 10 0
VI. Expenses of management:— -
Salaries tºº *** *** *.* gº #364 3 2
Advertising and rouping bars, refreshment, &c. 26 19 0
Payments by surveyor for posts, printing,
stationery, and rents of pay-rooms ** 19 5 11}
410 8 13:
VII. Expense of eight road clauses in the new
Burntisland ferry, pier, and road act £575 7 3
And of bonds and assignations for two cash-
credits of £4000 and £1000, obtained on
account of the Burntisland new road 39 14 11
6i5 2 2
VIII. Proportion of expense of surveying in connection with
new road and low-water pier gº º tº &ºs 57 17 5
IX. Income-tax on surplus revenue of this district of roads,
after defraying ordinary expenses of maintaining roads 38 13 2
ExPENDITURE.----~$7831 5 ll
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME, EXPENDITURE.
1841 tºº ** tºº ** gº gº #4537 14 1 4:3532 17 8%
1842 ... gº tº * tºº, fººts ** 5180 14 6 57.16 10 9%
1843 tºº, º gº * ... 4857 11 9 7831 5 11
Excess of expenditure in consequence
of sums applied in making Burnt-
land and Kinghorn new road 2504 14 13.
£17,080 14 ºf e17,080 14 53
No. XIII.
FI FE TU R N P I K E S.
D UN FERMLINE GENERAL DISTRICT.
(Under the Statutes, Nos. III. and X. of the Abridgement.)
1841.
INCOME.
º
I. Arrears of toll rents brought from last account ** 323 1 0
II. Year's rent of eleven toll-bars and two checks, viz.:-
1. Gillanderston and check ... ... 36.186 0 0
2 & 3. Pittencrieff and Crossford ... ... 156 0 0 -
4,5,8, 6. Crossgates, Towngreen, and Bucklyvie 293 0 0
7. Inverkeithing, with check near distil-
lery ** *** * * * 103 0 0
8. North Queensferry .. #88 0 0
Less agreed to be abated by
the Trustees if toll-house
not licensed as a public-
house **w ºw ºf 35 0 0
—— 53 0 0
9 & 10. Rumbling-Well and Mounthooly - 167 0 0
11. Lady's Mill Pº ºne rºº reas 97 0 0
— 1055 0 0
III. Toll-duties from coaches at Queensferry and Lady's Mill
bars ... º.º. f** ** ** *** ** ** sº 76 1 0
IV. Allocation of statute labour from Inverkeithing parish 20 0 0
INcome Jºl 174 2 0
EXPENDITURE.
I. On repairs of eight lines of road - - - - £529 5 0
II. Repayment of grant for extra repairs on Gillanderston
and Crossgates roads, and £4,10s. of interest 79 10 0
III. Alteration of Crossgates road at Cuttlehill - - 10 17 3%
IV. Allocation for footpaths on Crossgates road * 23 11 1
V. Repairs of toll-houses, gates, and steel-yards ſº 16 17 2
VI. Interest of £2350 of debt at 4 per cent. - - 94 0 0
Carry forward …~ £754 0 6%
S
138 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
- Brought forward…~$754 0 6}
VII. Expenses of Management:-
Surveyor (Mr Robert Drysdale) - £50 0 0
Clerk (Mr Robert Douglas) . . 10 0 0
Treasurer (Mr John Macdonald) ** 40 0 0
This district's proportion of general clerk's
salary - * gº *As Rºl 9 3
Advertising and rouping bars . . . 38 3 0}
Rents of toll-houses, printing, assignation
of securities, &c. tººl gººd rº 17 15 10
— 160 8 l;
VIII, Arrears of toll rents carried forward ... ... ... 75 19 7
ExPENDITURE.J.'990 8 3
1 B 4, 2.
IN COME.
I. Arrears of toll rents brought forward .. **! ſº 3975 19 7
II. Year's rent of leventoll-bars and two checks £1114 0 0
Toll-duties on coals at Rumbling-Well
toll-bar, driven for exportation during
temporary interruption of railroad 6 11 6
- II.20 ! I 6
III. Toll-duties from stage-coaches . . . . . . . . 46 16 0
IV. Statute labour from Inverkeithing parish - - - 20 0 0
** sºm-º.
INCOME --~~~~£1263 7 1
tº mºnº
EXPENDITURE.
I. On repairs of eight lines of road - - - - £566 3 0}
II. Extra repairs on Crossgates road and footpath ... -- 38 9 9
III. Repairs of toll-houses, gates, and steel-yards -- ~ 33 12 3
IV. Interest of debt and tenants’ deposits ** *** ** 87 14 11
W. Expenses of Management:—
Salaries - - - - - - £100 0 0
Advertising and rouping bars ** 37 17 4%
Rents of toll-houses, printing, assignation of
securities, &c. Pº rºº ** Pºe 44 12 9
182 10 13
VI. Arrears of toll-rents carried foward - - - - 99 19 7
* *sºmeºs ºsmºs
ExPENDITURE..…~£1008 9 8
No. XIII.-FIFE TURNPIKES_DUNFERM. GEN. DIST, 139
1 34 3.
IN COME.
I. Arrears of toll-rents brought forward ... ... -- f29 19 7
II. Year's rent of eleven toll-bars and two checks ** 1010 0 0
III. Toll-duties from stage-coaches ... ... a. * * * ** 63 9 6
IV. Statute labour from Inverkeithing parish ~ * 15 0 0
V. Borrowed from treasurer for expense of cutting hill on Cross-
gates road, &c. yºu fºy rººs º Aº rºw Asºº 102 3 8
INCOME --~£1290 12 9
EXPENDITURE.
I. On repair of eight lines of road fººd aw f** ... f630 18 8%
II. Extra repair on Crossgates road - c. -- 91 0 i
III. Repayment of instalment for previous extra repair on
Crossgates road and interest -- **4 A.M. rººd º 29 2 5
IV. Allocation for footpath on Pittencrieff Street *} 40 0 6
V. Repairs on toll-houses, gates, and steelyards ** AA. 69 11 10
VI. Interest of debt and tenants’ deposits - - - 80 2 9
VII. Expenses of management:—
Salaries *A4 was nºw fººd fºu #100 0 0
Advertising and rouping bars - ~ 36 16 11
Rents of toll-houses, printing, transfers, &c. 33 6 10 7
——— 170 3 9
VIII. Arrears of toll-rents and stage-coach toll-duties - 181 4 1
*** *
ExPENDITURE.--~£1292. 4 l;
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS.
IN COME, IEXPEN DITU R.E.
1841 tºº hev alsº ** fºu ** 361.174 2 0 3990 8 3
1842 -- ** fººd fºº ^** fººd ... 1263 7 1 1008 9 8
1843 rwº ^^w ** * rººm fººd 1290 12 9 1292 4 1%
Surplus income fººd ** 436 19 9%
** *mms as-wºº ammºmsº
#3728 l 10 #3728 1 10
*
No. XIV.
FIFE T U R N P I K E S.
W H IT E H II, L R O A D T R U S T.
(Under the Statutes, Nos. III. and X. of the Abridgement.)
INCOME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
Rents of Whitehill toll-bar...; $66 0 0 £62 0 0 £50 0 0 £178 0 0
IEXPENDITURE.
1841. | 1842. 1843. TOTAL,
I. Repairs of road ......... £30 16 0} | £31 5 4} | £19 13 9 £81 15 2
II. Do. of steel-yard
and toll-bar ......... 5 Il 9 1 17 6 10 6 0 17 15 3
III. Interest of debt ......... 7 O 5 7 I 5 6 14 4 20 16 2
IV. Salaries:—
Surveyor (Mr Drys-
dale) .................. 8 8 0 8 8 0 8 8 0 25 4 0.
Treasurer (Mr Mac-
donald) ............... 5 5 0 || - 5 5 0 5 5 0 15 15 0
W. Advertising and roup-
ing bars ............... 4 I6 I. 4 16 2 4 16 2 14 8 5
£6l 17 3} |#58 13 5} | £55 3 3 | #175 14 0

SURPLUS INCOME ON THE THREE YEARS ..................... £2 6 O
II.
III,
II.
III.
IV.
No. XV.
F IF E T U R N P I K E S.
A BERIDO U R AND D U L O CH TRUST.
( Under the Statutes, Nos. III. and X. of the Abridgement.)
. Rents of Hospital toll-
bar
e e º e º e º e º - e º & © & © e º e e de e s &
8,
Stage-coach toll-duties
Arrears of rent............
INCOME ............
. Repairs of Queensferry
and Duloch roads...
Grants to Dunfermline
Surveyor (Mr Drys-
dale), and Treasurer
(Mr Macdonald) ...
Advertising and roup-
ing bars, repairs of
toll-houses, steel-yards,
street lamps, &c. ......
. Arrears of toll rents...
EXPENDITURE......
IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
£211 0 0 || £222 0 0 || £226 O 0 || £659 () 0
46 16 0 46 16 0 46 15 0 || 140 7 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 39 L6 0 39 16 0
£257 16 0 |ez68 16 0 |eglz 11 0 ſess9 3 o
EXPENDITURE.
1841. 1842. 1843, TOTAL.
£128 13 7 || 3:150 ll 3 £93 16 8; £373 l 64
110 17 74 0 0 (0 0 0 0 || 110 17 74
32 14 0 32 14 0 32 14 0 98 2 0
18 2 84 21 5 10 28 0 1 67 8 74
O 0 0 39 16 0 26 0 4 65 16 4
£290 7 Il |#244 7 1 || 4:180 11 14 | #715 6 1}


SURPLUS INCOME ON THE THREE YEARS............ ...... £123 6 10}
No. XVI.
I, E W E N R. O. A D A N D B R ID G E.
(Under the Statutes, Nos. W. and X, of the Abridgement.)
I. The act received the royal assent 1st July, 1839.
II. The bridge was built, and the road for the most part completed,
of date 18th November, 1840, when they were opened to the
public.
III. The expenses of applying for the act, of having it passed, and
of putting it in motion by the election of Trustees, were * ... £450 17 11
• IV. The other sums expended up to Whitsunday 1844, when the
last improvement on the line of road was completed (to wit,
the reparation of Leven main street), leaving from that date,
as future outlay, only the necessary up-keep of the road and
bridge, and the working of the Trust, were:—
1. In purchasing the right of ferry from
C. M. Christie, Esq. of Durie, and ex-
penses therewith connected ... £940 19 2;
2. The building of the bridge £2917 6 1 -
The pontage house and
- gate, &c. & e - * G & I79 19 10
A moiety of approaches to
the bridge tº e º ... 530 7 7
Land for south approach 100 0 0
—— 3727 13 6
* 4668 12 84
3. In altering and improving the road, in-
cluding metal depots, drains, and
fences, viz.:-
General repairs on the whole line £2201 7 4
Improvement north of East
Wemyss—
Bridge and culvert £489 19 1
Roadway ... 1051 11 7
- 1541 10 8
Improvement near Blair gate tº ſº tº 322 2 0
Improvement at Wellsgreen lands 120 0 0
Improvement south of Scoonie bridge 187 11 6
Improvement on Leven main street 54 10 L
A moiety of approaches to the bridge 530 7 7
Landsfor improvement north of East
Wemyss, new line from summit of
Sawmill brae, &c. - a - & e g 227 O 7
Land for branch road to Innerleven I35 12
House property for opening out
proper access from Leven main
street to north approach to bridge 416 2 3
Damages to growing crops e - tº 48 14 9
—— 5784 19 3
Carry forward............ ........ £10,904 910;
* Considered as chargeable against bridge and road in equal proportions.
No. XVI.-LEVEN BRIDGE AND ROAD. 143
Brought forward..................... £10,904 910;
4. In sites for toll-houses, building do., and
for gates, steel-yards, &c., viz.:-
Toll-houses, four in number, viz., at
Scoonie, Methil.-hill, Percival,
and Bowhouse ... tº º 0 * * * 39.219 10 0
Gates, including checks, seven in
number; steelyards, four in num-
ber; painted tables of tolls, five
in number & 9 º' tº º & tº º tº 103 14 0
W. Mixed Expenditure:—
1. Cost of bond* for £7000 borrowed from Bank of
Scotland. Against bridge, £14, 3s. 63d.;
against road, £18, 19s. 9%d. f º is tº tº ſº e
2. Expense of management, viz.:-
Surveyor (to April, 1843) £200 18 0
Clerk (to July, 1843). Against
bridge, £38, 10s. 10d. ; against
road, £51, 9s. 2d. f G is s 90 0 (0
Miscellaneous. Against bridge,
£44, ls, 5%d. ; road, £59 t 103 l 5}
$33 3 4.
*-*- 393 19 5}
3. Interest and discounts, viz.-Against bridge,
£638, ls. 10d.; against road, £851, 18s. f ... 1489 19 10
—— 1917 2 74
TOTAL EXPENDITURE .................. £13,144 16 6
—-º-
. PECUNIARY POSITION OF THE TRUST AT
WHITSUNDAY 1844. -
I.—LIABILITIES.
Tradesmen’s accounts—
Balance due to Mr John Anderson on account of
approaches to bridge, &c. $200 0 (0
Loans—
Due to Bank of Scotland and others Q & Gº - tº º 9096 9 4
Land purchases—
Due to Captain Erskine Wemyss tº e 40 e e is 317 O 7
A balance due to Commercial Bank .. • * * * * * 0 4 10
——— £96 13 14 9
II.-ASSETS.
Outstanding debts—
Lessees of tolls and pontage, and others e - tº ... , 9230 5 0
Balance in treasurer's hands tº º º tº º ve gº tº 4 18 8 2
248 13 2
NETT SuM AT DEBIT OF THE TRUST: ..................... £9365 l 7
* Other loans on bill.
+ Apportioned according to the respective outlays on the bridge and the road.
i Since Whitsunday there has been received a further grant in aid from the county bridge fund
of L.250, which, with other receipts, reduces the debt to about L.9000.
144 PART II.-ABSTRACT of Accounts.
ESTIMATE OF IN COME AND EXPENDITURE FOR,
THE YEAR FROM WHITSUNDAY 1844 TO WHIT-
SUNDAY 1845.
INCOME.
Road, viz.-
Tack-duties from lessees of tolls (none of the houses
•
licensed as public-houses) £486 0 0
Coaches and compositions e is tº * = - * * is 72 12 O
Miscellaneous ... - - - tº e e e a e e e e tº a e 2 10 0
——— £561 2 0
Bridge, viz. –
Pontage, tack-duty tº º de tº tº ſº - ºn tº tº tº º
Composition (Peter Wilson) tº º º tº a tº tº s & 1 0
TOTAL ESTIMATED INCOME ... .... ............ £864 2 0
GENERAL EXPENDITURE.
Interest payable on loans and otherwise • * * e e is tº a te tº e e £307 9 1
Up-keep of road, &c., viz. –
The ordinary repair of the road (including two
branches at Innerleven and Sawmill), 7# miles,
at £25 per mile © º a & º º • * * * - ſº
Extras— - r
Keeping the young hedges, including
railin tº e - - sº * - - 398
£193 15 0
• * * 0 0
Houses and gates tº - º e s a e - ºn 4 0 0
Footpaths ... - * * * - tº • a tº ºr 10 0 0
Drains required at different places 7 0 0
Repair of embankments ... tº 6 tº I 10 0
30 10 0
-*a**- 224 5 0
Management, viz. – º
Surveyor (Mr John M'Connell, assisted by Mr H.
Petheram) tº tº e © tº wº & ºn tº tº ſº tº tº e º £20 0 0
Clerk (Mr John Smith) * & e ºs * - - tº º tº - - - 15 O O
Treasurer (Mr John Balfour) e - tº * * * tº a tº 5 0 0
Incidents, including £6, 13s.6d. for advertising and
rouping bars, and advertising statutory meetings, &c. 35 0 0 75 0
**** O
ToTAL ESTIMATED ExPENDITURE PER YEAR ............ £606 14 I
—Q–
THE NAMES OF THE PRESENT TRUSTEES (1844) ARE AS
*, FOLLOW :—
I.—APPOINTED BY THE ACT.
CAPTAIN ERSKINE WEMYss, of Torry and Wemyss, M.P.
- JoHN PETER, Junior, of Kirkland Works. ,
John BALFour of Leven Mills.
JAMES ANDERSON of Durie Foundry.
JoHN HAIG of Cameron Distillery.
II.-ELECTED,
THOMAS BY WATER, Factor to Captain Wemyss, residing at Chapel Garden.
REV. GEORGE BREwsTER, Minister of Scoonie.
HENRY TANDY PETER of Kirkland Works.
HENRY BURRELL, Surgeon, R.N., residing in Leven.
* This includes allowance for stationery, postages, and expenses attending meetings at Kirk-
aldy, where two at least are held in the year, namely—General meeting in August and
meeting for roup of tolls.
NO, XVII.
KINROSS-SHIRE STATUTE LABOUR.
KINR O S S AND OR WELL DISTRICT.
(Under the Act 7 Geo. IV., cap. 69; No. VI. of the Abridgement.)
IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
I. Assessment of 15s, for
each ploughgate of
and . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... £192 7 Il £192 8 7 || $192 7 11 || 42.577 4 5
II. Assessment upon house-
holders for conversion
of personal services, *
at ls. for each day's
Work....................... 40 17 0 37 10 0 46 10 0 | 124 17 0
III. Interest recovered on as-
sessments................. 1 17 1 1 / 8 9 I 16 7 5 2 5
INCOME.......... £235 2 0 | £231 7 4 £240 14 6 £707 3 10
EXPENDITURE.
I. Payments to committees
of the Trustees to be
expended on roads in
the Kinross and Or-
well district.............. || $171 16 7 || £166 19 5 || £190 2 1 | #2528 18 1
And to the Treasurer of
the road from Kin-
rossto Auchtermuchty *
(Abstract No. XXIII.) 12 4 6 12 4 6 I2 4 6 36 13 6
II. Expenses of manage-
ment:—
Surveyor (a com—
mittee appointed
by the Trustees)... . ............ . ............ . ............ . ............
Treasurer and col—
lector................ 15 O O 15 0 0 I5 0 0 45 0 0
Clerk................. .. 3 O 0 3 O O 3 0 0 9 O O
Tools for workmen 3 5 7 3 IO IO 3 5 10 10 2 3
ExPENDITURE....... £205 6 8 I 45200 14 9 £223 12 5 || £629 13 10
SURPLUS ON THE THREE YEARS.................................#77 10 0



T
NO. XVIII.
RINROSS-SHIRE STATUTE I, AIBOUR.
PO RTM OAK AND ARNG AS K DISTRICT.
(Under the Act 7 Geo. IV., cap. 69; No. VI. of the Abridgement.)
IN COME.

1841.
1842.
1843.
TOTAL.
Assessment of 22s. for each
ploughgate of land 1841,
and at 16s, per plough-
gate 1842-'43 £147 16 0
£110 7 10
£110 7 9
£368 11 7
el47 16 0
£110 7 10
£110 7 9
£368 11 7
EXPENDITURE.
This is shown in the Abstract No. XXV.
No. XIX.
KIN ROSS-SHIRE STATUTE LABOUR.
CLE ISH AND F O S S AWAY DISTRICT.
(Under the Act 7 Geo. IV., cap. 69; No. VI. of the Abridgement.)
I. Assessment of 25s, for
i. ploughgate of
& e º sº a 9 tº is a e º is is e º e º ſº a tº ſº º
holders for conver—
sion of personal ser–
vices......................
I. On repair of the roads...
of
II. Expense
ment :
manage-
Surveyor (a com-
mittee appointed
by the Trustees)
Clerk (Mr Andrew
Dowie)
Collector Mr Peter
MacG
EXPENDITURE.......
IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
£80 7 5 £80 7 5 || £80 7 5 £241 2 3
4 17 0 4 17 0 || 4 17 0 14 11 0
£85 4 5 | £85 4 5 || £85 4 5 £255 13 3
EXPENDITURE.
£80 4 5 || 3980 4 5 £80 4 5 || $240 13 3
5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 15 0 0
£85 4 5 | 685 4 5 | #85 4 5 | #255 13 3




No. XX.
O U TH AND
R IN R O S S-S HIRE, &c., TU R N PIK E S.
NIVING ST ON TRUST.”
( Under the Statutes Nos. VII. and X. of the Abridgement.)
IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL,
I. Balance due by treasurer
on last account, includ-
ing arrears of rents...... £166 9 0 | ... ........ . ............ £166 9 0
II. Rents of toll-bars, viz.,
4 principal bars, (Red
Craigs, Linn Bridge,
Lochend, and Gask), and
three check-bars (Drum-
tuthel, Dunnygask, and
Lassodie).................. ... . 490 0 0 || 500 0 0 | 401 0 0 || 1391 0 0
III. Compositions for tolls...... 3 O 6 2 10 0 1 5 0 6 15 6
IV. Allocation from Fife sta-
tute labour............ ..... 84 6 0 84 7 6 4 6 || 252 18 0
V. Interest..................... tº º º 4 1 7 2 2 7 3 17 0 I0 1 2
INCOME.......... £747 17 I £589 O 1 || £490 6 6 |$1827 3 8
EXPENDITURE.
I. Repairs of the several
branches of road........ £335 2 6 £351 17 6 59.319 8 11 |39.1006 8 Il
II. Repairs of toll-bars,f
ools, &c,.................. 37 1 8 15 1 0 6 12 7; 58 15 3}
III. Interest of £1900 of
ept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 8 9 69 18 2 | 80 l 5 231 8 4
IV. Expenses of manage—
ment :—
Surveyor (Mr Drysdale) 10 10 0 10 10 0 || 10 10 0 31 10 0
Treasurer (Mr R. Doug-
las)......................... 10 0 0 I0 0 0 || 10 0 0 30 O O
Clerk (Mr J. Macdonald) 5 0 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 15 O O
Incidental disburse—
ments................. 2 6 8 6 6 3 8 17 11 17 10 10
W. Balance of proportion due
by this Trust of expense
of Act of Parliament... . ............ 105 16 0 | ............ 105 16 0
VI. Abatements to tacks—
men of bars, partly
for a sum expended by
one of the tacksmen
on his toll-bar, and
partly to procure a
settlement of arrears
of toll-rent............. ſº is tº t e º a s e º a s a & 31 I 5 I 6 6 32 7 II
ExPENDITURE..... £481 9 7 ||3:605 10 4 |#441 17 4} |4:1528 17 3}


SURPLUs on THE THREE YEARs, including £57, 19s. of arrear of toll-rents, £298 6 4}
[Besides the debt of L.1900—for which the Trustees have granted their personal
er cent.—there is due to the heirs of the late
bond bearing interest at 4
Lord Chief-Commissioner
dam and others L.8000 and .#
terest since 1811, advanced on account of making these roads.]
wards, with in-
* This Trust comprehends the lines of road Nos. 1, 2, and 4, of the Kinross-shire, &c., Act;
No. VII. of the Abridgement, Section II.
# There are no steelyards at any of the seven bars on these roads.
No. XXI.
R IN R O S S-S H II* E, &c., T U R N P I K E S.
C A R N O C K AND COMIRIE TR U ST.3%
(Under the Statutes Nos. VII. and X. of the Abridgement.)
IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL,

Rents of Blair and Ken- -
#139 10 0 || £149 0 0 | £145 0 0 || £433 10 0
net toll-bars................
INCOME............ £139 10 0 | £149 0 0 | £145 0 0 | £433 10 0
sº-
EXPENDITURE.
On repairs of roads, expense - -
£134 on cº is s|es. an |ews 4 6

of management, &c...........
e134 o 11 e9219 8 egl § 11 egos 4 6
SURPLUS ON THE THREE YEARS...................................
EXPENDITURE......
[The average yearly expenditure is as follows:-1. Qn repairs of roads, L.85; 2. Maintenance
of Kennet toll-house, gates, steelyard, and table of tolls, L.5; 3. Rent of Comrie toll-house,
L.2, 10s.; 4. Interest of L.5560 of debt-none paid; 5. Expense of *ś -
(Mr Drysdale), L.5, 5s. ; Treasurer (William Menzies, Esq.), L.0,0s. 0d.; Clerk (Mr Robert-
son), L.1; General Clerk (Mr Williamson), L.1; Advertising and rouping bars and inci-
dents, L.1, 10. Upon the above debt two dividends have been paid of 2s. per pound since the
commencement of the Trust in 1809.]
* This Trust comprehends the line of road No. 6 of the Kinross-shire, &c., Act; No. VII. of
the Abridgement, Section II.
KIN, R O S S-S H I B, E, &c., TU R N PI K E S.
No. XXII.
THOMAN EAN TR U ST.”
( Under the Statutes Nos. VII. and X. of the Abridgement.)


I. Rent of Fossaway toll-bar
II. Do. of Milnathort toll-
tº “. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
III. Composition from John
Peat, Leadside.... ....
INCOME............
I. Paid John Horne, Esq.,
the whole free funds,
to be expended by him
on the roads..............
II. Expenses of manage-
ment :—
Proportion of gene-
ral clerk’s salary
(Mr Williamson).
Clerk and treasurer's
salary, articles of
roup, printing,&c.
EXPENDITURE..... e-º ºt-
IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
£61 0 0 | £51 0 0 | £51 0 0 || £163 0 0
89 O 0 66 0 (0 66 0 0 || 221 0 0
0 6 0 | ............ . ............ O 6 0
£150 6 0 || £117 O 0 || £L17 O 0 | £384 6 0
EXPENDITURE.
£141 19 5 | EIO8 15 11 || 39.108 15 Il £359 11 3
1 0 0 1 0 (0 1 0 0 3 0 0
7 6 7 7 4 I 7 4 I 21 14 9
#150 6 0 | £117 0 0 | £117 0 0 || £384 6 0
THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ARE EQUAL.
* This Trust comprehends the line of road No. 9 of the Kinross-shire, &c., Act; No. VII, of
Abridgement, Section II.
No. XXIII.
E IN R O S S-S HIRE, &c., TU R N PIK E S.
ClO PAR, AND KINIR O S S R O A.D.”
( Under the Statutes Nos. VII. and X. of the Abridgement.)
* 1 84 i.
IN COME.
I. Arrears of toll-rents outstanding at close of last year's
account ~ tºº tº gº º ºs rºº ... 6215 0 0
II. Proportion of year's rent, from January
1842, of rent of toll-bars from Whitsun-
day 1841 to Whitsunday 1842:—
1. Carslogie tº . . . £83 6 8
2. Rossie * fºre gºs tº ... 51 18 4
3. Demperston tºº tºº Fº ** 91 6 8
4. Burnside agº, ** ** Rºs 150 0 0
376 II 8
III. Allocations from the statute labour of the
following five parishes in Fife, viz.:-
1. Auchtermuchty - - - £18 5 6
2. Collessie - ** sº º ... 10 9 6
3. Cupar *As fººt ºn sº, ºd 5 14 4
4. Monimail ... fººd º gº ... 28 l 5
5. Strathmiglo ... *A* º Aaº 59 13 9
122 4 6
IV. Allocations from the statute labour of Kinross-shire, in
terms of 1st and 2d Will. IV., cap. 71, sect. 24 - 12 4
V. Interest . gº ſº Pºw gººd fº Pºs * rºº 0 13 8
VI. Money borrowed Pº ſº tºº tº ºvº wº 235 0
VII. Balance due the treasurer carried forward ... ... ... 321 1
INcomE.---~£1282 15 7
EXPENDITURE.
I. Balance due upon last year's account - - - £ 60 3
II. Repair of road about eighteen miles in length . . 272 13
III. Repairs on toll-houses, toll-bars, and steelyards tº 14 16
Carry forward.…~£347 13
* This Trust comprehends the line of road No. 10 of the Kinross-shire, &c., Act; No. VII, of the
Abridgement, Section II,
:
152 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
Brought forward…#347 13 3
IV. Interest of £3300 of debt at 4 per cent., except of £200,
from Lammas to Martinmas . ** pºs fººd sº. 129 11 10
V. Expenses of management:—
1. Salaries to officers—
Surveyor (Mr John Alexander), propor-
tion of his salary of £150 - - £11 l
Clerk and treasurer (Mr H. W. Walker),
for salary, posts, and stationery - 40
Auditor (a committee of the Trustees—
George Cheape and Taylor Cathcart,
Esquires) - - - - **
2. Other expenses—
Advertising and rouping bars ... gºs
Quarry damages ſº rew
Bank interest and discount Pººl **
Repairing conduit *s ** rº
Miscellaneous ſº * ~ ºw
**
i0
II
i0
i0.
l
70 17 2
VI. Debt paid - *** ** º ~ **s 700 0 0
VII. Arrears of toll-rents outstanding, and to be carried to
next aCCount * gºsºs gº ** *** gº º 34 13 4
ExPENDITURE..…#1282 15 7
—º-
1842.
IN COME.
I. Arrears of toll-rents brought forward - - - £34 13
II. Rents of the four toll-bars - &^* ſº ſº ** 537 15
III. Allocation from Fife statute labour gºsºs gºs ** 122 4
IV. Allocation from Kinross statute labour **
V. Money borrowed - tºº. ſº * ** º gºs 165 0
VI. Income-tax retained - gº tºº gº gºv gº I 8
VII. Balance against the Trust carried forward fººd ºf 90 14
tºº
l
2
4
i
INcome --~£963 19 11
=-
EXPENDITURE.
I. Balance due upon last account brought forward - £321 1 3
II. Repair of road, including £2 of quarry damages - - 305 7 9
III. Repair of toll-houses, gates, and steelyards **
IV. Interest of £3000 of debt, at 4 per cent.
V. Expenses of management :—
gº 20 18 10
* gºº ... 116 11 10
Salaries rºs Fº º gººd #57 6 9
Advertising and rouping bars - - 3 16 1
T)eduction from rent of Burnside bar - 10 0 0
Bank interest and discount -- gº ... 10 13 5
Miscellaneous -- * ** *** ſº 1 14 6
83 10 9
VI. Proportion of expense of obtaining act ... ... ... 105 8 10
VII. Arrears of toll-rents to be carried to next account - 1 1 0 8
ExPENDITURE...~£963 19 11
No. XXIII.-CUPAR AND KINROSS ROAD. 153
1 34 3.
IN COME.
I. Arrears of toll-rents brought forward ** *** AAW 42H1 0 8
II. Rent of the four toll-bars ... *A* ſº pº gº ... 444 7 4
III. Allocation from Fife statute labour aº, º ** 122 4 3
IV. Allocation from Kinross statute labour * º gºve 12 4 6
*=e
INCOME......…~£589 17 2
EXPENDITURE.
I. Balance due upon last account brought forward ... 390 14 3
II. Repair of road, including £2 of quarry damages - 237 6. I
III. Repair of toll-houses, gates, and steelyards tºº º 6 4 11
IV. Interest of £3000 of debt at 4 and 3% per cent. ** 115 0 4
W. Expenses of management:—
Salaries - " -- - - - - £56 5 1
Advertising and rouping bars ... .. 3 0 0
Interest and discount **, r*.*, *.* 8 3 11
— 67 9 0
VI. Arrears of toll-duties -- - - - - -- 1 1 0 0
VII. Balance in favour of the Trust -- ſº ** ** ... 62 2 7
ExPENDITURE.--~£589 17 2
Debt, bonded and floating, at the end of 1840 ſº ** £3465 12 2
Do. do.
do. 1843 ... . . º 2937 17 5
REDUCTION of DEBT IN THE THREE YEARs.…~£527 14 9
No. XXIV.
R IN R O S S-S HIRE, &c., T U R N P I K E S.
AUCHTERMUCHTY AND PITCAIRLY ROAD.”
(Under the Statutes, Nos. VII. and X. of the Abridgement.)
I.
II.
III.
IV.
VI.
WII.
II.
III.
IV.
. Interest on Trustees' current account with the Glasgow
1841,
IN COME.
Balance in favour of the Trust brought from last account £127 6 10
Rent of Pitcairly toll-bar ... . . ** ** 83 10 0
Coach toll-duties ſº *** ** ſº rº ** 23 1 0
Allocations from the statute labour of four Fife parishes—
Abdie º Aw **4 ºw * -- $38 13 3
Auchtermuchty ... ... ** ** 19 1 9
Collessie ** * aeº * asºs I 12 6
Newburgh - - - - - 4 14 4
- 64 1 10
Union Bank, Auchtermuchty .. * ſº ºw 3 9 6
Money borrowed ... fº avºw *Aw Pºº A-ºw AAw 350 0 0
Balance against the Trust carried forward - ** 29 4 4
INCOME --~~~~ £680 13 6
EXPENDITURE.
. Repair of road * fººd reº rºw fººd AA, ** #55 16 5
Interest * nº ºs rºl ºf fººd ** * 38 19 5
Expenses of Management—
Surveyor (Mr John Alexander) . . . $2 12 10
Clerk and treasurer (Mr H. W. Walker) 12 0 0
Advertising and rouping bars **! 1 4 10
* * 15 17 8
Debt paid off * fºr rºº rºad rºad tº ºu 570 0 0
ExPENDITURE...~ £680 13 6
* This Trust comprehends the line of road No. 11 of the Kinross-shire, &c., Act; No. VII. of
the Abridgement, Section II.
No. xxiv.–KINRoss-SHIRE, ETC., TURNPIKEs. 155
1842.
INCOME.
I. Rent of toll-bar .. ** *- gººd ** a-A tººs - #92 15 0
II. Coach toll-duties ... A* ** A.* ** rew ** 23 9 3
III. Allocations from Fife statute labour ** ** ** ~ 64 l 10
IV. Income-tax retained fººd ** ** ** ** fººd 0 6 0
INCOME --~~£180 12 I
F-
EXPENDITURE.
I. Balance due the treasurer *** ** ** *** ** £29 4 4
II. Repair of road - tº ºsº tºº ** **s ... • 48 3 2
III. Interest of debt at 4 per cent. ** ** ** ** 31 5 3
IV. Expenses of Management—
Salaries a-w ** ** ** ** #17 9 4
Interest on bank account ... ºw ** 2 1 7
Advertising and rouping bars, &c. -- 1 12 10
- *- 21 3 9
V. Proportion of expense of obtaining new act ... ... ... 10 13 2
VI. Balance in favour of the Trustees .. a- ** a.º. 40 2 5
ExPENDITURE >~~£180 12 1
—Q–
1843.
INCOME.
I, Balance in favour of the Trust brought forward ... .. 640 2 5
II. Rent of toll-bar - Peº rºw ** rºad ** fºu ... 79 0 0
III. Coach toll-duties tºv º ** º ** *** ** 44 17 9
IV. Allocations from Fife statute labour ** rº fºº c. 54 l 10
V. Interest on Trustees’ bank account ... fºº aev * 0 16 II
VI. Income-tax retained ... www. **M *** rºº Pºw &º I 2 II
INcoME >~~~~ £220 1 10
ExPENDITURE. mºm,
I. Repair of road ** * * * * ~ * **, £42 15 0
II. Repair of toll-house, gate, and steel-yard ** **, r** 1 0 0
III. Interest of £830 of debt at 4 and 3% per cent. .. AAs 32 12 5
IV. Expenses of Management—
Salaries - - - *As ºs ... 3615 17 0
Advertising and rouping bars, &c. - 1 2 0
Property tax tºº **s fº ** ** 0 19 4
sº- 17 18 4
V. Balance in favour of the Trust -- ~ - - - 125 16 I
ExPENDITURE .....~ £220 1 10
Debt, bonded and floating, at the end of 1840 - - - £1060 13 2
Do. do. 1843 Aeº, ** 830 0 0
REDUCTION OF DEBT IN THE THREE YEARs.…~ £230 13 2
NO. XXV.
R IN R O S S-S HIRE, &c., TU R N PIK E S.
SCOTLANDWELL AND BALGEDIE TRUST.*
(Under the Statutes Nos. VII, and X of the Abridgement.)


INCOME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
I. Rents of Scotlandwell and
Balgedie toll-bars......... £314 0 0 || 4:396 -0 0 |#404 0 0 |&lll4 0 0
II. Statute labour assessment
of Portmoak and Arn-
gask district, at 22s. per
Fº: for 1841, and
6s. for 1842-3 (Abstract
No. XVIII.)................ 147 16 0 || 110 7 10 || 110 7 9 368 11 7
INCOME,............. £46L 16 0 | £506 7 10 || $514 7 9 £1482 ll 7
EXPENDITURE.
I. Upon the roads............... £471 5 6 £432 0 9 || £516 10 4 || £1419 16 7
II. Clerk and treasurer’s sa-
lary “......................... I4 10 0 14 10 0 14 10 0 43 10 0
Expenditure.....[e.g5 156 LeA46 10 9 |esºl 04 elá63 67
SURPLUS ON THE THREE YEARS ....................... £19 5 0
* This Trust comprehends the lines of road Nos. 12 and 13 of the Kinross-shire, &c., Act; No.
VII, of the Abridgement, Section II,
NO. XXVI.
R IN R O S S-S HIRE, &c., T U R N P I K E S.
CLEISH TR U ST.”
(Under the Statutes No. VII. and X. of the Abridgement.)



IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
I, Rent of Cleish toll-bar...... £90 6 0 || £95 9 6 || $107 17 6 £293 13 0
II. Compositions from ten-
ants of Dowhill and
Cleishmill.................... e 6 6 O 6 6. 0 6 6. 0 I8 18 O
INCOM.E............. 3996 12 0 | £101 15 6 £114 3 6 | £312 11 0
EXPENDITURE. -
I. Payments to Trustees to be
expended on roads, and
for steelyard................. £88 6 8 || 4:90 9 8 || £100 0 0 || £278 lé 4
II. Pººl of gº
CierRTS r Wil-
º lay of tº ºp tº tº tº º º I O 0 1 0 O I () 0 3 O 0
lary, , articles of roup,
printing, &c,................. 6 5 2 6 5 2 6 5 2 18 15 6
ExPENDITURE..... £95 ll 10 | £97 14 10 £107 5 2 | £300 ll 10
SURPLUs on THE THREE YEARS.......................... £II 19 2
* This Trust comprehends the line of road No. 14 of the Kinross-shire, &c., Act; No. VII of
the Abridgement, Section II.
No. XXVII.
G R E A T N OR TH R O A.D.
(Under the Statutes Nos. VIII., IX., and X. of the Abridgement.)
1841.
IN COME.
I. Rents from seven toll-bars and two checks at Damhead
and Stuart's Arms:—
1. Friarton ** ſº fº fº £1227 0 0
2. Damhead ... *A* * gº ... 825 0 0
3. Gairney ** ſº gº ºsº 1049 0 0
4. Cowdenbeath ... ... ... ... 198 0 0
5. Crossgates tºº iºs ** fºs 421 0 0
6. Inverkeithing ... . . . 377 0 0
7. Burntisland º º gº ºsºs 252 0 0
II. Tolls from mail-coaches gººd ** ** ** fººt 1095 0 0
III. Tolls from stage-coaches ... rºw ** *** ** ... 915 12 0
IV. Tolls from shipping coal gº tºº gº tº sº 298 16 2
V. Interest on deposit account pºs ** ** ** ** 27 7 9
INcomE.---~£6685 15 11
EXPENDITURE.
I. Interest on borrowed money ... . . . £1622 9 2
II. Ordinary repairs on road, 39% miles ... ... c. 1865 0 0
+
III. Incidental :—
Allowances to bye-roads - - - £8 6
Ground for new road *** **, ... 200 11
Fences for do. ... ... ... s. 30 0
Plans for new bridge ** * ſº 9 16
Allowanees for checking shipping coal ... 20 3
Advertising, &c. ** ~ rºw ºw 24 15
Damages to tenants - ... ... - 19 17
Expenses of assignations ... . . I6 IO
Stamps, postages, &c. - ... ... - 16 0
346 0 6
IV. Salaries:—
Clerk (Mr J. W. Williamson) *** #50 0 0
Surveyor (Mr Allan Watt) **. ... 150 0 0
Treasurer (Messrs J. and J. Miller) 150 0 0
350 0 0
V. New bridge at Milnathort **s ** ** ſºsºs ** 56 10 0
**
ExPENDITURE.----, #4239 19 8
- No. XXVII.-GREAT NORTH ROAD. 159
1842.
IN COME.
I. Rents from toll-bars:—
1. Friarton ** fººd tº gººs #1204 0 0
2. Damhead ... ** ** * ... 661 0 0
3. Gairney ... ... fºr fºsºs ** 909 7 6
4. Cowdenbeath * fººd gº ... 160 0 0
5. Crossgates tº sº ºw gººs 404 0 0
6. Inverkeithing ... ... ... c. 367 0 0
7. Burntisland . . . . 210 0 0
363915. 7 6
II. Tolls from mail-coaches ... . . . . 1095 0 0
III. Tolls from other coaches &º fººd ººs ... c. 938 9 0
IV. Tolls from shipping coal ** **, ** º Rººs 299 5 9
V. Interest on deposit account ... . . . . 20 19 4
INCOME ----------…f6269 1 7
* -
EXPENDITURE.
I. Interest on borrowed money ** **** ** - £1526 10 9
II. Ordinary repairs on road ** ** *** ſº …, 2000 0 0
III. New bridge at Milnathort ... ... -- - - 757 11 1
IV. Incidental:—
Allowance to bye-roads ... -- ~ 365 0 0
Allowance to lighting Kinross ... ... 10 0 0
Advertising, &c. *** *** *** ** 44 12 0
Snow-plough, &c. ... ... ... -- ~ 9 l 4
Stamps, postages, &c. *** ** ** 17 8 9
Assignations ** **, **s ... -- 21 19 8
Checking shipping coal ... -- ~ 23 2 8
131 4 5
V. Salaries as already stated . ... ... ... ... c. 350 0 0
© ExPENDITURE.....~£4765 6 3
— Q−
1843.
IN COME.
I. Rents from toll-bars:—
1. Friarton -- ** fº gºº ** £1246 0 0
2. Damhead ... - ... -- ~ 643 0 0
3. Gairney - - - - - 1020 0 0
4. Cowdenbeath ... ... -- ~ 160 0 0
5. Crossgates gº fºr ºf ººs 378 0 0
6. Inverkeithing -- ... ... ... 211 0 0
7. Burntisland .. ** 337 0 0
Carry forward ——— £3995 0 0
160 PART II.-ABSTRACT OF ACCOUNTS.
Brought forward.…~£3995 0 0
II. Tolls from mail-coaches ... ** ** ** ** 1095 0 0
III. Tolls from stage-coaches rºº ºv Peº rºw ºw 949 J2 0
IV. Tolls from shipping coal - - - - - 356 14 0
V. Interest on deposit account - - - - * 15 10 2
3:6411 16 2
EXPENDITURE. *
I. Interest on borrowed money *...* a.º. ... ... #1394 1 7
II. Ordinary repairs - - - - - - - 1700 0 0
III. New bridge at Milnathort - - - *As ºf 36 12 10
IV. Incidental:—
Allowances for bye-roads - ** * #35 0 0
Property tax * * tºº pººr 119 14 0
Fences …, avºw f** Peº ** Pºs 14 4 8
Lighting Kinross - - * * 5 0 0
Advertising, &c. - - - - 31 1 1
Assignations *As ºf fººd pºº 7 0 4
Checking shipping coal * rºw ºw 16 16 9 **-
Ground to widen road ... ** ** 4I 10 0
Postages, stamps, &c. fººd Peº fºº 18 3 3
——— 258 10 1
V. Salaries as above ~ :- - -- ~ -- ~ 350 0 0
#3739 4 6
BALANCE OF THE THREE YEARS
(Being from Whitsunday 1841 to Whitsunday 1844).
IN COME. EXPENDITURE.
1841 - - - - - - £6,685 15 11 364,239 19 8
1842 ... ... ... ... -- ~ 6,269 l 7 4,765 6 3
1843 - - - - - - 6,411 16 2 3,739 4 6
Surplus on the three years .. 6,622 3 3
£19,366 13 8
#19,366 13 8
NO. XXVIII.
K I N R O S S A N D A L L O A. R O A. E).
( Under the Statutes Nos. IX, and X. of the Abridgement.)
IN COME.
1841. 1842. 1843. TOTAL.
I. Gateside of Linmill gate £205 0 0 || $140 0 0 || £157 0 0 | £502 0 0
II. Downies Drum or Blairn-
gone gate................. s 83 0 O 92 0 0 80 0 0 255 0 0
III. Crook of Devon gate...... 68 0 (0 78 0 (0 62 0 0 208 O Q
TW. Turf hills gate............... 58 0 0 93 0 0 73 0 0 224 0 0
INCOME................ £414 0 0 || £403 0 0 | £372 0 0 | £1189 0 0
EXPENDITURE. -
1841. 1842, 1843. TOTAL
I. Repairs to road, toll-
houses, gates, &c,......... £264 II 11 || £283 16 7 || £255 17 7 || £804 6 - 1
II. Salary to surveyor (Mr
M'Connell)................. | 15 0 0 15 0 0 15 0 0 45 0 ()
III. Ditto to clerk (Mr James
Moir)........................ 10 0 0 10 0 0 10 0 0 30 0 0
EXPENDITURE....... £289 11 11 || 4:308 16 7 || 4:280 17 7 || 4.879 6 I
SURPLUS ON THE THREE YEARS.............................. £309 13 II
hi has b tº _ * * * e debt i d f xt ir to
rºº


ROAD STATISTICs.
33art Chiro.
PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
IN proposing the entire abolition of the existing system of
raising the funds necessary for making and keeping in repair
the public roads and bridges of the country, and the substitution
of what we think a simpler and better plan, it may be proper
to give an outline of the mode in which those funds are at pre-
sent raised, so far as regards the counties of Fife and Kinross—
which, we believe, may be considered as a fair exemplification of
the general road management throughout the whole kingdom.
Besides the ancient highways—which are usually left to take
care of themselves—there are two classes of public roads in these
counties, the offspring of modern acts of Parliament—the one dis-
tinguished as statute labour, and the other as turnpike.
I.—The statute labour roads are supported by annual assess-
ments upon the whole heritors in the two counties, and upon
householders, &c., in certain districts—the assessment upon the
heritors being at present, after several variations, at the five follow-
ing different rates per ploughgate (i. e. fifty Scots acres of land, or
seventy pounds of rent, in the option of the person assessed), viz.
In the County of Fife— -
Cupar, St Andrews, and Kirkaldy Districts … • ... 36s.
Dunfermline District -- ~ ~ * ~ - - - 30s.
In the County of Kinross—
ICinross and Orwell District - - ** ** *As gº 15s.
Portmoak and Arngask District • - - - - - 16s.
Cleish and Fossaway District *As Pºs º ºs ºs ººs 25s.
And the assessment on certain inhabitants of the following places, viz., Kin-
ross and Orwell District, at 1s. 6d. each householder, producing yearly about
£31, 12s. ; Cleish and Fossaway District, producing yearly about £4, 17s. ;
and upon the householders of Kirkaldy Burgh, for which a conversion of
£15 yearly is paid from the burgh funds.”
The annual exactions for statute labour, as shown in the subjoined Table
I., are:—Fife—Heritors, £6155, 1s. 5d.; Kirkaldy Burgh, £15. Kinross-
tº Heitº, £395, 12s. 8d. ; householders, £46, 9s. 4d. Total, £6612,
3s. 5d.
* In Cupar Burgh there is an assessment under the statute labour acts upon individualinhabi-
tants to the amount of about L.25 yearly; but that is applied to the streets and roads within the
bounds of the burgh; assessments on burghs, for burgh streets and roads, do not fall within the
scope of this publication.
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 163
According to both the letter and the spirit of the statute
labour acts, it was the intention to lay a portion of the burden
of maintaining the statute labour roads on the owners of all
chaises, gigs, and carts let for hire (see Fife Statute Labour Act,
p. 8, and Kinross Statute Labour Act, pp. 56–57.) These as-
sessments were not to exceed the following maximum yearly
rates, viz., Fife—Four-wheeled chaises, 20s. ; two-wheeled do.,
10s. ; two-horse carts, 10s. ; one-horse carts, 5s. And Kinross—
Four-wheeled chaises, £1, 10s. ; two-wheeled do., 15s. ; two-
horse carts, 10s. ; one-horse carts, 5s. But this part of the sys-
tem has, from its impracticability, fallen into desuetude, as has
also the assessment authorised by both acts (pp. 8 & 57), upon
all householders, cottagers, labourers, and tradesmen, excepting
only as regards the three districts—Kirkaldy burgh, Kinross and
Orwell, and Cleish and Fossaway, above mentioned. In this way
the statute labour assessment—which was intended to be borne
to a considerable extent by the owners of carriages and carts let
for hire, and by the householders, &c., of the counties generally
—has not been enforced according to the terms of the acts, and
the burden has been allowed to fall nearly altogether upon the
agricultural interest in the shape of assessments upon the
ploughgates of land within these counties—the same being leviable
from the proprietors, with relief against tenants and occupants.
In each of the seven districts into which the statute labour
roads of the two counties are divided, there is an assessor, who
makes an annual survey of the number of ploughgates, in doing
which he is empowered by the statutes to require exhibition of
tacks and rentals. He must give notice to all proposed to be
assessed, and any one who may consider himself aggrieved has
the power of appeal to a meeting of the Trustees. On the sur-
veys being approved by the Trustees, the same are placed in the
hands of the respective collectors, who proceed to levy the
assessments on the 25th March in each year. The collectors are
authorised to enforce payment by summary diligence from the
proprietors and others liable. -
This statute labour assessment is manifestly a severe burden
on the agricultural interest—especially when it is considered
that it does not by any means clear landlords and tenants
of their share of the expense of maintaining public roads, as was
the case when the acts for the conversion of statute labour were
first passed. At that time turnpike roads and tolls, and their
concomitant evils, were wholly unknown in this country, and the
164 PART III, PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
statute labour roads, with the ancient highways (which were under
the direction of the Justices), formed the only thoroughfares.
Now, however, we have also numerous turnpike roads thickly stud-
ded with toll-bars, and there are few indeed of the agriculturists,
of our two counties at least, who can find their way to market,
manure, coal, &c., without being taxed by them. One with an-
other, we have little doubt that the direct and indirect tolls
paid by agriculturists in the conducting of their business
are not of less amount than what is paid by them in name of
statute labour. º
Both the Fife and Kinross statute labour acts make the heri-
tors liable in the first instance for the assessment, with recourse
on the tenants and occupiers. In Kinross we believe this pro-
viso has been disregarded, and the assessments are imposed and
levied directly upon the tenants and occupiers; but in Fife the
heritors only are assessed, and they must seek their relief from the
tenants and occupiers. This gives a world of trouble to landlords
and tenants. Upon the surveys being completed by the assessors,
and the rolls put into the collector's hands, the landlords, on the
arrival of the 25th March, are required to make payment. Then,
supposing the case of a tenant who had entered at the previous
Martinmas, in entire ignorance, it may be, of this system, he must
wonder very much when the landlord calls for the purpose of
re-collecting from him his quota of the assessment. He wonders
if the other tenants on the estate are taxed by the landlord in
the same way; and, indeed, a doubt may arise in his mind whe-
ther or not the factor may not possibly, in his allocation upon
the tenants, make more out of them than the actual amount of
statute labour on the whole estate. At any rate, he thinks he
might have had indulgence until he had got a year's use of
the statute labour roads; or he thinks the landlord need not
have troubled himself about this single item of charge till his
first year's rent fell due in the following year. Supposing,
again, that the landlord, as is frequently the case, delays calling
to re-collect from his tenant till after the first year's rent falls
due—by which time a second year’s statute labour for the farm
has been levied from the landlord—then, when the landlord asks
the tenant for repayment of the two years’ statute labour, the
tenant wonders very much how it is possible that he should have
to pay two years of that tax with his first rent. Where there is
only one rent, he thinks there should be only one year's statute
labour. But after a little demur, and probably a reference to
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 165
some legal friend on the next market-day, he finds that there is
no avoiding it—that the two years must be paid for—and that,
in reality, the landlord had favoured him by delaying for a year
to demand payment of what had fallen due on the 25th March
immediately succeeding his entry. Again, other landlords col-
lect their tenants’ statute labour assessment along with each
year’s rent—the first payment of which is generally eighteen
months after the tenant’s entry—in which way they are uniformly
twelve months in advance of the tenant’s statute labour, and so
lose in the course of a tack a considerable sum of interest.
In whichever way these transactions are managed, they undoubt-
edly occasion a great deal of trouble, year after year and term after
term, to the landlords and their factors and agents, as well as to
the tenants; for the statute labour must always appear as a
separate item in every statement of rent—so multiplying figures
and swelling accounts. It will be seen from one of the subjoined
tables that the names of so many as 789 landlords stand at this
moment in the statute labour lists of the four districts of Fife.
But large as this number is, it is small indeed compared with the
number of tenantry from whom the landlords have to re-collect
these assessments. One landlord has to re-collect from so many
as 72; * another from so many as 58; a third from 52; and
SO OIl.
Independently of these considerations, numerous questions
arise between landlords and tenants in reference to the statute
labour of farms; for instance, whether it was not understood
that the landlord was to waive the privileges conferred by the act,
and not charge the tenant with the statute labour?—whether
slump payments of rent were not accepted as in full of statute
labour 2 and so on. The records of our law courts bear ample
proofs of the evils arising from this system of things. Too
frequently, indeed, has this matter of statute labour proved
* These 72 tenants pay as follows:–2, £10 each; 5, £6; 10, £4; 13, £1,10s.;
24, 5s. ; and 18, ls. 6d.-Éll6, 17s. in all. An experienced professional friend
has favoured us with the following note on this subject:-" The amount of statute
labour chargeable on — estate amounts to £134, 7s. 4d., divided amongst 25 ten-
ants, &c., some of them charged by the number of acres they occupy, and others by the
rent, which varies according to the prices of grain yearly. My uniform practice has
been to give arental to the assessor to enable him to make all his charges, and I take
the fiars of the preceding crop because those of the current crop have not then been
struck. Upon receiving from the assessor the list as charged, I then check it, and, if
correct, state it against the occupiers individually in my rental book, and collect it
along with the rent. By this means the statute labour chargeable and due in
March 1844 is added to the rent of crop 1843, which unavoidably occasions some
difficulty in a change of tenants. As the statute labour is rated parochially, it
happens in some cases that a tenant may occupy a farm situated partly in one
parish, partly in two or even three, and this occasions separate assessments.”
166 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
a source of discord betwixt landlords and tenants. We may
notice also what is the fact, that the burden often rests solely on
the landlords in the case of small possessions, as they find the re-
collection of such a tax to be both troublesome and disagreeable.
These evils, however—as has been again and again remarked
by our agriculturists—would be submitted to, and submitted to
cheerfully, were they provided with good roads without farther
expense. But, when they cannot set foot upon their next and
best road, the turnpike, without being taxed for it as sharply as
if they had never paid one farthing of statute labour money, they
naturally feel themselves, as it were, suffering under grievous op-
pression. Accordingly, as the annual road meetings come round,
petitions for reduction of statute labour and tolls are got up in
the different localities, and presented and supported by the at-
tendance of numerous bodies of the most respectable of our
tenantry. But for their just causes of complaint no remedy has
yet been administered. They are still called upon by their land-
lords, in course of their re-collection, to pay (in the three eastern
districts of Fife) at the rate of 36s. per ploughgate, or about 18s.
per horse. In the western district of Fife the rate is 30s. per
ploughgate. In Kinross-shire the rate is lower. But there (as
will be seen by and by) the tolls upon carts are very greatly higher
than in Fife, according to the weights; so that, counting statute
labour and tolls together, the tenantry of the one county may, in
this respect, be reckoned much on a footing with the tenantry of
the other.
II. The bridges (which, excepting the new bridge at Leven, are
comprehended under the statute labour acts) are maintained in
Kinross-shire from the statute labour funds. In Fife they are
maintained from a variety of different sources:—1. By an assess-
ment on the whole heritable property in Fife (exclusive of the
nineteen royal burghs), according to the valuation-roll of the
county made up in the year 1695, commonly called “the valued
rent.” This assessment is at the rate of twenty shillings Scots,
or 1s. 8d. sterling on each hundred pounds Scots of valued rent,
payable by the proprietors (p. 3.) Against this assessment the
proprietors have no relief from the tenants, and in the last three
years it has averaged £497, 13s. 3d. Sterling. 2. The trustees,
at their general annual meeting, on the first Tuesday of May,
are authorised to assess the whole heritors of the county in
an additional sum, not exceeding 3s. 4d. Sterling, upon every
PART III. PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 167
hundred pounds of valued rent: And in case the general meet-
ing shall not assess the whole county to that extent, then all or
any of the district meetings have power to assess themselves re-
spectively in what further sum they shall judge necessary, not
exceeding 3s. 4d. per hundred pounds (p. 11.) 3. In case the re-
building or repairing of any one bridge shall exceed eighty pounds,
the district in which it is situated shall be subject to only one-
half of the sum, and the other three districts shall be subject to
the other half—the money to be expended by direction of a
general meeting of trustees for the whole county. 4. By appro-
priating from the whole statute labour funds a sum not ex-
ceeding 2s. 6d. Sterling per ploughgate, to be applied in building
bridges, the expense of which respectively exceed the sum of
£300 (p. 12.) And 5. In the case of the Leven bridge by the
rent received from the tacksman of the pontage thereon (p. 52)—
the only pontage in Fife—and by composition from an individual.
Many people think that it would not be easy to conceive or de-
vise a system of raising funds for a public object more compli-
cated than that by which the bridges in the county of Fife, ex-
cepting the Leven bridge, are erected and maintained. Why so
many separate modes of assessment for bridges? Why a general
meeting of trustees for the whole county to appropriate 2s. 6d.
per ploughgate from the statute labour funds and then to assess
so much upon each district, and then over and above four sup-
plementary assessments by the districts themselves? In all this
there is certainly a world of useless and expensive complica-
tion.
Moreover, why not, as in some other counties, provide the expense
of bridges out of the road funds, as necessary parts of the roads 3
Trustees who can superintend the making of roads are not less
capable of superintending bridges. The trustees under the statute
labour and bridge acts, and the turnpike trustees, are nearly the
same, and it is adding much to their work to divide their duties in
the fanciful way which has been done, and to say to them at such and
such parts of the road their duties as turnpike trustees cease, and
their duties as trustees of bridges commence. Under the present
system they must keep their turnpike money in one pocket, the
statute labour in another, and the bridge money in a third.
Then suppose that one of the pockets—the bridge money for
instance—gets empty, they must fall upon some contrivance by
which they can transfer a sum from one of the other pockets—
probably under the sanction of a handsome fee to some ingenious
168 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
counsel—the expedient being, in the case supposed, to call the
abutments and approaches to the bridge not part of the bridge at
all but part of the road.
III.-The turnpike roads are supported from a variety of dif-
ferent sources:–1. By rents received from the tacksmen of the
numerous tolls within the two counties—the rates of tolls being
widely different in the two counties, and different often in dif-
ferent districts of the same county, so that the burden is most
unequally laid on. The following are the rates of toll upon carts
in the two counties :—
FIFE (p. 27.) KINRoss-SEIIRE (p. 68.)
Not exceeding 16 cwt. ... -- 4d. ....... 4d.
Exceeding 16 but not 20 cwt. -- ~ 4d. ...... 6d.
Exceeding 20 and not exceeding 22 cwt. 4d. ...... 8d.
Not exceeding 25 cwt. £ºs ** 4d. ...... 9d.
25 and not exceeding 30 cwt. ... -- 6d. ...... ls. 2d.
30 but not exceeding 35 cwt. * 8d. ...... 2s. 0d.
Not exceeding 40 cwt. - - ~ 10d. ...... 2s. 10d.
For every cwt. above 40, not exceed-
ing 45 ſº geºg ºs ºf 2d. ...... Is.
Por every cwt. above 45 - ~ 6d. ...... ls.
For every horse, mule, or ass, draw-
ing the same gººd º ºs ~ 2d. ...... ld.
2. By tolls on certain public coaches reserved by the trustees, and
collected for their behoof by their several treasurers. The Fife
act authorises a charge of 9d. upon every horse drawing any
coach, &c., while the Kinross act authorises the larger charge of
1s. These rates have been departed from in several instances so
far as public coaches are concerned—the rates being reduced in
Fife mostly to 6d. per horse each time of the coach passing or
repassing. 3. By sums paid by individuals under special agree-
ments with the trustees of the districts as a composition for their
tolls, as in the case of medical men in Cupar and Kirkaldy dis-
tricts, or for only one toll, as in the case of Bennochy bar, Kirk-
aldy district. The very few instances, however, of compositions
which have been effected with the trustees (see the abstract of
accounts) clearly show that considerable difficulties attend such
transactions, and that, in fact, the public at large never can be
said to have had any benefit whatever from the clauses autho-
rising such compositions. The farmer or manufacturer asking
the composition offers what he thinks enough; the trustees, or
their officers, think it too little; the composition is refused, and
the usual result is, either that the intended traffic is stopped, at
least very much limited, or that the party finds vent for it
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 169
through some other, probably an illegitimate, channel—the going
round, for instance, by an old highway or a statute labour road,
though to the destruction of his horses and carts, and the destruc-
tion of a greater length of road. 4. By allocations to a large
amount drawn from time to time from the statute labour funds
of the adjoining parishes by the statute labour trustees, and
which allocations are expended upon the turnpike roads by the
turnpike trustees along with the proper funds of those roads.
Upon this subject we shall have a word or two hereafter.
The tolls, after due advertisement, are let by public roup,
and those preferred must either grant bills with sufficient cau-
tioners, or make a deposit of the whole, or a considerable propor-
tion, of the rents by way of security. The usual practice is to
make the rents payable by twelve monthly instalments, and in
case of failure, which seldom happens, it is the duty of the trea-
surers to enforce payment. Where the tenants lodge deposits in-
stead of placing their friends under obligations by putting their
names on security bills, the tenants are allowed interest at the
ordinary rate—4 or 5 per cent.—though the trustees may only re-
ceive 2 per cent. of bank interest on the same. In such transac-
tions there is an obvious loss to the road funds. The coach tolls
are also usually collected monthly by the treasurers, except in
the case of the mail-coaches, which are paid once a quarter
upon formal applications to the General Post-Office, Edinburgh.
These are submitted by the Post-office for the inspection of the
surveyor of mail-coaches. They are next sent to the Postmaster-
General in London, who, after due examination, returns them
to the General Post-Office in Edinburgh, by whom there-
after payment is made. Such applieations for mail-coach tolls
coming at once before them from all parts of the kingdom,
and the settlement of them quarterly, must be attended with very
great trouble to the Post-Office authorities.
The following table (which has been compiled from the twenty-
eight foregoing abstracts) exhibits the amount of money which
has actually been levied, in the manner above pointed out, from
the public under the statute labour and turnpike acts for Fife
and Kinross shires and the Great North Road, and Kinross
and Alloa Road—all embraced in the statutes contained in the
Abridgement:—
TABLE I.
AVERAGE AMOUNT LEVIED DURING THE THREE YEARS 184
OF FIFE AND KINROSS, THE GREAT NORT
LEVIED UNDER THE STATUTE
For conversion | No. of No. of |
º: |Pºll ... P.”
No. NAME OF TRUST. º wº §: of house- whom |
relief -> collect—|| holders, &c. collect-
tenants. ed. ed.
Fife Statute Labour—
I. Cupar District................ ... £1889 4 2 | 354 || ......... tº a gº
TI. St Andrews District.......... 1746 11 4 || 271 || ......... (co º
III. Kirkaldy District.............. 1352 17 7 || 114 £15 0 0 j * -
IV. Dunfermline District....... e e 727 18 6 50 || .........
789
W. Fife Large Bridges............. tº o 438 9 10 - || .........
Fife Lesser Bridges—
VI. Cupar District............... e - © 1 & # s s a tº e s a º 'º e i º e º 'º e s e e º ºs
VII. St Andrews District...... ... . ......... . ... || .........
VIII. Kirkaldy District............ . ......... . . . . .........
IX. Dunfermline District......... . ......... . ... ll .........
Fife Turnpikes—
X. Cupar District............... & © tº & © & e º ſº se e e º º a 9 s a s a e s is
XI. St Andrews District......... • I e º 'º a s a s a e I e º 'º s = e a e º is a se
YII. Kirkaldy District........ ... © tº 1 e º 'º s = e a e s i e º e i t e s a e s s is 9 *
XIII. Dunfermline General Dist... . ......... . ... [ .........
XIV. Whitehill........................ . ......... . ... Il .........
XV. Aberdour and Duloch........ tº . * * * * * * * * * : * * * . . e. e. e. g. s e s e e |
XVI. Leven Road and Bridge......... ......... . ... || .........
Kinross-shire Statute Labour
XVII. Kinross and Orwell Dis-
trict............................ 192 8 1 || 142 41 12 4 || 401
XVIII. Portmoak and Arngask Un-
District........................ 122 17 2 known || *********
YIX. Cleish and Fossaway Dis-
trict............................. 80 7 5 33 4 17 0 46
Kinross-shire, &c. Turnpikes—
XX. Outh and Nivingston.........
XXI. Carnock and Comrie......... © º e º 'º e º s e s | * * * { | a e s is a g e º e
XXII. Thomanean...................... . ......... . ... Il .........
XXIII. Cupar and Kinross............ . ......... . ... || .........
XXIV. Pitcairlie.......... ............. . ......... . ... || .........
XXV. Scotlandwell and Balgedie | ......... . ... || .........
XXVI. Cleish.............. & a a s a s a e º 'º e s e tº tº º I & tº * * * * * * * | * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
XXVII. Great North Road................ . ......... . ... || .........
XXVIII. Kinross and Alloa Road........ . ......... . ... || .........
396550 14 1 #261 9 4


TABLE I.
k2, & 1843, UNDER THE RoAD AND BRIDGE ACTS, FOR THE COUNTIES
DAD, AND THE KINROSS AND ALLOA ROAD.
Length of
LABOUR ACTS. LEVIED UNDER THE TURNPIKE ACTS. ". IIl
IIllies
In name of bridge º: Collected by lº; # # Estimated sums | * c | #
money ºabºº." iºte: *ś y Rents of toll- .3 tº: # É #.
proprietors with– whom for coach toll- from e bars. ** |muneration over 3:
out relief. cºlºr . duties. individuals 33 their r ents &2H É
€ º º
* * * * * * * * * 1 s e s • * * * * * * * * } e s is a e s e o e ] e s e e º e s = e e º e i e e º e o e º 'º e 123}
* * * * * * * * * 1 s e s s = e s see v c 1 e º se e a • e a l e s e e º e e s a l e e s ] e s e s a see e §
* * * * * * * * * | * * * e º e s e e s s e i s = e s = e o e e ] a e s , , s = e s ] = < e ] e < * * * * tº e e #
* * * * * * * * * | * * * e º e º e º 'º e ] e º e s e a s = e ] a s e º e o e s s ] a s e i s s e s e s = e e 64%
ſº *}; l; 6 |\ , ......... . ......... . ......... . . . . ......... º ºn &
tº t , 7 2 ( ~, a ......... . ......... . ......... . . . ......... º te
3% 16 |}/10 | . . . . . . . . . tº
47 0 9 || | ......... . ......... . ......... . ... . ......... to gº
© tº e º 'º tº e º 'º £393 9 9 £7 9 8 £3403 3 3 || 17 £680 I2 7 80}
e tº s a e g is e ºr 206 18 0 55 0 0 3.185 2 9 || 19 637 0 6 145}
º tº 3 s º ºs º is º 420 0 11 II l? 6 4034 9 2 | 12 806 I? IO 68
tº a tº e o gº tº e e 62 2 2 tº tº e º 'º & - - - 106] 17 2 | 13 212 7 6 34
* G & © tº º is a tº a tº tº e º e º ſº tº tº a tº e º dº e º e º 'º s 59 6 8 l Il 17 4 4
© e º e º is a a º 46 15 8 e e s tº e s a ſº e 219 13 4 || 1 43 18 8 II
tº e º tº e º is e e 72 12 0 I 0 0 788 O 0 || 5 157 I2 O 7#
to e º is a tº a tº a I is & a e º is e s e s ∈ G e s s s a e s a s s m a s is a s a e i s m e i e = e s a e º e s 36;
* * * * * * * * * I e e s s e s e s ∈ a e s : e s s s a e s - e i e e s s e e s a g : * * * * * * * * * e e s a 4
* * * * * * * * * I e s º & e º e º ºs e s - I e e is e s a e e º ºn a p → • * * s e I e º a e º 'º º v e g º º l4
• e º e º 'º e s e I e s is tº s º ºs e s tº e - 2 5 2 463 13 4 || 7 92 14 9 20
e e is e is e º sº e i is a s & e º e s s e e º I e s e e s e e s - 144 10 0 || 2 28 18 O 5
e e º º e º ſº is s e º is º e º a g º º nº º O 6 O 128 0 0 || 2 25 12 0 7
• * * * * * * * * 1 s e º • * * * * * * * * I e s a e e º a sº e 452 18 0 || 4 90 ll 7 18
e e s tº e º sº e & 30 9 4 e = * ~ * - e - - 85 L 8 l 17 O 4 4}
* a e e s s s s & i e s is & e s e s a s a e i is s a sº e s e a e 371 6 8 2 74 5 4 18
e g a e s a e º e i < * * * * * * * * * * * 6 6 O 97 17 8 I 19 Ll 6 12
s e º tº e º e g a 2029 II () 318 5 3 4086 9 2 | 9 817 5 10 39}
• * * * * * * * * i s e s • * * * * * * * * | * e s e e s e a e 396 6 8 || 4 79 5 8 I8
£497 13 3 710 |23261 18 10 | £402 4 7 |4:18,977 15 6 || 100 || 4:3795 11 5 I 394 |4933
172 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
In the preceding table, 20 per cent. over the toll-rents is as-
sumed as the average amount of the tacksmen’s remuneration.
We have had considerable hesitation in naming this sum, as in-
dividuals of experience have estimated the tacksmen’s remunera-
tion at a higher rate. The tacksmen and their collectors, who
are constantly employed in reference to the tolls above-men-
tioned, number so many as one hundred; and dividing among them
the sum of £3795, 11s. 1d., which, according to the table, is 20
per cent. over their rents, they have an average of £37, 19s. 1d. each.
This, considering that they must give constant attendance day
and night—some tolls indeed requiring the attendance of two
persons—is not an over recompense.
The tacksmen as a class form a body of respectable persons,
all of them either possessed of capital to pay their rents in ad-
vance, and thereby draw good interest on the amount (which
gives them a double profit), or they are in sufficient credit to be
backed by responsible monied parties, who will bind themselves
as their cautioners for the punctual payment of the rent instal-
ments as they fall due. With few exceptions, the tacksmen have
no other employment or means of support for themselves and
their families than what they can make of their tolls over and
above the rents. From that surplus they must defray the ordi-
nary expenses of their families—of their going annually from
place to place attending roups of tolls—of their monthly remit-
tances to the treasurers—of law expenses in their frequent pro-
secutions for toll-duties or for penalties on account of alleged
evasions, or in defending themselves against prosecutions for
penalties on account of alleged over-exactions, as well as
other contingencies. And over and above all such there should
be, and undoubtedly in most cases there is, remaining to the
tacksmen (else the profession would not be followed) a sum of
greater or less amount to lay past as clear profit.
As one criterion of estimating the amount of the tacksmen’s
remuneration, we may mention that where several tolls are taken
by the same person or company, the ordinary allowance made by
such farmers of tolls to their collectors is 2s. per day, or £36, 10s.
per annum, besides free house, coal, and candle, which makes
their wages considerably more than £40. Indeed it is clear to
common sense that less remuneration would not secure the
services of honest and respectable collectors. Of course, over
and above the collectors’ allowances, whatever they may be, the
tacksmen calculate on something to themselves.
I’ART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 173
We have assumed the 20 per cent. as required for a bare liveli-
hood. But instances are known where, over and above this liveli-
hood, considerable sums have been realised by the tacksmen—sums
sufficient to enable them to retire from public life with a comfort-
able independence; though up to that moment, it may be, they
had been decrying their profession as the most miserable and
profitless that any man could pursue, and only one degree better
than downright beggary.
It may be said that there is now so much competition that the
tenant's assumed surplus will not hold after paying the rents.
But great though the competition has been, it has not disabused
the trustees in certain counties of the opinion that the profits
of the tacksmen are so excessive that they (the trustees) must
keep the tolls in their own hands, giving to their collectors each
a remuneration probably exceeding what has been stated by us.
They, as well as the farmers of tolls, endeavour to check the
fidelity of their collectors by changing them from time to time
without any previous notice or warning. They will carry off one
bodily from his post at midnight, and set him down at another of
their bars some ten or twenty miles distant, translating at the same
time their collector at that bar to the charge left by the first, or
to some other of their vacancies; and always taking care, for the
sake of their own pockets, that the bars shall be vacant as
few minutes as possible. The object of such extraordinary
movements is to enable the trustees or the toll-farmers to check
the receipts of the several collectors by comparing them with
each other; and the result may naturally be anticipated, that
the one who yields up the least amount of collection, though
probably the most honest man in the world, is turned off as an
unprofitable steward. The conduct of the trustees and the toll-
farmers referred to may provoke their collectors to lay their
heads together in order to protect the interests of their class,
and agree upon the amount which it is proper for each collector
to return to his principal as the proceeds of the same bar for
the same space of time, and never to be exceeded.
There are tricks in all trades, as the proverb hath it ; and the
stories that are afloat in reference to tricks in toll-taking are
innumerable, and it would be endless to attempt any recapitulation
of them. The instances where the same tacksmen have, year after
year, taken the same bars in the face of their own reiterated protesta-
tions that they were losing largely by them and would never again
bid for them, are of daily occurrence. Notwithstanding all these
174 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
lamentations they have been found ready, by themselves or more
frequently by some concealed friend—probably an apparently
antagonist tacksman—to come forward and bid for the bar, and
carry it too, sometimes even at a higher rate than the previous
year, at which, as said is, it had been so totally ruinous. In such
transactions the trustees are sellers and the tacksmen buyers;
and the latter use the ordinary privilege of buyers in decrying
and cheapening the goods as much as they possibly can. We
may mention an instance within our own knowledge, where a
gentleman, who had a quarrel with a toll-keeper in his neighbour-
hood, ousted him at the next roup and became tenant himself.
He could not, however, himself become collector, and therefore
selected a decent sort of man for the office. At the end of
the year this individual reported that it was a losing concern,
and that there was actually a deficiency of five pounds, which the
gentleman had to make up. This cooled his revenge. But what
was his surprise when his trusty collector appeared a few days
afterwards at the roup of the same bar, and, after a keen compe-
tition, actually became tenant of it at a rise of £50 above the
former rent, which was only from two to three hundred pounds.
Here, at least, there must have been something more than 20 per
cent. going.
But admitting that in the general case the tolls which have
stood and been tested for a period of years may be pretty well
paid for through competition, still, on the first erection of a bar,
it is very difficult to form a proper estimate of what it will
produce. It may get into the hands of a discreet tacksman, who,
while making his own of it, may succeed in persuading others
that it is next to a ruinous concern. In this way he may hold it
for a number of years, to the serious loss of the road funds. We
are assured of an instance where a bar worth a thousand a-year
(and which now annually lets at a higher sum) was held by one
person for a series of years at only three hundred pounds; and
we have no doubt that those conversant with such matters will
know many instances of profits from toll-bars little less re-
markable.
Again, even where a bar has stood and been tested for a num-
ber of years, it frequently happens that new sources of traffic rise
up, which considerably augment the levies from the public,
without, however, in the least enlarging the revenue of the road
trustees—the tacksman still complaining of his desperately bad
bargain. This may go on for a long time, and often does go on,
PART III.—PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 175
as the tacksmen seldom compete with each other, unless—which
rarely happens—some new hand comes forward and puts one
of them out, when he again, in self-preservation, must attack
even his next neighbour—with whom he was wont to take sweet
counsel—and so cause a change, probably, throughout the whole
tolls in the district.
A farther, and sometimes an enormous, profit arises to the
tacksmen of tolls on the occasion of great public events happen-
ing unexpectedly in the district, which, however much they take
from the pockets of the public in the shape of tolls, never add
one farthing to the revenue of the road trustees. We allude to
such matters as the gratification of a Royal visit, a general elec-
tion with a few keen county contests, or a Burns’ Festival—all
of them producing rich harvests at the public expense to the dis-
tressed toll-keepers.
But while all these windfalls accrue to the tacksmen, and while
they never—or at least in any instance within our knowledge—
have paid a larger rent than the sum actually stipulated, we find
them frequently coming forward claiming, and sometimes obtain-
ing, deductions from their rents on the score of snow-storms,
disrepair of steel-yards, disappointments in law-suits, &c. &c.
Such claims necessarily expose the trustees to much trouble and
annoyance, by occasioning meetings for the purpose of discussing
the alleged losses, and often lead to differences of opinion on the
subject amongst the trustees themselves.
Connected with this branch of the question we would advert to
the practice which prevails in some districts of the kingdom of
licensing the toll-houses as public-houses, in order to obtain a
higher rent from the tacksmen on account of their emoluments
from the sale of spirituous liquorse. To the honour of the trustees
and her Majesty's justices in the counties of Fife and Kinross,
this practice is scarcely known—there being comparatively few
instances of toll-house ale-houses, and these in localities where,
from the absence of any other houses of refreshment, the thing
is permitted as absolutely unavoidable. The abstract of the
Dunfermline General District (No. XIII., p. 138) shows that in
the year 1841 the trustees had the offer of £88 for the North
Queensferry toll-bar, on the condition that the tacksman should
be allowed a publican’s license; if not, he was to get a deduction
of £35, reckoned by him as what would be his probable emolu-
ment from the sale of spirituous liquors:—his license was refused
—the road trustees wisely sacrificing the £35 to what undoubtedly
176 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
was the public interest. This is an example worthy of imitation.
When we consider the detention of servants at tolls where drink
is sold, the enticement which is held out to dissipation, the
numerous cases in which articles have been stolen from carts
while the servants were inside the toll-house, and the frequent
instances of serious and fatal accidents which have happened by
the obstruction of the road as well as by the starting and running
off of horses left without their keepers, we think that, if such
evil things as toll-bars are to be continued, the additional evil of
allowing toll-keepers to hold ale licenses is one which the trustees
and justices over the whole country ought, for the public benefit,
to set their faces against at all hazards and at all risks.
In reference to the foregoing table, showing the annual amount
of levies from the public under the road acts for the two counties,
we have to remark that all the sums therein specified have
actually been drawn, as shown in the twenty-eight abstracts of
accounts. The only estimated item in the table is the column
of sums collected, over and above the rents, for the tenants’
remuneration, to the supposed amount of £3795, 11s. 5d., being
at the rate of 20 per cent. over and above the amount of the
toll rents, which is just equal to £16, 16s. 8d. on every
one hundred pounds drawn by the tacksmen from the public. Ac-
cording to the estimate, each of our one hundred toll-keepers have
an annual average profit, over and above the rents, for the main-
tenance of their families, &c., of £37, 19s. 1d.—a sum which,
looking to all the circumstances above adverted to, we have no
doubt is fully realised, if not regularly year after year, in every
instance at least on the average of years. So far as the public
are concerned, it matters not though one half of the tacksmen
were realising little or nothingsfor themselves if it so happen that
the other half are realising large sums, not merely sufficient for
their maintenance but something in the shape of handsome accu-
mulations. The perseverance with which the tacksmen are
known to adhere to this profession, when once entered upon,
may be reckoned as one, and a pretty safe test, that it is a paying
one. But were it otherwise—were it in the nature of a mere
gambling speculation, more likely to ruin than to benefit the
party—then that would just be an argument for putting an end
to transactions having such consequences. We are sure, how-
ever, that we are not far wrong in holding that the tacksmen, one
year with another, make well out, and that the recompense we have
assigned to them may be considered as by no means over-rated.
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 177
It may be explained here that the roads included in the preced-
ing Table, under the column “Statute Labour,” are wholly within
the counties of Fife and Kinross ; and that those under the
column “Turnpikes" are chiefly within the counties of Fife and
Kinross, but small portions of them within the counties of Perth
and Clackmannan, viz.:-

TURNPIKES. Fife. Kinross. | Perth. 9*
IſläIll&Il.
Nos. X. to XVI, inclusive 350+ tº e -
XX. l 1} 3 • * *
YXI. # tº e a 3 2}
YXII. tº e º 4} 2#. e - ©
YXIII. 15 3 & tº Q
XXIV. 4} • e eT
XXV. tº e e 18
XXVI. e tº º te 12 & © Tº
XXVII. 193 10; 9; * G -
XXVIII. º tº e & 6# e tº e 11}
405; 56} 18} 13#
Total 493;
In this way, the lengths of the statute labour and turnpike
roads in the counties of Fife and Kinross are—
Statute Labour. Turnpikes. Total.
In the County of Fife--- 339 405; 744g
22 55 Kinross- *~~ 54; 56+ 111
Total in the two Counties.--~ 394 461 g 855g
Of the toll-houses or collecting-boxes occupied by the tacks-
men or toll-keepers, there are—
In the County of Fife 87
29 93 Rinross 8
35 29 Perth 2
35 3? Clackmannan 3
In all — 100
It is now our duty to look to the expenditure of the above sum
of £33,547, 7s., which we find has been levied during each of the
last three years from the lieges under the road and bridge acts
above mentioned; and as the best mode of showing how much of
the same has been applied in the ordinary repair of the roads and
bridges, and how much in the ordinary expense of management,
we submit the following Table, also prepared from the twenty-eight
abstracts of accounts :— -

TABLE II.
Average Annual Amount expended during the years 1841, 1842, and 1843, in the ordinary Repair of the Roads and Bridges of the Counties
of Fife and Kinross, of the Great North Road, and of the Kinross and Alloa Road, and in Assessing and Collecting the Funds, and in
Managing the Roads and Bridges. Prepared from the twenty-eight Abstracts in Part II.
EXPENSES OF MANAGEMENT.
Expended in or— A. § 1. Repair of toll- Miscellaneous expen-
dinary repairs of ºś. |house...ates, steel-l Advertising and laries of s _ ses, including advertis-
No. NAME OF TRUST. the #: s and *º jºš. of tolls, rouping toll-bars. sº .." sº ; . s of Trus–
bridges. signs, º, lighting lamps, &c. *; ransfers of secu-
-* 9 ies, printing, &c.
Fife Statute Labour— * -
I. Cupar District - - £889 8 ll £40 0 0 £41 13 10 £54 4 $10 9 3
II. St Andrews District * - © 37 l. 3 • * * * * * 0 0 10
III. Rirkaldy District ... 1,306 7 9 38 3 3 34 4 0 75 0 0 24 14 l
IV. Dunfermline District 529 9 3 47 7 0 21 0 O 26 5 0 l 4 l
W. Fife Large Bridges 423 9 10 * * * 15 0 (0 e - tº
I’ife Lesser Bridges—
WI. Cupar District 98 10 4 1 12 6 7 10 0 4 1 1 * * *
VII. St Andrews District 103 12 10 1 15 0 5 O O 20 0 0 0 15 0
VIII. Kirkaldy District 106 0 7 0 19 5 e - e. • * 0 18 2
IX. Dunfermline District 42 3 ll - - - 0 12 7
Fife Turnpikes—
X. Cupar District ... e e > • 4 & 1,592 14 11 l 3 0 £165 12 8 39.17 19 5 £129 9 1 108 16 7 76 12 10
YI. St Andrews District 3,239 6 4 - - 30 I2 3 16 16 8 105 () 0 410 0 0 56 0 2
XII. Kirkaldy District tº º e © º º 3,063 19 8 69 15 7 28 10 4 87 4 11 280 0 0 75 l/ 6
YIII. Dunfermline General District 575 8 11 40 0 5 37 12 5 51 9 9 50 0 0 31 18, 5
|XIV. Whitehill ... e is tº ... 27 5 0 5 18 5 4 16 l 5 5 0 8 8 0 ...
XV. Aberdour and Duloch 124 7 2 7 9 10 7 9 10 16 7 0 16 7 1 7 9 10
XVI. Leven Road and Bridge tº L93 15 0 - 4 0 0 6 13 6 20 () () 20 0 0 28 6 6
Kinross-shire Statute Labour-
XVII. Kinross and Orwell District 176 6 0 15 0 0 3 () 0 3 7 5
XVIII. Portmoak and Arngask District tº e - * * * º º º s &
XIX. Cleish and Fossaway District 80 4 5 5 0 0
Kinross-shire, &c., Turnpikes—
XX. Outh and Nivingston ... 335 9 7 19 11 9 - 4- 15 0 0 10 10 0 5 16 ll
XXI. Carnock and Comrie 85 0 () 7 10 1 1 10 0 2 0 0 5 5 0 e tº º
XXII. Thomanean 119 17 l - - - e e º tº º º • * * 8 4 Il
XXIII. Cupar and Kinross 271 15 8 14 0 2 3 3 8 42 l? 4 12 4 3 0 16 6
XXIV. Pitcairlie ... º, º & e is º 48 18 2 O 6 8 I 6 2 13 6 8 2 13 0 0 6
XXV. Scotlandwell and Balgedie 473 5 6 4 - & tº º 14 10 0 * = - º gº ge
XXVI. Cleish ... tº e o e s tº 92 18 9 - - - - - - & & I () () * - - 6 5 2
XXVII. Great North Roa • * - 1,843 0 0 20 0 11 12 0 0 33 9 4 200 0 0 150 0 0 72 5 5
XXVIII. Kinross and Alloa Road #268 2 0 - - tº e tº gº 10 0 () 15 0 0 it.
£16,110 17 7 £208 2 4 £376 17 10 £159 7 5 £840 13 7 £1,268 14 7 £412 2 4
* This includes repair of toll-houses and *} Average annual expense of management ... tº tº º is tº & e º 'º - tº tº ... ... £3,265 18 l
advertising, and miscellaneous. And estimated amount of tacksmen’s remuneration, at 20 per cent., over their rents ...
3,795 II
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 179
The general result at which we arrive by the aid of the above
two tables may be stated shortly thus:—
Sums annually levied under the above-mentioned acts in
name of statute labour, bridge money, and toll-duties - £33,547 7 0
Annually disposed of thus:—
1. In ordinary repair of roads and
bridges - - - - £16,110 17 7
2. In expenses of management:—
Emoluments of one
hundred tacks-
men and toll col-
lectors, estimated
at 20 per cent.
over their rents,
or £37, 19s. 1d.
each gº ~ 363795 ll 5
Collectors of sta-
tute labour,
bridge money &c. 208 2 4
Repair of toll- -
houses, &c. ** 376 17 10
Roups of tolls ... 159 7 5
Clerks and trea-
SUlltel'S • ,- 840 13 7
Surveyors ºvae 1268 14 7
Miscellaméous ex-
penses ... ~& 412 2 4
- - 7061 9 6
3. In payment of interest of debt on
the roads as per the subjoined
Table III. . . . . . . 3939 1 0
4. In reduction of debt, &c. **u. 6435 18 11
£33,547 7 0 £33,547 7 0
It must be noticed, however, that there are several important
items of expense connected with road management which do not
appear in the foregoing table, viz.:-1. The cost of local road
legislation: 2. The law expenses incurred betwixt tacksmen and
private parties in questions respecting tolls: 3. The loss arising
from the toll-houses and gardens being occupied by the tacksmen
and their collectors, and not producing any yearly rent to the
Trustees.
The following is the amount of interest paid during the three
years :— a 4.
- TABLE III. -
STATE of INTEREST paid (at different rates) during the three years
1841, 1842, and 1843, upon the Debts affecting the Roads in the Counties
of Fife and Kinross, and the Great North Road:—
184]. 1842. 1843,
I. ... ... ... ... ... £12 0 0 £5 12 4 £12 0 0
II, ...
Carry forward ... ei2 o 0 £5 12 4 £12 0 0
180 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
r 1841. 1842. 1843.
Brought forward ... £12 0 0 #25 12 4 £12 () ()
II. ... ... ... ... ... tº tº tº 5 0 0 4 15 0
IV. to IX. ... ºr a tº & © tº e a s
X. ... ... ... ... 1079 6 8 958 19 8 921 7 II
XI. ... ... ... ... ... 609 IL 6 500 1 5 550 I 9
XII. ... ... ... ... ... 282 ll 0 216 6 3 215 17 5
XIII. ... ... ... ... ... 94 O O 87 14 II 80 2 9
XIV. ... ... ... ... ... 7 O 5. 7 L 5 6 14 4
XV. - tº & * c & tº it tº tº a dº º-s, tº tº ſº tº tº º
XVI. ... ... ... ... ... 307 9 l 307 9 L 307 9 1
XVII. ... ... ... ... ... tº tº tº tº º
XVIII. ... ... ... tº º
XX. ... ... ... ... ... 81 8 9 69 18 2 80 l 5
XXI. ... ... ... • * * * * * tº e - ... - & -
XXIII. ... ... ... ... ... H29 II IO II6 II 10 115 0 4
YXIV. ... ... ... ... ... 38 19 5 31 5 3 32 12 5
XXVII. ... ... ... ... . . 1622 9 2 1526 IO 9 1394 1 7
XXVIII. ... ... ... ... ... & © e tº e. e. - - -
#4264 7 10 £3832 Il 1 $3720 4 0.
AVERAGE INTEREST PAID............ £3939 1 0
The above sums do not in every instance correspond with the
amount of interest paid to the creditors, as in certain cases in this
table the interest paid to creditors is stated under deduction of
interest received on the balances in the bank accounts, and in
other cases the interest stated includes interest paid to the tacks-
men on their deposits in security of rent.—See the abstracts of
accounts. -
From a state before us, made up from as accurate information
as we could obtain, it appears that the total road debts affecting
the above-mentioned roads amounted, at the end of 1840 (exclu-
sive of old subscriptions, upon which no interest has been paid
for many years, and which may be regarded as donations to the
roads), to the sum of tº º e tº e e tº ſº tº £116,972 6 0
Towards which, in the course of the three years,
sums have been paid, including treasurers’
balances, at the end of 1843, to the amount of 19,748 5 9
Leaving, at the end of 1843, a total debt against -
the roads of about tº a tº © 2 tº e a s ... £97,224 0 3
As may be inferred from the absence of any entries of interest
in several of the foregoing abstracts of accounts, there are no
debts affecting the Trusts of which such are the abstracts. And
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 18]
it may be explained that the above-mentioned sum does not
affect the Trusts in cumulo–the debts as well as the funds being,
under the existing system, kept separate. The debts upon the
several Trusts are due to as many different sets of creditors, who
rely upon the funds of the separate Trusts (and personal security
where they have such) for the payment of their interest, and the
ultimate payment of the principal sums.
Large as is the amount of debt, it is almost as nothing when
compared with the great extent of excellent and valuable roads, of
the expense of making which it is the small reversion. These mea-
sure 394–H4933—in all 8873 miles; making the debt of £97,224,
0s. 8d. upon them less than £110 per mile. It is highly satisfac-
tory to learn from the accounts, that for a number of years by-
past there has been a considerable annual reduction of the debts
affecting the Road Trusts through the excess of income over ex-
penditure, and which is going on progressively, and would, in the
course of not many years, even under the present costly and com-
plicated system, clear off the debt altogether, and that slowly or
quickly according to the financial state of each Trust.
On looking at the accounts of our Road Trusts, and attending
to the relative amount of the funds which are really employed
in the repair of the roads and bridges, and are consumed in the
expenses of management—£16,110, 17s. 7d., the annual ave-
rage of the former, and £7061, 9s. 6d., the annual average of
the latter (Table II.)—we think he would be a bold man who
would deny that the expense of management is disproportionally
great compared with the sum actually expended in maintain-
ing the roads and bridges. We must be understood, however,
not as reflecting upon the officers employed by the Trustees;
for we believe no body of public officers can possibly conduct the
affairs of their constituents with greater zeal and fidelity. We
find fault not with the men but with the system—with the mul-
tiplied and expensive proceedings attendant upon so many differ-
ent local acts, and so many separate Trusts.
Such a state of matters as that which shows, upon the above-
mentioned data, that the expense of management is equal to
nearly 44 per cent. of the whole expenditure on the roads them-
selves—and which we believe is not the case in our counties only,
but may be found throughout Road Trusts generally—strongly de-
mands a remedy; and one of a twofold mature, and as we think
well worthy of consideration, presents itself. That remedy sim-
182 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
ply is—(1) An abolition of the system of statute labour and bridge
money assessments and of tolls, and the substitution of a direct
annual rate upon horses; and—(2) A simplification or consolida-
tion of the present numerous Trusts into a limited number.
The advantages which result from the simplification or consolida-
tion of a large number of contiguous Trusts into a few are so
well known that very little seems necessary to be said on this
point. Undoubtedly it would be a great improvement to simplify
the financial system of the two counties, and instead of having
eight-and-twenty Trusts in full operation, with complete staffs of
officers, to have only a limited number of Trusts—say five—
under which we believe the whole business could be managed,
and managed not less efficiently than by the present system, and
yet at much less expense.
The idea of simplifying or consolidating the business of Road
Trusts is by no means a new one. It has in many cases been
beneficially acted upon. Among these, it may be noticed that
the Trusts of the Cupar District of Fife Turnpike Roads were
till a very recent date (1841) conducted in fifteen separate
branches, with separate accounts of income and expenditure, and
separate debts constituted by separate bonds; but by arrange-
ments effected by the Trustees under the powers granted to them
by section 38 of the Fife Turnpike act (p. 30), these fifteen sepa-
rate Trusts have been consolidated, and the whole income and
expenditure have been placed in one account under one manage-
ment, much to the ease and convenience of the Trustees them-
selves, and of the officers of the Trust, and certainly at a great
saving of expense of bonds and bills—there being now only one
aggregate debt which is rapidly wearing off, instead of about fif-
teen different debts, with a corresponding number of different
parties to deal with, and a corresponding complexity in all the
transactions of the Trust.
. A debt such as that which Fife and Kinross-shire labours
under would be much easier managed as a whole than when
divided, as at present, into numerous fragments, each having a
body of separate creditors requiring to be treated in as many dif-
ferent ways—the creditors in Trusts where the funds are strong
readily taking 3% or 4 per cent., while those in a weak Trust,
which has the most need of careful nursing, exact 5 per cent.
because of the greater risk.
Now, however well entitled the lenders of money to Trustees
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 183
under temporary acts of Parliament (such as road acts usually
limited to thirty-one years) may be, we apprehend that were
the road funds of the two counties permanently consolidated, and
loans applied for and assignations of the funds offered in secu-
rity, there would be no difficulty in dealing with the present
creditors, or other monied parties, at the current rate of interest
(3% per cent.), to rise or fall according to the money market.
Railways readily borrow on their debentures at 3% per cent.,
and an assignment of the road funds, in security of the interest
of loans, would be not less freely accepted by monied parties.
When no more than 3 per cent. can be got in the public
funds, we should think that capitalists would gladly lend
at 3% on such an undoubted security as we have referred to
—the entire annual road funds of the two counties. In the
South Wales Trust, as we shall afterwards see, the sum need-
ful to pay off the creditors was borrowed from the Public
Works Loan Commissioners; but we think the consolidation
might easily be effected here, in the way we have suggested,
without drawing one penny from the public treasury.
According to the present law, Road Trustees are hampered
by the creditors in every proposal to reduce the tolls assigned
in security, as this can only be done upon the consent of
three-fourths of the creditors in value being obtained. Such par-
ties—often unconnected with the localities, and wholly ignorant
of the bearings of the matter—receive proposals of the nature
referred to with great suspicion, and their answer not unfre-
quently is, “If you mean to lessen our security, pay us our
money.” Any opposition from the creditors to the consolidation
of the Cupar District Trusts was prevented by four gentlemen
coming forward and interposing their personal security for pay-
ment of the whole debts.
Such loans might be taken—some of them for a term of years,
others of them for shorter periods—to admit of the gradual liqui-
dation of the debt from a fund which, under any system, should
be provided, over and above interest, repair of roads and bridges,
a proper allowance for improvements, and the expense of manage-
ment.
In many of the twenty-eight Trusts there are floating balances
—some of them in bank at 2 per cent., others of them in the
hands of treasurers and trustees, at no per cent.—which, were
they concentrated, would clear off several thousand pounds of
184 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
debt, and stop so much interest at 3% or 4 or 5 per cent. In the
fifteen bank accounts of the Trusts of the Cupar District previous
to the consolidation, there were usually scattered a couple of thou-
sand pounds, and that sum, upon the consolidation, was at once
applied in reduction of so much debt—thereby stopping a heavy
annual sum of interest, and also, so far as the amount paid off
was concerned, stopping the costly machinery attendant on the
transfer of securities.
In the consolidation of Road Trusts objections are often started
on the part of those connected with the management of such of
them as have the good fortune to be at the moment free of debt.
They naturally feel disinclined to be associated in any way with
Road Trusts in less prosperous circumstances. But the light
amount of the above-mentioned debt, when viewed as affecting the
whole extent of roads in the two counties, and the immense annual
saving to accrue from having only one set of creditors, instead of
a dozen different sets, should, upon reflection, reconcile such par-
ties to a consolidation of the Trusts. It is not enough that seve-
ral of the lines of road in a county or in a district are in
good condition. All the roads should be equally attended to
as part of the same public interest; and, however unavoidable
were the circumstances which led to the constitution of so many
separate and often conflicting Road Trusts in our two counties,
we think the time has now arrived when, without prejudice to
any party, all the public roads—their debts as well as their
funds—may with perfect propriety be regarded and dealt with as
one common concern. This indeed is one of the cases in which
it is clearly both the interest and the duty of the strong to sup-
port the weak, as the prosperity of the one will be reflected on
the other.
In a consolidation of the debt it would be necessary to as-
certain precisely its true amount, as affecting all the Road
Trusts within the two counties, and particularly to decide
what should be reckoned as the value of any old subscriptions
for making roads on which interest has not been paid for a course
of years; and it would also be necessary, in the view of a sepa-
ration of the portions in Perth and Clackmannan shires of cer-
tain of the roads in the twenty-eight Trusts from the roads of
the two counties, to decide in what manner, and according to
what proportions, the debts outstanding upon such Trusts shall
be apportioned and made chargeable upon the counties of Fife
and Kinross on the one hand, and on the counties of Perth and
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 185
Clackmannan on the other. This was done in the matter of the
South Wales trusts by commissioners appointed by the Treasury
under the following powers in the act of last session of Parlia-
ment, 7 and 8 Vict, cap 91, sec. 9:-
“And be it enacted, That so soon as the said examination and
inquiry into the affairs and finances of any of the said trusts re-
spectively shall have been made as aforesaid, and all such evi-
dence as the said commissioners shall deem necessary shall have
been heard and received touching the same, the said commission-
ers shall forthwith proceed to determine respecting the claims of
the several persons being or claiming to be mortgagees or credi-
tors of such trust, and shall estimate and determine the fair and
actual value of every one hundred pounds of debt secured by
mortgage or assignment of or other charges on the tolls of such
trust, and also the value, if any, of every one hundred pounds of
interest remaining due upon any such mortgage debts, excluding,
nevertheless, all such interest as shall have been due and in
arrear for more than six years previous to the first day of
August in this present year, which said last-mentioned interest
the said commissioners shall in all cases deduct and disallow ;
and as to any turnpike trusts wherein are comprised any roads
or portions of roads locally situated in two or more counties, the
said commissioners shall decide in what manner and according
to what proportions the debts outstanding upon such trusts shall
be apportioned and made chargeable upon each of such counties
respectively, and the said commissioners shall thereupon make
their award in writing under their hands and seals, and shall
specify therein the names of all such persons as they shall have
determined to be entitled to any monies, in respect of principal
or interest, as mortgagees or creditors of such trust, together
with the sums to which, in the judgment of the said commission-
ers, the said persons shall be respectively entitled, according to
the value of their respective debts.”
Under a similar statutory enactment the true amount of all
the debts against our twenty-eight Trusts could be easily ascer-
tained, and also easily apportioned on the different counties
interested.
As already mentioned, the road debts affecting the Trusts in
the two counties and the Great North Road, exclusive of the old
subscriptions, have been reckoned at the end of 1843 as amount-
ing to © º º tº e e #97,224 0 3
And assuming, which may safely be done, that a
progressive reduction of debt goes on in 1844
and 1845, there will be cleared off in these years 13,582 15 3
Leaving due at the end of 1845 e & © #83,641 5 0
A ºl
186 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
*- Brought forward ... . $83,641 5 0
To which add extra expenditure voted in 1844 for
the improvement of the Burntisland branch of
the Great North Road tº a tº a º ºr e 4,000 0 0
The total sum at the end of 1845 will be £87,641 5 0
Then from this sum, in taking a view of the debts
which should properly attach to Fife and Kin-
ross shires, there must be deducted the portion
supposed to effeir to those parts of the Great
North Road and other roads in the twenty-
eight Trusts which lie in Perth and Clackman-
man shires. This, in anticipation of the commis-
sioners—the length of the parts of roads in
Perth and Clackmannan shires being, as for-
merly stated, 314 miles—we estimate (chiefly
for portion of Great North Road debt) at 13,333 6 8
£74,307 18 4
To which add sums required at the end of 1845 to
provide two annuities to the annuitants mention-
ed in the Kirkaldy District abstracts—the one to
a person then 77 years of age, at the rate of £30,
and the other 74 years, at the rate of £10, 10s. 220 6 4
Estimated debt against Fife and Kinross roads,
on the supposition of a consolidation at the end
of 1845 tº º º tº ſº. º. © tº º #74,528 4 8
In the matter of Consolidation the latest and best precedent is
the statute of last session of Parliament (1844) already men-
tioned (and to which we shall hereafter have occasion to refer),
passed with a view to remedy the Welsh toll grievances, intituled
“An act to consolidate and amend the laws relating to Turnpike
Trusts in South Wales,” and part of the preamble of which bears,
“that the several Trusts in each of the (six) respective counties.
then existing should be consolidated and placed under uniform
management and controul.”
What has been beneficially accomplished in the consolidation
of Road Trusts in many different localities we propose should,
with the aid of Parliament, be also accomplished as regards the
roads and bridges within the counties of Fife and Kinross.
These at present are managed as follows:—Nos. I. to IX. inclusive
—Cupar, St Andrews, Kirkaldy, and Dunfermline district statute
labour; Fife large bridges; Cupar, St Andrews, Kirkaldy, and
PART III.-ft.AN OF ROAD REFORM. 187
Dunfermline district lesser bridges;–all by the Fife Statute
Labour Trustees. Nos. X. to XV. inclusive—Cupar, St Andrews,
and Kirkaldy district turnpikes; Dunfermline general district—
Whitehill, Aberdour, and Duloch turnpikes;–by the Fife Turn-
pike Trustees. No. XVI.-Leven road and bridge, by Trustees
specially appointed. Nos. XVII, XVIII., and XIX.-Kinross
and Orwell, Portmoak and Arngask, Cleish and Fossaway dis-
trict statute labour—by the Kinross-shire Statute Labour Trus-
tees. Nos. XX. to XXVI. inclusive—Outh and Nivingston,
Carnock and Comrie, Thomanean, Cupar, and Kinross, Pitcairly,
Scotland-Well, and Balgedie, and Cleish turnpikes—all by the
Trustees for the counties of Fife, Kinross, Perth, and Clack-
mannan. No. XXVII.-The Great North Road, by the Trus-
tees of Fife, Kinross, and Perth. And No. XXVIII.--The
Kinross and Alloa road, by the Trustees of Kinross and Clack-
In all Iſlall,
Now, to the Trust which at present comprehends only the
Cupar District of Fife Turnpikes, we would add the statute labour
roads, and all the bridges in the district, and also that small por-
tion of the Great North Road in the Cupar District, and the Cupar
and Kinross road (excepting three miles of the west end thereof
which are in the county of Kinross), and the Pitcairly road. These
two last-mentioned roads (excepting the three miles), though within
the county of Fife—running, indeed, into the very centre of it,
and almost to the Cross of the county town—are yet under the
Rinross-shire, &c., act (No. VII.), and so are managed by the
Road Trustees of Fife, Kinross, Perth, and Clackmannan, con-
junctly. In one Trust we would embrace Cupar District Turn-
pikes, Statute Labour Roads and Bridges, the part of the Great
North Road referred to, the Cupar and Kinross Road (excepting
as above), and Pitcairly Road. These extend in length to 224%
miles; and one step, as it were, has already been taken towards
their consolidation, for the Trustees upon five of these Trusts have,
for some twelve or fourteen years past continuously, employed
one and the same person as surveyor of the whole. The surveyor
of a road Trust is probably the person most essential to its bene-
ficial management; and where, as in this instance, one surveyor
is quite equal to the due superintendence of several limited
Trusts, a prima facie case arises for their consolidation. The
Trusts referred to are so interwoven with each other that a
separate surveyor for each of them would be thé height of
188 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
absurdity and extravagance. At the sametime, although the
remedy of consolidation may be of easy accomplishment, now that
road making is better understood and that the funds of the Trusts
generally are getting into a wholesome state, still it must be
recollected that matters formerly were in a very different position.
The statute labour acts came in supplement of ancient Scottish
acts anent highways, and lines of road were from time to time
added to the roads on the statute labour list as the circumstances
of the different localities required. The turnpike acts, again,
came in supplement of the statute labour acts. In executing
these different acts each body of Trustees had enough to do with
their own particular Trusts. The statute labour Trustees often
begged of the new comers, the turnpikes, not to disturb them,
and as often the turnpike Trustees would have nothing to do
with the statute labour roads. Indeed, turnpike Trustees some-
times repelled turnpike Trustees. The Fife turnpike Trustees,
for instance, would not undertake the Cupar and Kinross and
Pitcairly roads—hence their inclusion in the Kinross-shire, &c.,
Turnpike Act, though, as already mentioned, these roads are
locally within the county of Fife. Established Trusts not unfre-
quently supposed themselves to have interests antagonist to the
rising Trusts, and mutual accommodation and support were
seldom given—each set of Trustees being too closely concerned
in what they thought the benefit of the roads at their own doors.
Too frequently has it happened that public roads have been laid
out for mere local convenience, without regard to the advantage
of the country at large. Each line originated with individuals
who were interested in opening up that part of the country, and
who became its patrons, and subscribed or borrowed the money
necessary for the work. Their next care was to protect them-
selves by having their line inserted in the list of statute labour
roads or in the next turnpike act—taking power to erect toll-
gates, these in many cases to be paid, however near to each other
or near to other gates. Of this sort of thing the Cupar and
Kinross road and Pitcairly road are examples. The act under
which they are comprehended—the Kinross-shire, &c., Turnpike
Act—not only authorised toll-gates to be erected with the usual
taxative powers, but, at five of these gates, appointed the tolls
to be paid however near to each other or to other gates. The
Cupar and Kinross road extends to 18 miles, with four gates
upon it, three of which must be paid in passing along—an easier
road, certainly, in point of tolls, than some others in the two
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 189
counties. There was a great evil, however, in creating a separate
Trust, with exclusive toll-bars, in the near vicinity of other Trusts
with their toll-bars, also in the same sense exclusive. An evil of
a similar kind has been committed in a variety of other instances.
The object, no doubt, of the exclusive bars was to levy as heavy
an amount of revenue as possible—an object which, the public
will admit, has been most fully carried out ; and, to this moment,
not one of the many exclusive bars in the two counties are yet
privileged to clear each other.
We submit, however, that the time has now arrived when
numbers of the local Trusts may be safely consolidated, and when,
within reasonable territorial bounds, only one Trust should exist,
to comprehend public roads and bridges of every description.
Such a measure would diminish very greatly the labour of the
Trustees and their officers. Instead of a multiplicity of accounts,
each made up at its own time and in its own way, we would have
the whole financial proceedings of a district simply and perspi-
cuously stated in one single account. All the pecuniary transfer-
ences from one Trust to another would be saved, and all difficul-
ties and disputes about which Trust had a right to the funds—
whether, for instance, the statute labour of a particular parish
should go to the Turnpike running through it from east to west
or to the other Turnpike from north to south—would be saved.
The officers would have the pleasure of serving only one instead
of several sets of masters; and when quarter day came one
receipt would suffice to one paymaster, instead of having, as in
the case of the surveyor referred to, to draw salary from several
separate Trust funds—and these not according to an annual fixed
sum from each, but according to the proportions which the annual
increase or diminution of their respective incomes from statute
labour, bridge money, and tolls, shall, upon calculations by the
several treasurers, be found requisite to make up the stated
amount of salary.
In the St Andrews district we would pursue a course precisely
similar. We would consolidate in one Trust the turnpikes and
statute labour roads and bridges. Practically, indeed, the turn-
pike and statute labour Trusts are already consolidated. There
is only one surveyor, having under him several assistants. The
roads in this district extend to 217% miles. The Trustees impose
the statute labour assessment qua statute labour Trustees, and
levy the tolls qua turnpike Trustees. But once possessed of the
190 PART III.--—PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
funds, they administer the same conjointly; at least the monies
applied to both are expended by the same surveyor or his assist-
ants, and comprehended in the same account.
Discussions, in a somewhat angry spirit, have occurred from
time to time upon the question, Whether statute labour assess-
ments could be legally applied to turnpike roads, or to any roads
excepting those on the statute labour list 3 This point, connected
with a proposed revision of the position of the toll-gates in the
St Andrews district, was brought under the consideration of that
district by Lord William Douglas; and a majority of the Trustees
having resolved in the affirmative, an appeal was taken to the
Quarter Sessions of the Peace for Fife; and at a very numerous
meeting of Justices, in Quarter Sessions assembled—27 being pre-
sent on the occasion—it was resolved (20th May, 1841), after a
full discussion, that, taking into consideration the several road
acts, and that the turnpikes were in supplement of the statute
labour roads, the application of statute labour money to turnpike
roads was perfectly competent. Many of the tenantry felt an
interest in this question from their dissatisfaction at the statute
labour funds assessed upon their parishes not being applied to
the roads of such parishes, but, in many cases, carried to a dis-
tance and expended on turnpike roads, for which, nevertheless,
they had to pay toll so often as used by them. It will be seen
from the abstracts of accounts that the application of statute
labour assessments to turnpike roads is not peculiar to one dis-
trict only, but pervades nearly every part of our present system.
In the Kirkaldy district, again, we would, in one Trust, comi-
prehend all the roads in that district—the district turnpikes, the
statute labour roads, the bridges, the Leven road and bridge,
and that part of the Great North Road which is in the Kirkaldy
district. These would extend to 1574 miles. There is only one
surveyor, with assistants, except so far as concerns the part of
the Great North Road refered to, and Wemyss parish statute
labour roads—these latter being under the charge of Mr By-
water, factor to Captain Erskine Wemyss of Wemyss.
This Trust would comprehend also the new road which
has been recently made betwixt Kinghorn and Burntisland in
connexion with the Duke of Buccleuch and Mr Gladstone’s low-
water pier at Burntisland. This road has been executed under
the authority of the Burntisland and Granton Pier, Ferry, and
Road Act, No. IV. of the Abridgement (p. 46.) But once made,
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 191
it was placed under the provisions of the Fife Turnpike Act. All
the powers, provisions, tolls, and penalties, granted and imposed
by the Fife Turnpike Act apply to this road. In the absence of
any power to impose a special or exclusive toll, a toll on the
Burntisland end of the road, were such erected, would be cleared
by the Kirkaldy East and West Bridge Bars, and by the other bars
under the Fife Turnpike Act within six miles; but it would not
clear the Burntisland bar at the north end of the Great North
Road, that being under the Great North Road Act; and accord-
ingly it was lately proposed, on the part of some of the Kirkaldy
District Trustees, to exercise their powers by erecting a bar
betwixt the sea and the Burntisland bar of the Great North Road,
which would have had the effect of taxing all carriages and horses
passing at that ferry northward towards Kinross and Perth in a
double toll instantly on their setting foot in Fife. This, however,
was opposed, as might have been anticipated, by the Trustees on
the Great North Road, and they succeeded in persuading
the Kirkaldy District Trustees to accept a bonus from them of
£500, as the price of their abandoning the experiment of a double
toll on travellers to the north. A consolidation of the Trusts
would put an end to such conflicts between bodies of public office-
bearers whose interests should always be one and the same.
The road and bridge formed under the Leven Road and Bridge
Act (No. V. of the Abridgement), however, did not proceed on
the principle of placing these under the Trustees appointed by
the Fife Turnpike Act, but for their management constituted
an entirely distinct and separate body of Trustees, with separate
officers. This has unavoidably led to an annual expense of a
certain amount, which, in the circumstances, was unavoidable, as
the Fife Turnpike Trustees deemed the project of the new road
and bridge at Leven, though much called for by the public, an un-
safe speculation, and would not venture it. The measure was,
however, undertaken by a few public-spirited gentlemen of the
town of Leven and neighbourhood, and they have accomplished
it most successfully. A considerable debt was, in the first in-
stance, contracted. They had to pay (abstract No. XVI.)—
For their act of Parliament - - - - - £459 17 11
For building pontage-house - - - #179 lo 10
For building four toll-houses - - -- 219 10 0
Carry forward ** 3.399 9 10 £450 17 11
I92 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
- Brought forward * £399 9 10 £450 17 11
For seven toll-gates—one at the pontage, one at
- at each of the toll-houses, and one at each
of the two checks; also for four steelyards
and five painted tables of tolls .. ** 103 14 0
———— 503 3 10
And for cost of bond for loan of £7000 ** * ** 33 3 4
£937 B. T.
And for purchasing right of ferry, building bridge, altering
and improving the road, and relative expenditure 10,273 12 1%
#11,260 17 2;
This was independent of the expense of surveyor, clerk, and
miscellaneous, and interest and discounts to a large amount, all
as stated in the abstract.
The separate system which was here pursued incurred a
cost for legislation, and providing toll-houses, gates, and steel-
yards, equal nearly to one-tenth part of the sum required
for the improvement itself. Then to that tenth, and the annual
interest running on it, has to be added the expense of ad-
vertising and rouping the tolls, the maintenance of the toll-
houses, gates, and steelyards, and the remuneration for the five
toll-keepers, amounting to a considerable sum yearly—to a sum
large, indeed, for the length of road embraced in the improvement,
which extends barely to 7% miles. Under the good management
of the Trustees, however, and their faithful collection of the
revenue at the seven toll-gates, aided by certain grants from the
county large bridges fund, the debt on this Trust is gradually
diminishing. A consolidation of it with the other Trusts in the
district would relieve the Trustees of their private responsibili-
ties in this public concern, and would also relieve the Trust of
the present annual charge upon it for its separate management,
which is about £80, exclusive of the remuneration of five toll-
keepers.
In the Dunfermline district, again, we would unite in one Trust
the whole public roads—the district statute labour, general dis-
trict turnpikes, the Whitehill Trust, the Aberdour and Duloch
Trust, part of the Great North Road, and the several lines of
road under the Kinross-shire &c., Act, which are within the Dun-
fermline district. These would extend to 1453 miles, and they
are, we believe, the Great North Road excepted, all already under.
one surveyor. In this limited district, as at present constituted,
there are no fewer than eight separate road Trusts, or portions of .
Trusts; and the officers who have conducted them—who have
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 193
brought order out of seeming confusion, and who have amid so
many conflicting elements kept the names of their constituents
out of the law reports—have much credit in their management.
We think, however, that matters would not work a bit less har-
moniously were the eight Trusts thrown into one.
To the county of Kinross, either by itself or as a district of the
to-be-united counties of Fife and Kinross, we would assign the
care of all the roads in that county—including those parts of the
Great North road and of the Kinross and Alloa road within it.
This would place the county in a better position than at present;
it would relieve them from the burden of having for their coadju-
tors in the management of their turnpikes the whole Justices, Com-
missioners of Supply, &c., of the counties of Fife, Perth, and Clack-
mannan, (p.p. 65, 66.) The Kinross-shire roads, we are aware, are
well and economically managed, and managed by the gentlemen of
the county with very little help from their nominal co-trustees
of Perth and Clackmannan. There is, therefore, no practical
necessity for laying this county open to invasions from these
counties. We see no objection, however, to Kinross-shire being
associated in whole, as it is already in part, in the management of
the Fife roads, and Fife in the management of the Kinross-shire
roads. Kinross-shire lies, as it were, in the bosom of Fife, and
mutual advantage might ensue from the two counties being
united in one great Trust as regards the whole roads and bridges
in both. As a good general view of the two counties, we take
the liberty to quote Oliver & Boyd’s description of them—
Almanac 1845:—
“FIFE.-The county, sometimes called the kingdom, of Fife, extends from
east to west 44 miles, from north to south 18 miles; its area is 504 square
miles, or 322,560 acres, of which 200,000 are cultivated; 85,000 uncultivated,
and 37,560 unprofitable. The county is divided into an eastern and a
western district, each under the jurisdiction of a Sheriff-substitute; and for
civil purposes it is portioned into four districts—St Andrews, Cupar, Dun-
fermline, and Kirkaldy. The valued rent in 1674 was £363,129 Scots; in
1695, £369,786, 18s. 8d. Scots; the annual value of real property, as as-
sessed in 1815, £405,770; in 1843, £490,033. The population in 1841 was
140,140; the inhabited houses, 29,036. The Parliamentary constituency
in 1844 was 2892. The county town is Cupar, 31 miles north of Edin-
burgh; population, 5137.”
“KINRoss.-This small county extends from east to west about 13 miles
and from north to south 12 miles; its area is 83 square miles, or 53,120
acres, of which 30,000 are cultivated; 10,000 uncultivated; and 13,120 un-
profitable. The valued rent in 1674 was £20,250 Scots; the annual value
of the real property, as assessed in 1815, £25,805; in 1843, £43,941. The
population in 1841 was 8763; the inhabited houses, 1812. The Parlia-
B b
194 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
mentary constituency in 1844 was 513. The county town is Kinross, 27
miles north-west of Edinburgh; population of the parish, 2822.”
The length of the roads in the county of Kinross, statute
labour and turnpike, is 111 miles, and they have the benefit of
several paid surveyors, except in some instances where the Trus-
tees themselves take the superintendence. The county, from its
compactness, may be well superintended by one surveyor under
a consolidated management.
At this moment the four counties of Fife, Kinross, Perth, and
Clackmannan, are curiously situated as regards a number of their
turnpike roads. In the management of the Great North Road,
the Trustees of Fife, Kinross, and Clackmannan, are called into
Perthshire, and as far as the very gates of the city of Perth,
where that road terminates on the north. The Perthshire Trustees
again, in conjunction with the Fife and Kinross and Clackman-
nan Trustees, are called into Kinross-shire as regards all the
turnpike roads in that county, and even twenty miles east into
Fife, along the Cupar and Kinross and Pitcairly roads, as far as
the capital of “the kingdom.” In the matter of the Great North
Road, the Trustees of Fife, Kinross, and Perth, are called
through Fife to Burntisland on the south, and Queensferry on
the south-west. The Trustees of Kinross-shire and Clackman-
nanshire again reciprocate in the matter of the Kinross and
Alloa road, one-third of which is in the one county and two-
thirds in the other. Such an interlacing of Road Trusts as we
have in and around Kinross-shire, is not, we should think, easy
to be found anywhere else. These ten Trusts, or parts of Trusts—
Kinross and Orwell statute labour, Portmoak and Arngask do.,
Cleish and Fossaway do., Outh and Nivingston turnpikes, Tho-
manean do., part of Cupar and Kinross do., Scotlandwell and
Balgedie do., Cleish do., part of Great North Road, and part of
Kinross and Alloa do—may with much propriety be thrown into
one and the same Trust.
Our general proposition in reference to consolidation simply
is, to revert, so far as Fife is concerned, to the divisions ap-
pointed by the old statute, 14 of Geo. III., intituled “An
act for repairing the highways and bridges within the county of
Fife,” and which directed (p. 2), “That for the more easy and
effectual execution of the powers hereinafter granted, the said
PART III–PLAN of RoAD REFORM. 195
county of Fife shall be divided into four different districts, con-
sisting of the respective Presbyteries of St Andrews, Kirkaldy,
Cupar, and Dunfermline.” In these four districts down to this
day are the roads still managed, only, as has been seen, there
are a variety of separate Trusts, or subdivisions. in each district,
to which we would put an end. If it was competent in days of
old for each of those districts to take charge of all its own roads,
it is not less so now. The roads are not now to make ; road
management is now better understood; and the districts pro-
posed by us are of such limited extent that the Trustees and their
officers may move from one end of each district to the other in a
couple of hours. The most minute details of every part of the
road, and of every part of the expenditure, could be well attended
to ; if not so, the blame would rest with the Trustees themselves,
or their board, if such shall be appointed, in not seeing that the
surveyors do their duty.
We assume one surveyor for each district, as in practice one
has for years past done the whole duties in the largest of the
proposed districts. But if, in any of the proposed districts,
more than one surveyor be considered indispensable, by all means
let more than one be appointed, as vigilant superintendepee of the
roads throughout their length and breath is of vital consequence
to the proper working of every Road Trust. The facilities
afforded by the penny post in making communications betwixt the
Trustees and their surveyors and other officers will greatly expe-
dite the operations of an united Trust; and the numerous branch
banks and post-office money orders afford ready channels for pay-
ing contractors and workmen who may not be within call of the
district treasurer. Division of labour is a very good thing, but
it may be carried too far, and undoubtedly will be carried far-
ther than it should be, if the numerous existing separate divisions
and subdivisions of Road Trusts in the two counties are kept up,
with their separate debts, separate accounts, and separate officers,
several of them now, by change of circumstances, having become
Superfluous.
By a consolidation of the Trusts, an annual expense, to the
amount of a few hundred pounds, would be saved under the present
system of tolls and statute labour in advertising and holding
meetings, paying salaries, and contingencies. Independent of
that, we are sure a consolidation of all the roads in the counties
of Fife and Kinross into five Trusts, instead of eight-and-twenty
196 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
as at present, would upon trial prove highly satisfactory both to
the Trustees and to the public. All parties would then know
precisely upon whom lay the responsibility of keeping each parti-
cular road in repair. It could not then be said, as may now be
said, respecting many of the roads in the two counties, that the
blame of mismanagement, if any, is not chargeable against the
Trustees of the county where the road is, but against the Trus-
tees of the four counties—Fife, Kinross, Perth, and Clackman-
man—jointly. Each county, we apprehend, by itself or by its
districts, is best fitted to manage its own roads; and we do not
think that the part of the Great North Road which lies within
the counties of Fife and Kinross would suffer in the least from
a repeal of section 7 of the Great North Road act (p. 73), which
provides a tripartite management of that road, and declares or-
dinary meetings of the Trustees illegal, unless there shall be pre-
sent two Trustees of the county of Perth, two of the county of Fife,
and two of the county of Kinross. It would very obviously be
a relief to all counties in such situations were their duties in
the matter of Road Trusts to terminate at their own boundaries,
instead of carrying them into other counties, and bringing other
counties into them.
As already adverted to, the present state of matters has been
occasioned by the Road Trusts growing up at different times—
some of them under one kind of management, and some under
another. They are all now—sinking some old and irrecoverable
subscriptions standing at the debit of one or two of the Trusts—
in a state more or less flourishing—in such a state that the
management of the whole roads may be consolidated in proper
districts, and each left to take care of itself, without the inter-
ference of Trustees from several adjoining counties.
The carrying out of our plan can only be effected by an act of
Parliament, and one short act, with reference to the General
Turnpike act, would answer the purpose. The expense attend-
ant on the present system of local road legislation is very con-
siderable, as may be learned from the following statement of
what was incurred in obtaining the nine local acts contained in
the Abridgement. -
The following is the amount of these, as nearly as we have been
able to ascertain :-
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 197

passed. ENDURANCE. orje. COST,
I. Fife Statute Labour Act...... l'797 | Not limited. 62 £300 0 0
II: ... Do. ...... 1807 Do. 78 400 0 0
III. Fife Turnpike Act ............ 1829 || 31 years. 49 568 5 0}
IV. Burntisland Pier, Ferry, and Tot. clauses,
Road Act........................ 1842 || 25 * Rašice, 575 7 3
8.
V. Leven Bridge and Road Act | 1839 || 31 years. 26 450 17 Il
WI. Kinross-shire Statutelabour
Act .............................. 1826 | Not limited. 95 400 0 0
VII. ... Do, &c. Turnpikes | 1831 31 years. 28 293 0 7
VIII. Great North Road Act...... 1829 || 31 years. 37 400 0 O
IX. Kinross and Alloa Road...... 1829 || 31 years. 23 145 0 (0
CoST OF THE NINE STATUTEs........................ £3532 10 9}
A large amount has thus been expended in obtaining our cur-
rent local road acts—most of them, it will be observed, of
limited endurance, and requiring, according to the present
system, to be renewed at the end of the periods specified ; each
renewal occasioning a fresh heavy amount of expense, which
in every case, as the legislature carefully provides, must be
paid either out of the first monies borrowed or out of the first
tolls levied under each act. There is thus not only the actual
expense of the act to be provided for, but too frequently also the
expense of bonds for money borrowed to meet that expense.
Those whose endurances are not limited may be considered as
burdening the Road Trusts with perpetual annuities equal to 5
per cent. on their cost. Those, again, which have a limited en-
durance must be held as burdening the Road Trusts in termi-
nable annuities, adequate, within the period of endurance, to
clear off the original cost and its interest. Thus we would cal-
culate:— *
No. I. Which is unlimited, and cost £300, as entailing a
perpetual yearly burden of ~ ... "... 615 0 0
II. Also unlimited, and which cost £400 gºe gº 20 0 0
VI. Also unlimited, and which cost £400 gºe tº 20 0 0
III. For 31 years, and which cost £568, 5s. 0#d., as
entailing a yearly burden during that period of 34 14 1
IV. For 25 years, and which cost £575, 7s. 3d. - - 38 17 7
V. For 31 years, and which cost £450, 17s. 11d. ... 27 10 9
VII. For 31 years, and which cost £293,0s. 7d. ... - 17 17 ll
VIII. For 31 years, and which cost £400 ** fº 24 8 %
IX. For 31 years, and which cost £145 - - - 8 17
Yearly burden on the two counties for the expense of their
local road acts ~ * > … • -- ~ * #207 6 1
198 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
Such truly is the existing annual burden on the two counties
for road legislation; and so long as the present system of sepa-
rate statutes and separate trusts shall be persevered in, so long
shall we suffer to a similar, if indeed not to a greater, yearly
extent. The current of road legislation is on the increase, and
unless an entirely new course be taken, we are likely, in future
years, to have more instead of fewer local road acts. Parties
may and will take fancies for new lines of road, requiring new
statutes for themselves; or they will deem it necessary to have
acts for altering, amending, enlarging, or explaining the old ones.
The best illustration we can offer on this point is to refer to
Appendix (A), where we give a collection of the Titles of all the
Scottish Road and Bridge Acts that have been passed by the
Legislature since the period of the Union. They number nearly
350. Of these only 5 were passed betwixt 1707 and 1750, 110
between 1750 and 1800, and the remaining 228 betwixt 1800
and 1844. Since the passing of our first general turnpike act in
1823, and more particularly since the passing of the present gene-
ral turnpike act in 1831, the subsequent local road acts have been
curtailed, by omitting from them the general powers and police
clauses, and pains and penalties contained in the general act.
The main purposes, therefore, of local acts now are to appoint
trustees—in which every act varies from another—and to fix the
rates of toll, in which also there is infinite variety. Upon this
point we refer to the Turnpike Statutes in the Abridgement.
We would have all who are interested in road management to
unite their efforts to bring about a change in our system of road
legislation—an abolition of the numerous local acts, and the sub-
stitution of one single act in their place, which, with the general
turnpike act, would answer every purpose.
In support of this view, we would refer to the recent act for the
improvement of prisons and prison discipline in Scotland, whereby
the defective and discordant system that had prevailed for a long
period of time was put an end to on 1st July 1840, and all
the prisons in Scotland were placed in charge of County Prison
Boards, elected by the Commissioners of Supply and Town-Coun-
cils in the April preceding. These Boards, who are re-elected by
the same parties annually, have, in little more than four years,
effected an extraordinary change for the better in the management
and discipline of the prisons in Scotland. It will be seen, also,
from the provisions of the South Wales turnpike act—which we
PART III.-PLAN of ROAD REFORM. 199
shall immediately notice—that the roads of the six counties com-
prehended in it are placed under the management of County Roads
Boards. Were the same principle embodied in an act to compre-
hend the whole counties of Scotland, with necessary provisions
for liquidation of existing debts, any farther renewals of our local
acts might be dispensed with, and a world of trouble and expense
in legislation saved.
It must be noticed also, that besides the costs of the acts
charged upon the road funds, and of which those connected with
our two counties have been already specified, there are other ex-
penses—and these not of a light kind—which, in computing the
total amount, should be taken into account. We allude to the
trouble which, in such matters, is thrown upon the trustees per-
sonally whenever a road act runs out and requires to be renewed.
We allude also to the trouble and expense occasioned to commu-
nities or private parties in discussing, and often opposing, the taxa-
tive clauses in the proposed acts to lighten as much as possible
the burden on the public—these parties acting in every way as
if the trustees did not represent the public at all.
Of this we had an example upon the introduction of the pre-
sent Fife Turnpike Act in 1829, when it was proposed, among
other things, that a fourpenny toll should not pass a cart exceed-
ing in weight 20 cwt. Considerable hostility was in consequence
shown to the measure by manufacturers, merchants, farmers, and
others; and the opposition to the bill was the local popular ques-
tion of the day. Public meetings were held of those inimical to
it, negotiations were carried on with the road trustees for a dimi-
nution of the toll-rates, and the opponents of the bill went so far
as to send a deputation to London on the subject. The result
was, that a fourpenny toll was made sufficient to pass a cart not
exceeding 25 cwt., the scale of weights was raised, and consider-
able ease was thereby obtained in the tolls upon ordinary traffic.
Even in the most favourable point of view—assuming that the
measure goes through without opposition among the trustees
themselves, which is seldom the case, and also without opposi-
tion from without—the trustees in every instance have much per-
sonal trouble and annoyance before the rates of toll, the distances,
the positions of exclusive bars, &c. &c., can be adjusted. Then
follows the labour to both Houses of Parliament of going over
all this work again; and now-a-days that their hands are full of
railway legislation, they would most gladly be relieved, to as
200 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
great an extent as possible, of statute labour and turnpike road
bills.
Considerable as is the amount of Scottish road legislation shown
in the Appendix (A), we believe we are correct in saying, that the
road legislation for England is ten times greater—that there are
at least ten English road bills for every Scottish one. If, there-
fore, there be any good in our proposition of simplifying and
limiting the road legislation of this end of the island, the carry-
ing out of our proposition, by applying it also to the road legis-
lation of England, would have a proportionally great effect in
saving expense to road funds and to the public, and in abridging
the trouble of the road trustees themselves, and of the Legislature.
Having thus discussed pretty fully the consolidation branch of
the remedy, we should now proceed to propose our plan for the
abolition of Road Tolls and Statute Labour Assessments, and the
substitution of a rate upon horses. But before entering upon this,
the numerous disadvantages and demerits of the present system
demand our consideration.
The whole working of turnpike tolls has been again and
again condemned—we may almost say by the universal voice
of the country—and a spirit of dissatisfaction has been aroused
against it, which, in South Wales particularly, very recently
attempted to put down the system by physical force. In that
part of the kingdom, as will be well remembered, multitudes of
people met, night after night, under the leadership of Rebecca
—sometimes at one point and sometimes at another—and, despite
all the local authorities, straightway destroyed toll-gate after
toll-gate, razing, at the sametime, the toll-houses to their very
foundations. In short, for a time the Rebeccaites held undoubted
sway in South Wales, to the dismay of that portion of the
empire, and, indeed, to the uneasiness of the Government and
the country at large. The military had to be called in from a
distance; the London police had to locate themselves in the dis-
turbed districts; a few, but very few, of the numerous persons
concerned in the riots and in the bloodshed—for some unoffend-
ing toll-keepers suffered—were brought to justice; and, after
measures of energy and conciliation on the part of the Executive,
the disaffected were overcome and the districts restored to
peace. These proceedings occasioned enormous expense.
In South Wales, as elsewhere, turnpike gates had been oppres-
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 20I
sively numerous, and the rates correspondingly severe. Farmers
were met by tolls in every movement of their produce ; they
could not drive any distance after paying a toll, till, at probably
the next turn, they came upon what some act of Parliament had
constituted a separate Trust, and where they found it necessary,
before going farther, to pull up and pay a second toll. A little
farther on, by some other legal arrangement, there would be
another Trust and another toll, and so on. And, while the
farmers were in the first instance the sufferers, their customers—
the public at large—had to share the cost with them, the price of
their produce being necessarily increased to enable them to carry
on their business. Their grievances were proved before a special
commission, which was appointed with a view to discover the
cause of the toll-bar riots and the remedy, and their report (6th
March, 1844) forms a thick folio volume of the Parliamentary
papers. g . .
Upon that report Sir James Graham introduced and carried
the South Wales Act, to which we have already referred. By
section 2 that act was declared to include and comprise the six
counties of Glamorgan, Brecknock, Radnor, Carmarthen, Pem-
broke, and Cardigan, respectively; and by section 34 all local
acts of Parliament for making, repairing, or regulating, the turn-
pike roads within any of these counties were simpliciter repealed, and
the provisions of that, the consolidation act, were appointed thence-
forward to come into full operation and effect. The commis-
sioners for taking account of the amount of the debts affecting
the Trusts in the six counties were, with the aid of arbitrators, to
ascertain and fix the amounts thereof, the results (section 21), to
be reported to the Secretary of State; and (section 22) the sums
awarded to the creditors on the different Trusts were, under the
authority of the 5th and 6th Vietoria, chap. 59, to be advanced
by the public works loan commissioners, out of the consolidated
fund for carrying on public works and fisheries and the employ-
ment of the poor—the advance not to exeeed £225,000; and
(section 29) to be repaid by annuity for thirty years from the
South Wales turnpike Trust fund, at the rate of £5, 5s. for every
hundred pounds. The business of the roads in the six counties
under this consolidation act is to be carried on by Road Boards
of not fewer than six nor more than twelve persons, being Justices
of the Peace, to be named by the Quarter Sessions, with the
addition of certain persons. ea officio—the Lord-Lieutenant and
U C
202 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
the Vice-Lieutenant of the county for the time being, all eldest
sons of peers and all members of her Majesty’s Privy Council
who may reside or be rated for any property in the county, and
all members of Parliament for the county or for any burgh, and
the chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the time being. These
County Boards (section 37) shall, in each of the said counties,
“be styled the County Roads Board,” and “shall, subject to the
provisions and restrictions hereinafter contained, have the super-
intendence, control, and management of all turnpike roads, and
parts of turnpike roads, situated in any of the said counties
respectively, which shall have been heretofore regulated by any
local act or acts of Parliament to be repealed in pursuance of this
act, and which shall be determined by the said commissioners in
manner hereinafter provided to be maintainable as turnpike roads
in any of the said counties respectively.”
Section 38 declares the General Turnpike Acts (for England) to
be applicable to the turnpike roads within the said counties.
Section 52 enacts that toll once paid clears seven miles in the
same or two miles going into an adjacent county. Section 57, in
addition to the exemptions from toll specified in the General
Turnpike Act, provides that no toll shall be taken on any turn-
pike road within the six counties for any horse, &c., drawing, &c.,
any agricultural produce grown on land in the occupation of the
owner of such produce, and which shall not have been bought,
sold, &c.; or for any sheep going to be washed or returning
therefrom ; or for any horse, &c., drawing or not drawing, which
shall not go or pass more than three hundred yards on the turn-
pike road. Section 59. Lime to be charged half toll. Section
60. Toll not to be taken within limits of towns. Section 67. The
County Roads Boards to hold one general meeting in every year
in each county, for auditing the accounts. Sections 69 and 70.
A general superintendant of county roads to be appointed (or two
if required) to overlook management of roads, to attend meetings
of County and District Boards, to examine accounts at annual
meetings, to prepare statements and estimates, to transmit state-
ments and estimates to the commissioners or to one of her Majesty’s
principal Secretaries of State, to be laid before Parliament,
according to the provisions of the General Turnpike Acts, and
also to cause them to be published in one or two newspapers, and
to report from time to time. *
Section 82. Local Boards to be appointed by the commissioners
under the act; these local Boards to be called District Roads
t
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 203
Boards; number of persons in each District Board not to exceed
ten; their qualification to be ownership, rated to the relief of the
poor at not less than £80 per annum; in addition to all her
Majesty’s Justices of the Peace who shall be ea officio members
of the District Roads Boards. Sections 95 and 96. If county
road funds (the tolls) prove insufficient, the Quarter Sessions to
make a rate to supply the amount required. Section 101. Occu-
pier paying road rate may deduct it from his rent.
Of this important statute, which contains one hundred and
fifteen sections (twenty-two of them relating to tolls), it is only
necessary farther here to give the rates of tolls authorised by it
to be taken in the six counties, and which, in point of brevity
and simplicity, contrasts most favourably with the lengthy and
intricate schedules in our Scottish toll acts; for instance, the
Kinross-shire (pp. 67–68), and the Great North Road (pp. 74–76).
Amongst other beauties of omission, the Welsh schedule does not
impose any tolls according to weights; whereas, according to the
Scottish system in many counties, tolls are charged upon weight,
rising upon a progressive scale, amounting to an absolute prohi-
bition of heavy carriages. The entire Welsh schedule is as
follows:—
For every horse or other beast drawing any coach, chariot,
Berlin, landau, landaulet, barouche, chaise, phaeton, vis-a-vis,
calash, curricle, car, chair, gig, hearse, caravan, litter, or any
such-like carriage ſº ** ſº tº gº tºº rººs
For every horse or other beast, except asses, drawing any wag-
gon, wain, cart, or other such-like carriage *** *** **
For every ass drawing any cart, carriage, or other vehicle
For every horse or mule, laden or unladen, and not drawing
For every ass, laden or unladen, and not drawing ... . .
For every drove of oxen, cows, or neat cattle, the sum of ten-
pence per score, and so on in proportion for any greater or
less number.
For every drove of calves, hogs, sheep, or lambs, the sum of
fivepence per score, and so in proportion for any greater or
less number.
For every carriage drawn or impelled by steam, or other power
other than animal power, having two wheels -- - - 0 1 0
And for every such last-mentioned carriage having more than
two wheels * ºre eas ºne º sº, sº ºve 0 2 0.
#9
i
i
Bad as must have been that state of turnpike affairs which
drove her Majesty’s Welsh subjects into open and violent rebel-
lion against the laws, and into outrageous attacks on the pro-
perty and persons of the lieges, yet, in some respects, it could
scarcely be worse than that which exists in many of the coun-
ties of Scotland ; and if, in this kingdom, the people have
204. PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
not broken out into such excesses as happened in Wales, the
credit is due to the long-suffering character of our countrymen.
and their commendable respect for all existing laws rather than
to the mildness or equity of our toll-bar system. We must not,
however, attempt to conceal the fact, that even in quiet and loyal
Scotland turnpike gates have been subjected not merely to verbal
abuse, but that, on more than one occasion, physical force has
wreaked its vengeance upon them. In our own county, when the
Trustees of the St Andrews district about two years ago erected
a bar at Dairsie Bridge, on one of the roads between Cupar and
St Andrews—a distance of only nine miles in all, and having
previously a toll-bar at each end—the toll-gate was several times
smashed to pieces during the night, while the perpetrators, except
in one instance, notwithstanding that every means was used for
their detection, succeeded in eluding the well-known vigilance of
the county police—a sure proof of the deep unpopularity of the
measure. The farmers of the district generally petitioned
against the erection, and repeated meetings of the district Trustees
were held on the subject, on which they divided, we believe, again
and again. Subsequently, after the bar had stood, or rather
attempted to stand, for a time, certain of the district Trustees
proposed that it should be removed; but this being negatived
by a majority, and the continuance of the bar insisted upon, an
appeal was taken to the ensuing annual general meeting of the
whole Trustees for the county. At that meeting (2d May, 1843)
the attendance, in consequence of the appeal, was much more
numerous than is usual at the annual meetings—the strong mus-
ter being on the part of those who were hostile to the bar. A
motion having been made to leave the matter in the hands of the
district, and which was supported by several leading county
gentlemen, a counter motion was made for the immediate aboli-
tion of the bar; and on a division taking place, the latter was
carried by a majority of two to one, the numbers being 24 to
12; and the bar, in consequence, ceased to exist, and with it all
the contention to which it had given rise. Another incident
occurred in the same district, at Anstruther, where a bar was
destroyed during the night; but, from an unwillingness to sup-
pose that this outrage was occasioned by any feeling similar to
that which led to the Welsh riots, it was attributed to wanton
mischief or some other cause. About the sametime, the New
York toll-bar (that is, Fife New York, in the parish of Collessie)
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 205
found itself one morning lying on its back at some distance
from its legal situation, which, we presume, it had not left
without a moving cause.
We must now, however, advert to several points of resem-
blance betwixt our Scottish system of tolls and the Welsh system
as it was till corrected by the above-mentioned salutary statute.
We refer to the multiplicity of tolls which are to be found in
every part of the country, and which are, indeed, inseparable from
the system. We refer also to the numerous separate Road Trusts
in Scotland, several of them being often in existence in the same
county—nay, in the same district of a county—under which the
ordinary six-mile principle is of no avail to the unhappy traveller,
as the toll-gates on these separate Trusts must be paid as often as
they are passed through, even though they should be so near a
to touch each other. -
We may illustrate these two grievances by reference to the
state of matters in our own immediate vicinity. We refer to
Cupar, the county town of Fife, where very little arithmetic is
required to reckon no fewer than thirteen toll-bars within a circuit
of three miles from the market cross. Of these, indeed, so many
as seven may be said to be within cry of the market cross, and
of the seven so many as five are under separate Trusts, so that
every one who has occasion to pass through these five bars,
though within the same half-hour, must submit to five separate
exactions of toll. An individual with a cart-load of wares, which
he is anxious to submit to the inhabitants of the town, enters
Cupar from the south—pays there; makes his way along the
Bonnygate to Carslogie toll—pays there; crosses to the next
public road on the north, and turning towards Cupar, finds him-
self at the Arnott's Comb toll—pays there; having a fancy to
try the good people of Kilmaron Castle, which is just at his elbow,
he passes Balgarvie toll—pays there; and being disposed to flee
from such impositions as he thinks them, he turns his face towards
the populous and thriving village of Ceres, but on leaving Cupar
is caught again at the Ceres branch of the South toll, and pays
there. The honest man no doubt wonders at these five toll taxa-
tions, but is counselled to stay his wrath, as altogether unavail-
ing, because each and all of the five exactions are quite legal,
and fully sanctioned by the acts of Parliament. And he is coun-
selled correctly. The Cupar South bar, first mentioned, is under
the Fife Turnpike Act, Cupar district Trust; the Carslogie bar,
managed well, as it should be by the Road Trustees of the four
206 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
counties of Fife, Kinross, Clackmannan, and Perth, is under the
Rinross-shire, &c., Road Act by schedule A, annexed to which
(p. 70) it is declared that toll is to be demanded and levied at
that bar, though within six miles of any other gates; Arnott's
Comb bar, Balgarvie bar, and Cupar Ceres bar, again, are all
under the Fife Act, Cupar district, which has a schedule B
(p. 32) appointing tolls to be demanded and levied at each of these
three gates, although within six miles of each other, or of any
other gates. Hence the five successive exactions of toll.
Suppose, again, a gentleman from the Blebo side, on the east
of Cupar, is to dine with a friend in the Kilmaron side, on
the west : his carriage pays toll first at Pitscottie bar in the
St Andrews district, then in a few minutes after at Cupar
east bar, and then in a few minutes after that at Balgarvie bar;
or if his route lies by Fernie Castle or Melville, then his third
toll is at Arnott's Comb or Carslogie bar. By this time, at the
ordinary Fife rate, his 4s. 6d. is gone; and as often as the hospi-
tality of the evening tempts him to stay to supper, he has as much
more to pay in returning to his home after twelve. We need not
put the case of heavy-loaded carts taking that road, as it may
easily be conceived these successive bars completely stop such
traffic.
One other point in our toll-bar map is specially worthy of
notice. We allude to the twin bars at the south entrance to
Cupar, both already mentioned—the one the Cupar South bar
and the other the Cupar Ceres bar. They stand rubbing shoul-
ders with each other at the junction of the great road through
Fife with the Largo, Ceres, and Cupar road, and a person requiring
to pass them both has this accommodation, that he must pay both
the tolls at one taking out of his purse. Upon the great road im-
mediately south of these bars, there is a somewhat numerous
population with an inclination to build additional houses along the
street, and there is a most tempting free-stone quarry in the
rising ground on the east, where the proprietor would most will-
ingly supply stones. But then the only road betwixt the quarry
and all that locality lies through these same twin bars, by
which, notwithstanding the accommodation referred to, carts pass
as seldom as possible. Then supposing the good people of Ceres
inclined to traffic with those in the locality referred to, they also
must pass under this double yoke; or by making a detour of pro-
bably a mile over a comparatively mountainous way, mostly turn-
pike too, they can escape toll altogether. But while they thus
PART III.—PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 207
escape both tolls they damage their horses and carts, besides
losing much precious time, and moreover, what is the principal
consideration for the public, they damage four miles of road
going and as many returning instead of only three, without con-
tributing one farthing to the revenue of the roads.
It must not, however, be supposed that we have only one
quarry in our neighbourhood. The one we have referred to,
which is on the south bank of the Eden, has a rival on the north
bank almost immediately opposite—a most tantalising rivăl in-
deed, for it has ingress and egress to and from the town of Cupar
quite free of toll. Nay, this quarry, and the whole district to the
west of it, have a right of free passage at the Clushford bar lead-
ing to the great road two miles south of Cupar, by which the
traffic is carried along the turnpike road to Cults, Kettle, New
Inn, and by good statute labour roads as far and even farther
than ancient Falkland itself. The other quarry, called the Drum-
dryan, though lying immediately above the great road, is de-
barred from such communication along it by the twin toll-bars
already mentioned.
Erom all this it scarcely needs be said that those in Cupar
and those out of it have equally been suffering for a course of
years from the existence of the toll-bar system and the multitude
of toll-gates. Every cart of coals must pay toll, as must also
every cart of farm produce, whether meal or potatoes. Nor can
the manure of the town be driven away (at least by seven out of
the nine entrances) unless on payment of toll, all according to
the weight. Five of the seven bars being within the Parliamen-
tary bounds of the burgh, very few fields can be reached unless
through some one or other of them. A farmer who is alive to the
axiom that much cannot be taken off a farm unless much is laid
upon it, desires a plentiful supply of manure, which the citizens
are not less desirous to be rid off; his park is just beyond the
toll, and he can drive very easily a dozen cart-loads a-day by each
horse and cart, for which, according to the clause anent passing
and repassing with a different loading, he must pay each time.
Then say that his carts—the road being good and the drive short
—take six or eight-and-twenty cwt., the toll is 6d. each, or 6s.
per day for the cart, which may not in all have travelled six
miles upon the turnpike. Again, a farmer at six miles distance,
who can only drive once a-day, going and coming the twelve miles,
and doing as much or more injury to the roads than the other,
gets his full day’s driving for his sixpence. This remark of course
208 PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
applies not merely to the matter of manure, but to every article
which the citizens have to supply to those farmers or those far-
mers to supply to them. Neither does the remark apply to this
neighbourhood alone, for it applies with equal force to every city
and town and village and hamlet which has a toll-bar beside it.
Every town suffering under the toll-bar system, as Cupar
does, deserves the warmest sympathy of all who have any regard
to justice.
Before, however, leaving this otherwise delightful neighbour-
hood, it is but right to acknowledge that in certain directions at
least persons may freely travel along public roads for miles upon
miles without once paying a farthing's toll, provided time and
trouble be no consideration. There are nine public roads into
Cupar, seven of which are guarded by toll-bars, leaving two open.
One of the two leads northward, and a little above Cupar divides
into two branches—one going by Lochmalony, Rathillet, and
Mountguhanie, to Birkhill, Flisk, and Balmerino—nine miles;
and the other leading by Kilmany, north-east by St Fort as
far as Ferry-Port-on-Craig–about thirteen miles—with diverg-
ing lines to the village of Logie and other places. The other
open road referred to leads south-west below Ferry Bank
and quarry, the village of Springfield, Nether-Ramkeilour, Bow
of Fife, Lord Leven's gate, thence to Auchtermuchty, on which,
however, the Trafalgar bar must be passed and paid. But turn-
ing at Lord Leven's gate south along the Drumtenant turnpike
road, a short detour takes us into the town of Auchtermuchty with-
out a toll, also to Falkland and its magnificent Palace, the manufac-
turing village of Kettle—nay, even to Markinch, Leslie, Loch-
gelly, and so on, into the town of Dunfermline itself; or if Kirk-
aldy be the route, there is an excellent statute labour road diverg-
ing at Leslie and leading into that thriving town—all without toll.
Such, even after all the experience which has been had in the erect-
ing of toll-bars with their abundant checks, is the state of matters
betwixt the Tay on the one hand, and the Forth on the other.
It is not less worthy of remark, that the same freedom to
travellers is afforded betwixt the German Ocean at Fife-Ness and
the town of Dunfermline. Starting at Fife-Ness, a gentleman in
his carriage may drive through Crail, Airdrie Woods,” to Kings-
. .” While these sheets were going through the press, the Trustees have erected a
toll-bar at Lochton, across the road here described. But there is still an open road
£9m Fife-Ness by Crail westward through Fife—viz. by Kilrenny, Rennyhili-House,
Pitkeirie plantations, Balhouffie-Mains, Carvenan, Falside-Muir, north by the
farm of Kellie to Arncroach, then by Belliston, Gibſiston, &c., as above described.
PART III. PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 209
muir, thence by Baldutho, Belliston, Gibliston, and Pitcorthie,
through Colinsburgh and Largo; turning north-west at Lundin
Mill by Hatton, Pratis, Montrave, and Kilmux, through Kenno-
way, Star of Markinch, and Balfarg, through Leslie (diverging, if
you please, to Kirkaldy), Kinglassie, and Lochgelly, by the school-
house of Beath, Lassodie Mill, Lochfitty, and Muircock Hall, by
Chalmers Hall and Head Wells, into Dunfermline without a toll;
thus traversing, free of the tolls, abundant though they be—
schedule A and schedule B included—almost all Fife from one
end to the other. The distance by the road described from Crail
to Dunfermline is forty-seven miles. There is another road be-
tween the same points, Fife-Ness and Dunfermline, by the coast
towns of Crail, Kilrenny, Anstruther Easter and Wester, Pitten-
weem, St Monance, Colinsburgh, Largo, Leven, Dysart, Kirkaldy,
Auchtertool, and Crossgates, extending to forty-six miles in length,
and so one mile shorter than the other. But then the saving of
the mile costs the traveller exactly seven tolls, which makes the
longer road the more popular of the two. Here the Trustees
have little reason to complain of extra wear of road, the distance
being only one mile more, but then they draw not one farthing of
road revenue from the traffic on the longer line. We state these
facts on the authority of an individual who has driven the whole
distance in his gig. -
It may be true that there is not much intercourse between the ex-
treme points—Ferry-port-on-Craig and Balmerino in the north of
Fife and the Dunfermline district, or between the east of Fife and
that district—so that, in railway language, there may not be a great
deal of thorough traffic; but then the roads referred to and their
numerous untaxed tributaries afford ingress and egress through
the interior of the county for a considerable amount of traffic,
whereby these roads which are supported by the public are
damaged, but not one penny brought into the road revenue.
Much of the grain grown in the north of Fife is shipped at the
port of Balmerino without a cart passing through a toll-gate;
and again, much of the grain and potatoes grown in the east of
Fife is in like manner shipped at the port of Crail also free of
toll. Our agricultural friends who are within reach of these
ports very naturally supply themselves there with coal and all sea-
borne articles they require. They and others in the localities re-
ferred to just avail themselves of the advantages which the Road
Trustees and our turnpike system allow them, much to the loss
D d
210 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
of the revenue and much to the hearty mortification of all who
are cut off from such free communication by some inexorable
toll-bar. There is a sad reality in this to the adjacent ports
on the coast of Fife—Elie, St Monance, Pittenweem, the An-
struthers, and Cellardyke—that they should be unapproachable
except through toll-bars, and that Crail, within four miles, should
be a free port. Such an arrangement of tolls is evidently injurious
and unjust. The Anstruthers and all these other places we have
named, excepting Crail, deserve especial commiseration, as we
believe neither cart nor carriage can make its way from them
half-a-mile into the interior but through a toll-gate. Were toll-
gates considered ornamental, Pittenweem would have good cause
to rejoice, as she enjoys the benefit of four of them within her
very limited locality—one of them on the east entrance into the
town, the second on the steelyard adjoining, the third on the
road leading to Grangemuir, and the fourth on the west entrance
into the town. These four, in law language, go under the generic
name of the Pittenweem bar. They are not, however, akin to the
gemini of Cupar, nor have they the forbidding quality of five of
the seven Cupar bars specially pointed out, because payment at
one of the Pittenweem tolls entitles the traveller to pass the other
three free of farther charge.
The toll-bars in the south-east of Fife may not inaptly be com-
pared to an army in line-of-battle, having Pittenweem four toll-
bars for its centre, covered in front by Kelly toll-bar as an out-
post, with Anstruther toll-bar for the right wing, flanked by its
allies of Cellardyke and Kilrenny, and Elie toll-bar for the left
wing, flanked by its ally of Broomlees. Were the sea-road to
the six ports we have named—the Frith of Forth—subjected to
toll taxation like the land-roads, these coast towns would be
utterly ruined.
. Pittenweem may be pointed to as one of many instances of
several toll-bars clubbed together and set as one bar, and in the
Trustees’ management and accounts reckoned as only one, except
indeed in the matter of paying for their erection and mainte-
nance, when the full number of gates is invariably stated and
charged for. All such groups of bars, where in the same Trust,
are in our Tables counted as only one.
If it be a loss, as undoubtedly it is, to the towns referred to—
and indeed to all towns covered by toll-bars—to be as it were
cut off from intercourse with the fertile districts around them, it
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 211
must be not less a loss to the farmers in those districts to be so
cut off. The nearest market and mill and port are undoubtedly
the best for them. The using the shortest road saves their cattle
and carts and the time of their servants; and not only would the
revenue be benefitted were they to take the near road and pay the
toll, but much road metal would be saved by allowing such parties
to use the near road toll free rather than tempt them to take the
long drive for the sake of a free delivery of their produce.
On these subjects complaints have been again and again sub-
mitted to the Road Trustees. In the St Andrews district the
turnpike road by Crail to Anstruther—14 miles—had a toll at
each end without one at Kingsbarns, and it was proposed to place
a middle bar there, and also to add several toll-bars in other
parts of the same district. This proposition was stoutly op-
posed by many who were likely to be affected by toll-bars being
placed in the localities referred to, and much acrimonious dis-
cussion ensued on the subject both in and out of the Trustees’
courts. A majority of the district Trustees were hostile to the
measure, and would not even appoint a committee to consider the
propriety of it. The matter then came before the annual general
meeting of the Trustees for the whole county on the 4th May
1841, and a motion for the appointment of a committee to consi-
der the proposed additional toll-bars, and a revisal of the positions
of the existing bars, was, after a warm debate, carried by the nar-
row majority of 31 to 27. The committee met, and came back
to an adjourned general meeting on the 27th July 1841 with a
report in which they did not recommend any addition or altera-
tion upon the toll-bars. Such was the fruitless result, and such
will too often be the fate, of attempts to give fair play to the
toll-bar system. When once a road is made, and people are
accustomed to use it free from toll, they naturally dislike the
idea of a tax being imposed upon it, and immediately rise in open
arms against any such proposal, however equitable the proposal
may be.
The St Andrews District Trustees have recently resumed this
subject, and, having expended a considerable sum in improving
the cross roads, they have erected two additional bars (not in-
cluded in our tabular computation)—one at Kingsbarns and the
other at Lochton, where at Martinmas 1844 they placed collect-
ors for their (the Trustees') behoof. These bars will communi-
cate an unpleasant knowledge of the toll-bar system to many par-
ties who previously had the free use of the roads.
212 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
At the district meeting in April 1844 the Trustees remitted
to their surveyor, Mr. M'Connell, to consider and report upon the
state of the roads and their whole financial system, especially as
to the disposal of a surplus consequent on the diminished expen-
diture through the improved state of the roads, and to consider
whether any reduction should be made on the statute labour
assessment, or on the tolls: also as to a more equitable distribu-
tion of the toll-bars. Mr. M'Connell has accordingly gone very
carefully into the whole matter, and his Report is now before
the Trustees. He states his opinion, that henceforth the roads
in that district will be more easily maintained owing to the im-
provements which have been effected on them of late years, and
that, after paying road repairs, expense of management, interest
of debt, and setting aside £1000 a-year for a sinking fund and
contingencies, there would remain an yearly surplus of £525.
The obvious way, as the Report bears, would be to reduce the
tolls to this extent, and Mr M'Connell states that he is “strongly
of opinion, that it is by a change in the toll-bar system that the
greatest improvement can be effected:” the main thing is to rec-
tify the inequality of distances, as many portions of the commu-
nity “are unreasonably taxed, while others escape the payment
of their just share.” Such is the compliment paid to the present
state of matters. Mr M'Connell refers to the six-mile distance
as that which the Legislature intends to intervene, unless in spe-
cial circumstances, and he mentions in this district the five towns of
St Andrews, East Anstruther, Pittenweem, Elie, and Ferry-Port-
on-Craig, “as being so closely barred that the inhabitants cannot
travel the smallest portions of the roads untaxed.” This evil,
as Mr. M'Connell justly observes, is not confined to this county
only, and he adds, that “taking it for granted that the removal
of gates is impracticable, we must look to the best means of les-
sening the evil.” He then proposes a general reduction of the
tolls of the district by one-fourth, and a liberal exemption in par-
ticular cases—such as farmers of burgh lands; also that the
power to levy double tolls should be done away, and none levied
double within four miles. He estimates the loss of revenue
from these deductions at £1043 yearly, and he proposes to meet
this by the surplus above mentioned, and by the erection of ad-
ditional bars, viz., two main gates—one near Largo, and one a
mile from St Andrews on the Largo road—these, with the two
new bars at Kingsbarns and Lochton, making four; and five
PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 213
check-bars at Kilrenny, Higham, Strathkinnes, Inner Bridge
near Seggie, and near Scotscraig; also the removal of the Eden-
side bar a third of a mile nearer St Andrews, to save the col-
lector at Kincaple. He calculates the produce of the four new
bars at £450, and the five checks at £300, making, with the esti-
mated surplus, a larger sum than the estimated loss from the
proposed changes. He adds, that not more than five new toll-
houses would be necessary, viz., at Kingsbarns, Lochton, Largo,
St Andrews, and near Edenside, with a few collecting boxes—
the cost to be defrayed out of the first year's surplus fund.
On the matter of statute labour Mr. M'Connell says, “It has
been suggested that a reduction of the assessment for statute
labour would be advisable; but, after a thorough consideration
of the subject, I give a decided preference to the plan I have
proposed of reducing the tolls, from the conviction that while it
affords equal relief to the agriculturist, it has also the advantage
of tending to increase the traffic of the country, and greatly alle-
viating the hardships I have detailed.”
He thinks the district contingent fund should be devoted ex-
clusively to statute labour roads, and in giving aid to individuals
willing to assist in making cross roads, which are deficient in the
parishes of Cameron, Carnbee, and Denino. He also thinks
that the operation of the system proposed by him may enable
the Trustees to make further reductions in a few years.—Such
are the opinions expressed by this able and experienced road-
surveyor to his constituents in the St Andrews district of Fife.
This proposition of increasing the number of toll-bars in this
district from nineteen to twenty-eight, if the system of maintain-
ing the roads by tolls is to be continued, seems most fair
and reasonable. All should pay alike, and neither in one dis-
trict nor another should things be so managed as to permit par-
ties to drive to and fro for miles upon miles without contributing
in the least to the support of the roads. Granting, however,
that Mr M'Connell’s proposed measure of road reform were
to be adopted generally, a great deal of work would require
to be done by the Trustees of all the districts of the coun-
ty, both in reductions of tolls, extension of distances, and
numerous additions of toll-bars. We question, however, how
far a proposition to increase the number of toll-bars in the
county, already (as we have seen, p. 177) so many as eighty-
seven—and, with the two new ones at Kingsbarns and Lochton,
214 PART III.-PLAN of ROAD REFORM.
eighty-nine—would be well received however well intended.
Such a thing, especially when accompanied with the keeping up
of the heavy statute labour assessment, will be submitted to cer-
tainly only as a matter of dire necessity, and upon its being
clearly proved that we are entirely without any other remedy–
which, as we trust to be able to show, happily is not the case.
The statute labour assessment on the counties of Fife and
Kinross, leviable from the proprietors, with relief to them
against the occupants, amounts to the sum of £6550, 14s. 7d.
yearly on the average (Table I., p. 170)—a sum far too large to
be willingly relinquished by any one concerned in the main-
tenance of the roads. The ploughgates—according to which the
assessment is imposed—are generally surveyed by the road-
surveyors, as part of their duty, without any apparent extra
charge for this work; and the collection from the proprietors is
accomplished at the comparatively small annual expense of
£208, 2s. 4d. Of the expense of the re-collection by the proprie-
tors from the tenantry we cannot make any estimate; we refer
merely to what we have already said on this subject—pp. 164–
166.
But, however desirable it may be for those in the manage-
ment to hold fast by the statute labour assessment as a good
standing fund for the purposes of the roads, those upon whom
this burden falls look upon it as one alike impolitic and unjust.
It is impolitic to have 394 miles of statute labour roads, which
are at all times open free of toll, mixed up with 493.3 miles of
turnpike roads for which tolls must be paid. These two kinds of
roads—or rather these roads of two different names—often run
parallel to each other, thus giving the traveller the choice of a
statute labour road without toll, or a turnpike road with one.
He decidedly prefers the former. The statute labour roads, by
a slight detour, often afford the means of evading the toll-gates,
which, once passed, the traveller returns to the turnpike and
pursues his journey. By this alternate system of going so
far upon a statute labour road, then so far upon a turnpike,
then again upon a statute labour road, it is, as we have seen,
practicable to traverse the counties, in various directions, free of
toll. The statute labour roads, on their present footing, thus
most materially injure the toll revenue.
But, while such roads are open to all and sundry, it not un-
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 215
frequently happens that the farmer, by whom they are kept up,
has not a statute labour road connected with his farm. Between
him and the statute labour road there is a turnpike, with a toll-
gate on it, which he must pass through and pay every time he
goes to or from his farm ; and this is not of rare occurrence, as
many farmers can testify. Yet how unjust is it that every one
should have the statute labour road free at the expense of the
farmer, while he sometimes cannot get at it himself for toll-
gates ? And how unjust is it that the farmer—who makes
and supports, at his own expense, the statute labour roads (in
our two counties four-ninths of the whole public roads)—should
nevertheless be taxed as highly as any other for every mile he
travels on a turnpike road 3
Statute labour assessments for the support of public roads—as
we learn from a Report of a committee of the House of Com-
mons, presented 6th June 1839, in reference to the supposed
injury to turnpike revenue from the opening of railways—
have been done away in England,” as they should also be
in Scotland, wherever there are turnpikes; statute labour roads
free of tolls, alongside turnpikes covered with toll-gates, being
quite incompatible with the proper working of each other,
O
Not only are the tolls in the two counties of Fife and Kinross
already very numerous, but as regards upwards of thirty of them
we have not the benefit of the ordinary six-mile principle. . In
schedule B of the Fife Turnpike Act (pp. 32–33) fifteen different
toll-gates are named at which toll is to be demanded and levied,
although within six miles of each other or within six miles of
other gates. Again, in schedule A of the Kinross-shire, &c.,
Act (p. 70), five toll-gates are named at which toll is similarly to
be demanded and levied. Again, there are six on the Great
North Road, and two on the Kinross and Alloa road, which must
be paid irrespective of their nearness to other tolls, because of their
being under separate acts; as must also, for the same reason,
the seven tolls under the Leven Road and Bridge Act. Each
and all of these tolls must be paid whenever passed through, and
not one of them clears another, except in the case of the Leven
road, which, however, does not clear any of the neighbouring
# The loss to the road revenue of England, from the abolition of statute labour,
was estimated by Sir James Macadam at £200,000 per annum. -
216 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
toll-gates in the Kirkaldy or St Andrews districts, though close
upon them.
These various tolls, whether regulated by schedules in the
same acts or regulated under different acts, have all along been
found very oppressive in their operation. We have already
seen how some of them affect every sort of intercourse in and
about the town of Cupar; and whenever we come upon them,
they will be found to be special matter of complaint. At Pit-
scottie, in the St Andrews district, we have two schedule B
bars (Nos. 5 & 6, p. 32), and, rubbing shoulders with them, two
toll-gates of the Cupar district—three of them to be paid as
often as passed through. Then St Andrews suffers from having
two of its bars in the same schedule—the Shorebridge and the
Argyle Port. The Newport district also specially suffers, as
within its limited bounds there are three schedule B bars and
one ordinary bar—Ferry-Port-on-Craig, Newport, Woodhaven
(p. 33), and Marytown, none of which clear each other. Elie
also has its bar in the same schedule, and, being near to the Pit-
tenweem group, where a second toll must be paid, the arrange-
ment is, with justice, much complained of. But, besides the Elie
bar proper—which is described in the schedule as “the toll-bar
erected at Elie on the road branching off from the turnpike road
at or near Balchristie by Elie to Pittenweem”—the Trustees
have erected at Broomlees (a mile to the west of Elie) a toll-gate
by way of a check, and which check the tacksman regards as en-
titled to the same extraordinary privilege as the parent bar, and
refuses to pass horses or carriages having tickets from Largo-
ward or Lundin-mill tolls, though these are within six miles of
this creation of the Trustees. We do not know whether there is
any other instance within the counties of the Trustees having
amplified any toll-gate in the schedules.
If we go to Kinross-shire and the West of Fife things will not
be found much better. There we have four acts of Parliament
and their separate Trusts all working through each other—the
Great North Road, with its two south-end branches crossed
several times by the Fife turnpikes, Dunfermline and Kirkaldy
districts, and by the Kinross-shire turnpikes, and joined by the
Kinross and Alloa road—making altogether a labyrinth not easily
unthreaded. Within these two districts there is a large number
of tolls, most of which must be paid, however near to each other,
from the effect of the separate road acts and separate Trusts.
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 217
Notwithstanding this state of things, and all these means
of taxing travellers, it has been seen that the county of Fife may
be traversed from one end to the other, and from one side to
the other, along public roads, statute labour and turnpike, which
are yet without toll-gates. Supposing, therefore, that road funds
are to be raised hereafter by means of tolls collected at toll-gates,
it is quite necessary, as Mr M'Connell has proposed, that there
should be still many more toll-gates than we have—making, of
course, reductions upon the rates of tolls corresponding with the
increased revenue to be expected from the increased number of
gates.
Probably the best example to follow in carrying out a measure
of this kind is that afforded by the toll-bar system in operation
on the new road betwixt Leven and Kirkaldy on the south coast
of Fife, under the act No. V. of the Abridgement. This road
presents to the world the beau ideal of the toll-bar system, for
there the Trustees have done their work so well, in the matter of
toll-gates, that it is acknowledged to be quite impracticable to set
foot upon the road at all without being caught by some one or
other of their gates. The length of the road is just 7% miles, and
we find upon it exactly 7 gates—that is one for every mile—5 of
them upon the line of road, and two of them by way of support-
ers or check-bars. On entering this road from the east (after
having paid at Lundinmill toll-gate, in the St Andrews district,
only two miles back), we are taxed at Scoonie toll-gate, where we
may be asked whether we are to stop at Leven or how far we are
going ? and not being disposed to afford this information to our
inquisitor, we ask him in turn what is the lowest sum at which
he will permit us to pass his gate 3 He then explains that his is
what is called a half toll, and, gig and all, we get through for
threepence. Half-a-mile forward we are upon the lively town of
Leven and its excellent new bridge, where we find a pontage-
gate, and there both biped and quadruped must make their bow
to Charon, and submit to his toll exaction. A short distance
further we are upon Methil.-hill toll-gate and its check, where we
must pay sixpence, which clears the remaining bars on this road,
as the toll-ticket thrust into our hand informs us. Armed with
this passport we get through the Percival and Bowhouse gates
without further payment, and make our way to Kirkaldy—before
entering which, however, we come upon the barrier of the Trus-
Iº e
218 PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
tees of that district—the East Bridge toll-gate—where we have
to pay ourn inepence. -
On this, the Leven road, we get nearly the whole benefit of a
seven-mile clause, as one full toll and the pontage clear all the
gates—which is a most decided improvement upon the former
state of things, when there were both a ferry boat and a bad road.
The improvement, however, as will be seen from the abstract No.
XVI., has been accomplished at a very heavy expense, amount-
ing to upwards of £13,000, for which the public-spirited Trustees
connected with it (only nine in number) had to become person-
ally bound. Having no pecuniary profit to reap from the adven-
ture, and no advantage from it of any kind (except, indeed, as in-
dividual members of the community), these Trustees did quite
right in protecting themselves against ultimate loss by erecting
humerous gates—although, unquestionably, the expense of erect-
ing the five toll-houses, the seven toll-gates, and the steelyards,
and the annual remuneration to so many taeksmen, trench very
materially on the amount of the monies collected from the public
before they get into the coffers of the treasurer for the Trustees.
Undoubtedly, however, where there are tolls, the more numerous
the gates are the fairer for the public at large : they should be
always placed so as not to allow any one to escape; and in this
way the Leven road is the perfection of toll-bar science.
There is, however, a great and obvious inconvenience in the
working of such a system. We allude to the continual and un-
pleasant obstructions caused to travellers by numerous toll-gates
upon roads. Where, as in the case of the Leven road of seven
miles, people have to pay at least at two separate bars, and to
exhibit their toll-tickets at least at other three, there is a vex-
atious hindrance and waste of time, not at all agreeable to any
one, whether pushing to catch a ferry-boat or to keep an engage-
ment. At each bar which the traveller has to pay, he must pull
up and find his way to his purse in order to meet the demand,
and then count and reckon with the toll-keeper, and get in his
change and replace his purse. Probably—and in country dis-
tricts frequently—the toll-keeper has the change to ferret out of
his repositories in his house; and when at length he tardily
brings it, he may ask whether the traveller requires a ticket to
clear the other bars in connection with his toll. The traveller
gives an impatient affirmative nod: the toll-keeper returns to his
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 219
retreat, fills up a ticket, with which, after a time, he re-appears
and delivers to the traveller. In the most expeditious way
in which all this can be got through, there is a disagreeable de-
tention, and a certain loss of time, to the wayfarer.
At each gate, again, where the travelleris cleared by previous pay-
ment, and has not to pay anything more, he must nevertheless pull
up and hand out his toll passport to be viséd. He must restrain
his own impatience, and reconcile himself the best way he can to
the frown of the toll-keeper, who, after scrutinizing the date and
contents of the ticket, finds there is nothing for him, and hands
it back, oftimes not in the best humour. Such a task as the tra-
velling along a road with five toll-gates every seven miles would
require not only early rising and abundance of leisure time, but
a good day and a considerable equanimity of temper. Another
requisite would be a well-tempered horse, trained to halt at toll-
gates. Take a stormy day, or, what is worse, a dark and tempes-
tuous night, when travellers must get on with the utmost possi-
ble rapidity for the sake both of themselves and their cattle, the
being stopped at successive toll-gates—a thing unavoidable under
the present system—is a hardship of a really serious nature, and
with which every one who has ever had reins in his hands must
be but too familiar.
To give the turnpikes and all parties fair play would require
not merely many additional toll-gates on many of the present
lines of turnpike roads to catch the intermediate traffic, but also
toll-gates upon all the connecting statute labour roads. The
turnpikes and statute labour roads of Fife and Kinross-shire ex-
tend to 855% miles, and reckoning one toll or check for every two
miles—which is only one-half of the Leven standard—they would
require four hundred and twenty-eight toll-gates, or an addi-
tion of more than three hundred to our present number. The ex-
pense of such an army of toll-keepers would be tremendous.
Large as such an increase would be, it would be insufficient were
it considered necessary to continue united together the present
groups of toll-bars at Pittenweem, Pitscottie, &c. These and all
other groups of toll-bars, and all the twin bars, would require
to be dispersed, and to be spread fairly over the counties as far
as they would go. Applying the principle of the South Wales
Act, no toll-gate should be within the limits of towns, which of
itself would cause a great many removals and replacing of toll-
220 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
gates, numbers of them being at this moment in full operation
within our towns. .
By such augmentations, and by such arrangements of the body
of toll-gates, an approach might be made to a fair collection of tolls
from all using the public roads. This would admit a consider-
able reduction from the present rates of tolls upon every kind of
traffic, and the statute labour roads once made turnpike and
studded with toll-gates, the statute labour assessment which is
so severely felt should of course cease to exist. -
The estimate we have given of a toll-gate or check for two
miles of road as necessary to the fair working of the toll-bar
system may be considered too high, though we don’t think so,
and we point to the numbers on the Leven road—nearly one
per mile—as fully bearing out our opinion. But assuming that
on the average one toll-gate would suffice for every four miles—
each to clear six or seven miles around it—we would require for
Fife and Kinross-shire, turnpike and statute labour roads in-
cluded, so many as two hundred and fourteen toll-gates, or an
addition of more than one hundred to our present number, be-
sides a change in the position of many of the present gates, as
above mentioned. Say that of new toll-houses and changes there
were no more than one hundred and twenty, and that the site
and garden for each, and the building toll-house and toll-gate,
and erecting steel-yard, could be done at £100, here would
be a gross outlay of £12,000, besides several per cent. to be
added for the cost of bonds in borrowing the money. The very
wood for the gates would cause a dearth in the timber mar-
ket. It would be repugnant to the feelings of our home timber
to be so employed. Foreign wood, and that of the most hard-
hearted kind, would be required ; or rather the toll-gates should
be all of iron, ever and anon to remind the weary and way-worn
traveller of the age in which he lives. :
Supposing that the toll-keepers numbered 214, with an annual
remuneration, at the rate calculated by us, of £37, 19s. 1d., this
would absorb so much yearly as £8122, 3s. 10d. of the tolls to be
levied within the two counties. Adding thereto the annual loss
from all the toll-houses and gardens being unproductive of rents
to the trustees, and the annual repairs upon toll-houses, gates,
steelyards, &c., and the advertising and rouping the tolls, the
aggregate expense would amount to between £9000 and £10,000
per annum, while the sum required to be raised for the or-
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 221
dimary repair of the roads, as we shall hereafter show, is less
than £14,000 per annum. The expense of the present collec-
tion and management, according to the table given by us, is
equal to nearly 44 per cent. of the sum expended in ordinary re-
pairs of the roads and bridges contained in our abstracts; but
the expense of collection alone, under the proposed amended
system—that is by increasing the number of tolls—would be no
less than about 64 per cent.—a fact sufficient, we should think,
when fairly looked in the face, to negative any project for a con-
siderable increase of toll-gates, however necessary to the proper
working of the system.
All the additional toll-gates would be so many additional
troubles to the Road Trustees themselves and to their officers.
The designing of them, the superintending their erection, and the
maintaining them, would occupy much of the valuable time of
the road surveyors, which would be better bestowed upon the
roads themselves. Then we might expect—and our expectations
would not be disappointed—that according as our toll-gates were
increased so would the disputes and litigations about them be
more and more abundant. The saving of a penny of toll-duty
has always been, and always will be, a favourite subject of liti-
gation—of which more hereafter.
Such a measure, however, as the revising of the positions of
the present toll-gates, and the proper distribution of them, and
the fixing the positions of the numerous new toll-gates necessary
to the equitable working of the toll-bar system, could not, we are
persuaded, be impartially and fully carried out by the bodies of
Trustees as presently constituted. Those Trustees interested in
a particular locality would be disinclined to have a toll-gate
erected in it, and would see a thousand objections to that proposi-
tion, however fit and proper the place might be for such an instru-
ment. They would persuade themselves that the toll-gate would
be much more effectual in some other locality at a distance from
them, and all directly or indirectly interested would be ready to
attend meeting after meeting, and to resist by their votes the
establishing of the proposed toll-gate. Those, again, of the other
locality would be quite as ready to say and to insist, and to vote,
that that first proposed was the proper place for the toll-gate;
at least they would at all hazards maintain that their locality
was not the place—there never had been a toll-gate at it, and
222 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
there never should. The minority would protest and appeal, and
carry the question before the next general meeting. Meanwhile
every influence would be at work by the one party and by the
other to pack that meeting with their respective friends; and
almost to a certainty the decision would not be according to the
abstract merits of the question, but according to the influence
which the successful party might be able to bring to bear upon
the Trustees’ court. Were the vote likely to be a near one—
were it to be doubtful which of the parties were to carry the day,
they would very possibly come to the opinion that there should
be no toll-gate either in the one locality or in the other. They
would easily reason themselves into the belief that, though cer-
tainly there were no toll-gates in or near either, still there were
toll-gates at no great distance where they had occasionally to
pay. They would reckon up the total number of toll-gates in
the county, and discover that there were plenty of them al-
ready to provide all the toll revenue that could fairly be re-
quired, and they would unite in a cordial vote, that wherever
places were to be found for the additional toll-gates, there
certainly were not any in the localities over which they were
the guardians.
Such has been, and such ever will be, the difficulties, if not the
impossibilities, of working out the toll-bar system fairly and im-
partially. To accomplish such an end, the power of distributing
the present toll-gates, and of placing the additional gates, would
require to be taken altogether out of the hands of the present
bodies of Trustees and vested in neutral parties unconnected
with the localities to be taxed, to be appointed by some of the
departments of Government. But if such higher powers are to
be called on to interfere in the matter at all, it may occur to
many that Government should be asked at once to supersede
the present Road Trustees altogether, and to take the manage-
ment of the roads wholly into their own hands. Such a course
has often been suggested, and would seem to be the only ex-
pedient one—at least the only expedient one for having the toll-
gates placed in their proper positions throughout the country, free
from the bias which always attaches to such matters when man-
aged by interested parties. We would, however, avoid any ap-
peal to Government at all by the total abolition of the toll-bar
system.
PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 223
We must advert also to the numberless legal questions which
are continually occurring in reference to road tolls. These form
a class of questions as numerous as almost any other with which
our local courts are occupied. They refer, generally speaking,
to what is the true construction of the statutes, and frequently oc-
casion great difficulty in arriving at a decision. Such cases, after
running the course of the local courts, often find their way to the
Supreme Court—even to the House of Lords.
To help our illustration of this part of the subject, we have
thrown into the appendix (B) a tolerable catalogue of reported
cases, a glance at which will show the fertility of this source of .
litigation, and the complexity of the cases arising under it. Of
the unreported cases we may safely say that they are innumer-
able; we meet flying notices of them in almost every newspaper.
Of the entire expense of such litigation per annum, whether as
regards what falls on the Road Trustees or on the private parties,
it is impossible to form any calculation.
During the three years—1841, 1842, and 1843—as it happens,
the Road Trustees of Fife and Kinross have not been directly en-
gaged in law pleas about tolls, though there have been a number
of such cases between the tacksmen and private parties. We
find, for instance, in the accounts of the Kirkaldy district that
the Trustees there had voted gratuities of ten pounds and five
pounds to assist their tacksmen in defraying the expenses of
different law pleas in which they had been engaged. The former
sum, as the account No. XII. bears, was allowed the tacksman
from his rent because he was non-suited in an attempt to exact
toll, and the latter was allowed towards expense of a process
anent charging toll-duty at East Bridge, Kirkaldy, where the
tacksman was successful. These premiums upon litigation should
be very warily agreed to, as it is difficult to justify such appro-
priations of the public money upon any principle of law or jus-
tice. There was another case also tried in the same district last
year, which turned on the interpretation to be put on section
28 of the act (p. 28) anent tolls upon carts passing through a
turnpike-gate with a new loading a second or more times in the
same day. A toll-keeper in the Kirkaldy district insisted upon
payment of toll for the cart each time it passed with a new load-
ing, which demand the private party refused. In consequence
the toll-keeper seized the horse and cart, and a spirited litigation
ensued in the Sheriff Court. One half of the bar thought the
224 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
toll-keeper right, and the other half sympathised with the private
party, as did most of the public at large, who would gladly have
seen the statute relaxed in this point. The question was a very
important one, as the success of the private party would have
made a very serious inroad on the revenue from tolls on carts.
The Trustees had a number of meetings, and gave their most
cordial support to the pleas of the toll-keeper. Much ingenuity
was displayed by the agents on both sides in very lengthened
pleadings. The taxative clauses of the Fife act and the general
act were argued and re-argued, and compared with the taxative
. clauses in numerous other Scottish road acts, which, according to
the views of the parties, were more or less stringent in the matter
of tolls upon carts with second loadings. At advising, the
Sheriff-Substitute decided against the toll-keeper, at the same
time stating his views very fully in a note. The Sheriff reversed
this decision. The case was then advocated to the Court of
Session, where a considerable additional amount of expense was
likely to be incurred; but after much negotiation, and after the
advocation process had gone so far, the case was quashed, parties
paying their own expenses, and the Sheriff’s interlocutor allowed
to stand.
While all this was going on, the horse, which had been seized
and relieved from all sorts of loadings and put to livery by the
toll-keeper, was sold, after incurring a bill of £18, for his keep.
The agents have favoured us with a note of the expenses on both
sides in this litigation, so far as it was carried. On the side of
the toll-keeper the expenses were—
Cupar agent º gº.º. ºº dº * 36.21 4 2
Edinburgh agent -- ** sº **s gº 24 12 10
Half of keep of horse ſº ** &º -- 9 0 0
- — £54 17 0
And on the side of the private party— -
Cupar agent -- * * * * #328 15 6
Edinburgh agent ... . ... -- - - 30 10 2
Half of keep of horse gº * &º -- 9 0 0
Expense of selling horse tº wº tº gº 1 16 2
T. tºmºmº 70 1 10
#124 18 10
These expenses were exclusive of the personal expenses in-
curred by the parties themselves, and also by the Trustees; and
they were also exclusive of some fees for law expenses paid to an
agent for the Trustees in Kirkaldy, who was consulted in relation
PART III-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 225
to the case. The Trustees’ share of the expenses in this plea
will duly appear in the accounts of 1844.
Our Trustees have at different times been involved in law pro-
cesses about tolls and their attendant costs. We find in the Law
Reports that in 1822 the Cupar District Road Trustees had a case
before the Court of Session with the late Lady Mary Lindsay
Crauford as to a claim of preference by her ladyship on the pro-
ceeds of tolls on a road passing through her estate for money ad-
vanced thereon, and where they were successful in resisting her
claim. It is well known, however, that although expenses be de-
cerned for and recovered from the opposing party, the winner
also has almost in every case a goodly bill to answer for.
Again, in the same year we find from the Reports that the
Trustees had another question before the Court of Session with
Lady Mary relative to their erection of a toll-bar without first
paying her ladyship for the ground, and in which her ladyship
was successful. But, from want of access to the accounts of that
period, we cannot state what amount of law expenses fell upon
the road funds, though it must necessarily have been consider-
able. Again, from the Law Reports we further find that in 1832
the Trustees of the same district had a question with their tacks-
man at Letham bar before the Court of Session as to his claim
to exact toll at two checks annexed to that bar, and as to which
the tacksman (Paterson) brought an action of declarator and
damages against the Trustees, which was sent to a jury, and,
under the direction of the Lord-Justice Clerk, the verdict was in
their favour. While the Trustees, however, gained this case,
they gained a loss with it to the amount of £168, 11s. 7d., being
their share of law expenses irrecoverable or not recovered from
the tacksman. We state this sum from the printed Fife turn-
pike accounts for the year 1834.
These last belong to the class of cases in which the Trustees
themselves are parties on one side only. We find, however, that
worse things sometimes happen, and that instances are not un-
known where one set of Trustees are the pursuers and another
set the defenders. For instance, as the Eaw Reports tell us,
there was a grave case before the Court of Session from Perth-
shire in 1836, prosecuted by the Trustees of one sub-district of
roads against another set for erecting three check-bars which
would intercept and injure the tolls of their sub-district. It is
unnecessary for our present purpose to enquire which set-of these
F f
226 PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
Trustees were successful, as, whichever won, the public road funds
of course suffered the whole loss— --
Quicquid delirant Reges, plectuntur Achivi.
Over and above lawyers’ bills, it is scarcely necessary for us
to state that a vast amount of personal trouble is unavoidably
entailed upon all parties connected with these road cases, and
which it is just as difficult to estimate as to estimate the bills
themselves. Every law-plea of the nature referred to must cause
a stir amongst the Trustees in the district where it originates,
and among their officers, surveyors, treasurers, and clerks, and
among their tacksmen—all of whom will be putting in their oar
and advising how the private party (if it be not a question be-
tween Trustees and Trustees, or Trustees and their tacksmen) is
to be most certainly vanquished. A private party, too, has
always his share of annoyance; and then, over and above, the
valuable time of the Court is consumed.
So much for legal proceedings. But if these be bad, the
illegal proceedings which frequently arise out of this system of
tolls are worse. We allude to cases of assault, and blood and bat-
tery, with which the annals of the toll-bar system have been
again and again stained. No farther back than 1842 we find the
Trustees of the Cupar district of Fife turnpikes (p. 127) making
a grant of five pounds to the tacksman of one of their tolls, who
had been assaulted during the night by a person who disputed his
toll charge. According to the tacksman’s statement, the party
had passed in course of the day and paid for his horse; but not
returning till after twelve by the tacksman’s chronometer, a
second toll was demanded from him because of a new day having
commenced. This demand was resisted, and a melee- ensued.
The poor toll-man was much injured—even to a greater extent
than he could be compensated by his five-pound consolation from
the Trustees; for he died soon afterwards, owing mainly, as his
friends thought, to the injuries inflicted on him that night. A
criminal prosecution was instituted against the supposed of-
fender, but it issued in a verdict of Not Proven.
Another case of bloodshed is fresh within the memory of many
in the St Andrews district. A person had passed a bar in course
of the day and paid for his gig, and returned during the night a
little after twelve. The bar was locked, and the tacksman not
issuing forth upon the instant to open it, the traveller's choler
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 227
rose, and when the tacksman came out in his shirt he sprung
upon him and knocked him down, and mauled him pretty con-
siderably. Before doing this, however, the traveller, who had
his servant with him, ordered him to turn his back that he might
not be a witness of the transaction. The nearest surgeon was in-
stantly brought, who found the victim more dead than alive;
but after some remedial measures he got him upon his legs again,
minus a few teeth. This case also was on its way to the public
prosecutor, when the traveller again made his appearance, and
stopped up the wounds and quashed the matter with a ten-pound
note. *
Among the many cases of this sort which might be recited, one
of the most instructive we have met with is related by Mr Sheriff
Barclay in his excellent work on the Law of the Road (p. 75.) A
Dumbartonshire toll-man had beat and cut a passenger for
attempting to defraud him of his ninepence; and the passenger
was fined by the Justices in two pounds, with three pounds of
expenses for the evasion. On the other hand, the passenger
prosecuted the toll-keeper for the assault, and the Sheriff
decerned for fourteen pounds of damages and two pounds of
fine; but, on advocation to the Court of Justiciary, the damages
were increased to a hundred pounds and five pounds of fine, with
expenses—all against the toll-keeper. This strange case hap-
pened so recently as the year 1828. -
Many cases of a similar description, we are sure, have happened
in all districts wherever toll-bars—these unpopular instruments of
taxation—have an existence. The tacksmen, in toll disputes, are
not always the injured parties—they sometimes turn round, and
pretty successfully too, upon innocent persons passing and paying
their tolls, according to their best civility; which, perhaps, in
individual cases may be somewhat unpolished. But, instead of
referring to actual instances, probably the most striking way of
illustrating this point is to quote the catalogue of offences which
the Legislature, in the General Turnpike Act, have by implica-
tion laid to the charge of toll-keepers :—Amongst other things,
section 55 (p. 96) subjects the toll-keeper to a penalty of
five pounds—(1) For taking more than the toll regulated by the
act; (2) For taking a toll from any person exempt; (3) For
refusing to permit any person to read his board, schedule, or
table; (4) For refusing to tell his Christian name or surname;
(5) For giving a false name; (6) For refusing to give a ticket
228 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
denoting the payment of tolls; (7) For unnecessarily detaining
or wilfully obstructing any passenger from passing through his
toll-bar; (8) For permitting any obstruction to the passing
through of the toll-bar, by stopping carts or carriages; (9) For
omitting to take double toll for any coach, chaise, &c., required
to have the owner's name upon it and not having it; and (10)
For making use of scurrilous or abusive lauguage to any trustee,
surveyor, or passenger. All these offences, we are told by the
statute, may be committed by the tacksmen or their toll-keepers
for five pounds per offence, or less. Some of the turnpike acts—
for instance, the Great North Road Consolidation Act, 1 and 2
Geo. IV., chap. 28, sect. 7, passed 1821—contemplate the proba-
bility of the tacksmen not confining themselves to scurrility or
abuse but proceeding to downright blasphemy, and, to meet this
enormity, have devised a pecuniary penalty—though, strange to
say, while a toll-keeper's scurrility and abuse are by the general act
rated at five pounds for each offence, blasphemy was by the Great
North Road Consolidation Act allowed to escape with a penalty
not exceeding forty shillings—a sort of justice which, we confess,
is to us unintelligible. At first sight one would think that the
Legislature had acted with unnecessary caution in passing such
enactments—in even contemplating the possibility of toll-keepers
committing such enormities against trustees and surveyors, and
the public at large. But sad experience teaches us that such pro-
visions are sometimes needed to tie up the hands and tongues of
toll-men, and if possible to guide them in something like a decent
and peaceful course.
From a system costly in its maintenance, cumbersome in its
machinery, and productive of such consequences, legal and illegal,
the mind gladly turns in quest of anything which would at once
remedy such an evil state of matters, and provide by some simple,
uniform, and equitable mode, for raising the monies necessary for
the support of the roads. Such a measure we now venture to
submit for public consideration. It is this: That turnpike tolls,
wherever existing, and everything connected with them, should be
for ever abolished, and the funds provided by an annual rate
upon horses. We would, at the same time, also abolish the statute
labour assessment wherever it exists as an adjunct to the toll-
bar system—leaving the roads to depend for their support
solely upon the horse rate. This proposition—and indeed any
PART III. PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 229
proposition for changing a system introduced into England so
far back as the year 1663, and which has since gradually spread
itself over both England and Scotland, and at this moment
is in full operation over nearly the whole length and breadth of
these kingdoms—may at first sight appear a bold one. It can-
not, however, be pleaded in favour of road tolls and toll-gates
that they “work well.” The very contrary is the fact, and we
feel persuaded that any reasonable plan which can be suggested
as a remedy for the present intricate, expensive, unjust, oppressive,
and sometimes sanguinary system, will receive a favourable con-
sideration from the Trustees who are in the administration of the
roads, as well as from the community at large. That now pro-
posed by us, we hope to be able to show, is at once simple, practi-
cable, equitable, economical, and efficient.
Our plan, we feel persuaded, would afford facilities hitherto
unknown for the extension of agriculture, of the mining interest,
manufactures, merchandise, and trade generally—to the man of
business as well as to the man of pleasure ; in short, would be a
relief to the whole social system.
A rate upon horses would have this advantage, that it could
be levied with something approaching to exactness. The greatest
number used during the year would be the rule, in the same way
as horses, carriages, &c., are counted for the assessed taxes. Few
or none would escape; and indeed, as the produce of the rate
would be employed within the county or the district, every one
would have an interest in seeing that his neighbour paid for his
full number—the greater the number the less the rate. There
would not be any difficulty in assessing and collecting the rate.
As a taxative measure, it would be perfection itself compared with
our present system of tolls, by which road money is as unequally
and defectively levied as any tax possibly can be. The numer-
ous lines of public roads existing in all directions in the midst of
toll-gates, and yet without toll-gates upon them, warrant the as-
sertion that the present system of levying road money by means
of toll-gates is as futile and imperfect as would be an attempt to
ascertain the quantity of water flowing down the Forth by mea-
suring the contents of a few of the rills and little streams which
fall into that majestic river.
As a first principle, we think it is reasonable and just that the
burden of maintaining the roads should be borne by the owners
230 PART III.-PLAN of RoAD REFORM.
of horses, as for their horses and carriages it chiefly is that the roads
were made and must be maintained, and by them that they are
cut up and destroyed. Instead, therefore, of seeking road funds
from the occupiers of land and from householders under the name .
of statute labour, and collecting tolls, through the machinery of
innumerable toll-gates and toll-keepers, from those unable to
evade them, we would at once call upon the owners of horses to
contribute, by an annual rate upon them, what will suffice for the
maintenance of the roads within their respective counties—for
the expense of road management—and, when any debt, for the
interest and gradual reduction of it.
The number of this most valuable class of animals kept by in- -
dividuals has not unjustly been at all times regarded as an index
to the extent of their business and their wealth. In this view,
horses used for carriages and in riding and other purposes are
at this moment subject to public taxes imposed by the Legisla-
ture as upon the wealthier classes. A public tax was, for a
period of years during the war, imposed on all horses whether
employed in agriculture or otherwise, and the tax was assessed
and collected with very little difficulty, though it certainly made
a considerable addition to the burden which their owners had to
bear for tolls and statute labour assessments. Respecting this
war tax on horses the following short statement may be given :—
The tax upon horses generally, including those employed in
agriculture, was imposed by 43 Geo. III., cap. 161 (12th August
1803.) Horses used for riding or drawing any taxable carriage
were to be assessed from £2 up to £4, 5s. each, according to the
number kept; horses let to hire or kept for racing, £2 each ; horses
(employed in agriculture or otherwise, and not chargeable with
any of the above duties) and mules, 12s. 6d. each. They were to
be charged according to the greatest number kept in the year,
from 5th April in England and from 24th May in Scotland—
payable by half-yearly instalments on 29th September and 25th
March in each year—the first payment to be on 29th September
1804. These duties were increased to the following amounts by
48 Geo. III., cap. 55 (1st June 1808.) Horses used for riding
or drawing any taxable carriage, É2, 13s.6d. to £6, 1s., accord-
ing to the number kept ; horses let to hire or kept for racing,
£2, 13s.6d. each ; other horses (including agricultural) and also
mules, 14s. each. Additional duties were imposed on these by
52 Geo. III., cap. 93 (9th July 1812), as follows:–Horses used
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 231
for riding and drawing taxable carriages, 4s. to 11s. each addi-
tional, according to the number kept; horses let to hire or kept
for racing, 4s. each additional; other horses (including agricul-
tural) and also mules, 7s. each additional—thus making the an-
nual tax upon ordinary agricultural horses at this time 21s. each.
At this latter rate the tax was levied from farmers for several
years until reduced according to a sliding scale, and ultimately
abolished when no longer required by the exigencies of the State.
Now, however, we have not any tax on horses generally. Nei-
ther is the rate proposed by us a tax in the proper sense of the
term. It is a commutation by the owners of horses of their tolls
and statute labour money by one payment yearly, for the free,
uninterrupted, and complete use at all times of the roads which
lie before them.
The rate necessary to be imposed will vary according to the
circumstances of particular counties. Where there is a debt
upon the roads, its payment must be provided for. Where there
are many roads to maintain, we will always find many horses to
assess. Where there are few roads, the required assessment will
be proportionally small. We must not be understood, however,
as addressing ourselves to those pastoral counties whose roads
are provided for—as in Inverness-shire and Argyleshire—by as-
sessments upon land and carriages, and a small rate on horses.
But we address ourselves to all counties wherever the roads are
kept up by tolls collected at toll-gates, whether with or without
the aid of statute labour assessments. We shall now proceed to
show how our plan would work in the two counties of Fife and
Kinross. *
For the counties of Fife and Kinross, the rate presently neces-
sary (including interest and sinking fund to pay off the debt) will,
as we shall show more fully in detail, be for the present 30s. per
horse—a rate which we think will be deemed by practical men to
be less in amount for individuals than the sums now annu-
ally levied from them in the shape of tolls and statute labour.
For years past—as will be seen from our Tables—upwards of
#30,000 per annum have been levied in the two counties from
the agricultural interest and the public at large in name of sta-
tute labour, bridge-money, and tolls. But, according to the
plan we propose, a sum of £18,000 per annum, or about that
amount, will be amply sufficient for all the purposes required.
232 PART III. _PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
There will, therefore, unquestionably be a saving to these counties
to a very large amount annually, through the adoption of our
system.
We shall now endeavour to ascertain the sum which is annually
necessary for the repair of the roads and bridges in the two coun-
ties, the expense of management, the interest of the debt, and a
sinking fund for gradually clearing off that debt. The two lat-
ter of these branches—interest of debt and sinking fund—are a
dead weight upon our scheme inherited from the present system.
In those counties which are so fortunate as to have their roads
free from debt, no provision, of course, would be required to
meet either of these branches of charge, and in them our plan of
a horse rate would at once have fair play.
We have learned by Table II. (p. 178), that on the average of
the years 1841–43 the sum of £16,110, 17s. 7d. has been annually
expended in the ordinary repair of the roads and bridges in the
counties of Fife and Kinross—extending to 855; miles—and in
the ordinary repair of those portions of the Great North Road,
Kinross and Alloa Road, &c., in the counties of Perth and Clack-
mannan, which are included in the 28 Trusts in the Abstracts,
Part II., and extend to 314 miles.
Of this sum of gº ** A-ºw **} £16,110 17 7
There are applicable to these Perthshire and Clackman-
nanshire roads:—
Perthshire—Great North Road 93 miles,
at the average of £46, 13s. 2d. ** £449 I 8
Other Turnpikes 8% miles, at £14, 18s.,
being the average of the Kinross and
Alloa road, in nearly the same district 126 13 0
Clackmannanshire—13# miles of Turn-
pikes at £14, 18s. ** ** 204 17 6
*=- 780 12 2
Leaving expended on Fife and Kinross shires roads and
bridges ** ** ** * £15,330 5 5
Such is the sum which, upon the face of the accounts, has been
the average expenditure in the ordinary repair of the roads and
bridges of these two counties during the years 1841–43. In that
is included, however, certain payments, of inconsiderable amount
we believe, for repair of toll-houses and gates, and steel-yards,
and incidental expenses, which, from not having the detailed
accounts, we were unable to distinguish and to carry to the proper
column in the Table.
PART III.-PLAN of RoAD REFORM. 233
In the years referred to much was done, and much is now
doing, in the general improvement of the roads and bridges of
the two counties; and we feel authorised to say that a less expen-
diture than shown above will suffice for the ordinary purposes of
future years. Mr. M'Connell reports to the St Andrews District,
in reference to the probable sum that will be required for the
repair of the turnpike and statute labour roads in that district,
including repair of toll-houses, that in the improved state in
which these roads are, the sum of £2625 will now be sufficient
for their yearly maintenance, viz.:-
Quarrying, carting, and breaking for 213 miles, 9000 cubic
yards, at 3s. 6d. º gººd ** **s #1575
Lifting 2 miles per annum .. gº iºsº 210
Surface work ... ** * ~~ ** pº 600
Repair of foot-paths, toll-houses, and tools ** 240
As above ** ** £2625
This, upon 213 miles, is equal to £12, 6s. 6d. per mile. Some of
the roads in the district are among the best and the most impor-
tant in the county. They comprehend, among others, part of the
Great North Road through Fife, the turnpike roads from St
Andrews to the county town, and from St Andrews, by the
towns of Crail, Anstruther, Colinsburgh, and Largo, towards
Kirkaldy; also many excellent statute labour roads, highly
popular from their being free of toll—besides other turnpike and
statute labour roads of minor note. The roads in this district
may be regarded as an average specimen of all the roads in the
two counties, excepting only the Great North Road (Burntisland
and Queensferry to Perth), which, as indicated by its average
cost per mile, is certainly upon a grander and more expensive
scale than any of our other roads. We are not aware of any cir-
cumstances which should render road-making in the other dis-
tricts of Fife, or in Kinross-shire, more difficult or more costly
than in the St Andrews district. Throughout the counties there
is abundance of excellent stone within convenient distances of the
various lines of road, and the price of labour all over them is
much the same.
Taking, then, the Great North Road at its true average, and
the other roads at the St Andrews district average, the following
is the estimate of the sum necessary for the ordinary repair of
the roads in the two counties, both statute labour and turnpike :—
G g
234 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
(l.) Fife—Great North Road, 193 miles, at £46, 13s. 2d. £904 0 0
Other roads, 725% miles, at £12,6s. 6d. º 8941 15 9.
e #9845 15 9
(2) Kinross-shire—Great North Road, 104
miles, at £46, 13s. 2d. -- -- " £ 489 18 3
Other roads, 100+ miles, at £12,6s. 6d. 1238 13 3
1728 l l 6
Add for bridges—
Fife, the average sum of **s #497 13 3
Kinross-shire, suppose ... * 100 0 0
gºssºms 597 13 3
#12,172 0 6
And for carrying on the improvement of the roads,
£1 annually per mile, or tººe ºsºs ** 855 17 6
Sum ** * fºe £13,027 18 0
On these data then, and which we think may safely be relied
on, the whole roads and bridges in the two counties may be kept
in their present exeellent state, and their progressive improve-
ment carried on, at the annual charge of £13,027, 18s.
2. According to the view taken by us (p. 186), the debt affect-
ing the several Road Trusts of Fife and Kinross-shire, at Mar-
tinmas 1845, after throwing off the portion supposed to belong to
the 313 miles of Perth and Clackmannanshire roads, will amount
altogether to £74,528, 4s. 8d.
Part of this large sum may be cleared off from two sources:
the one by obtaining compensation from the proposed railway
companies for the loss likely to be sustained by the toll revenue
of Fife and Kinross-shires from the opening of the railways; and
the other by the sale of all the toll-houses and gardens, and toll-
gates and steelyards, which, by our plan, will be no longer neces-
sary in the collection of the road revenue.
Of the disposal of the toll-houses and their pertinents we shall
speak hereafter.
The railways alluded to by us are the Edinburgh and Northern,
which is designed to extend from Burntisland and Perth, by
Kinghorn, Kirkaldy, Dysart, Markinch, Kettle (with a branch to
Cupar), then by Newburgh to Perth; and the Scottish Central,
from the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway at Castlecary to Perth
by Stirling. Each of these aims at engrossing the whole thorough
traffic betwixt Fdinburgh and the south, and Perth and the
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 235
north ; and the success of either will in a great measure prove
fatal to the prosperity of the Great North Road from Burnt-
island and Queensferry by Kinross to Perth.
This road was formed, at an immense cost, as the line of com-
munication betwixt the north and the south of Scotland, and
whenever either the one railway or the other shall be opened, we
may anticipate that this road will be the great line of communi-
cation no longer, and that coaches and post-chaises, and carriers’ .
carts, and thorough traffic of every kind, will nearly all disappear
from it. -
Then, again, the great road through Fife, to which the Edin-
burgh and Northern Railway and its branch are to run parallel
the length of Cupar (24 miles), will suffer severely from the loss
of tolls on the public carriages, which will thereby be superseded.
This railway will come into direct and immediate competition
with the two roads above mentioned—the most important in the
counties of Fife and Kinross, and, as it happens, among the most
heavily loaded with debt of all the roads in the two counties.
Besides these, it will also come so far into competition with the
turnpike road from Dunfermline and Kirkaldy by Auchtertool,
and with the turnpike roads from New Inn by Drumtenant, Mel-
ville-Gate, &c., and by Falkland, Auchtermuchty, Newburgh, &c.,
to which also it will be parallel. In the roads referred to several
different sets of creditors and trustees are interested : the Great
North Road and its creditors and trustees—the Kirkaldy district
roads and their creditors and trustees—the Cupar district roads
and their creditors and trustees—the Kirkaldy district statute
labour roads and their trustees—and the Cupar district statute
labour roads and their trustees. Then, also, the railway will
cross two of the lines of road which are in the county of Fife, but
which are regulated under the Kinross-shire, &c., Road Act.
The prevailing opinion now is, that the introduction of a rail-
way does not injure the roads in the district, taking the roads as a
whole. The parallel lines may and must suffer, but then the re-
venue of the cross roads is said to be improved to a correspond-
ing extent through the impetus given by the railway communica-
tion to travelling and traffic. This, if true, might be a sufficient
answer to the creditors or trustees on one line of the roads in a
county where all the roads of that county are consolidated, as we
would have them ; but it is no answer at all to the creditors or
trustees on a particular line of road, standing by itself as the sole
236 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
subject of a Road Trust, and loaded with a heavy debt, and the
revenue of which is to be ruined by the railway, however the
other roads beside it may thrive.
The creditors had lent their money to the Trustees on the road
to enable them to make the road as a public improvement highly
beneficial to the district, or as, in the case of the Great North
Road, highly beneficial to the people of the north as well as to
the people of the south; and in parting with their money they
trusted to the full toll-revenue being maintained for their security,
not merely during the term of the statute under which the road
was made, but under a renewal of that statute, to be obtained, if
necessary, from Parliament, and which, we believe, has never yet
been denied.
Accordingly, creditors on Road Trusts have come forward in a
variety of different instances, and insisted upon projected railway
companies either paying part of their debt commensurate with
the anticipated loss to the toll-revenue from the operation of the
railroad, or for a guarantee to make up any deficiency that might
arise during a certain period of years. In a number of these
instances the railway companies have acceded to such demands
—sometimes by express clauses in their acts of Parliament, but
more frequently by private agreements made by them with the
road creditors and Trustees, whereby opposition from these
parties was prevented.
Undoubtedly a railway betwixt Bdinburgh and Perth, either
circuitously by Stirling or direct by Burntisland, would most
seriously affect the revenue of the Great North Road. In all
probability it would supersede all the public coaches running
upon that Road, the tolls on which alone, on the average of the
three years 1841–43, amounted to so much yearly as £2039,
11s., or nearly to one-third of the entire revenue of the road.
All other branches of traffic on this road would also be curtailed.
The Edinburgh and Northern Railway in like manner would
supersede the public coaches and conveyances as well upon the
Great North Road as upon the great road through Fife from
Burntisland by Kirkaldy to Cupar; and also the coach betwixt
Kirkaldy and Perth by New Inn, Falkland, Auchtermuchty, and
Newburgh. So far also as the public carriers were superseded,
there would be a further certain loss to the toll-revenue of those
roads.
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the roads referred to
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 237
have as strong a claim to protection or compensation against loss
by railway as any roads almost ever had. What the amount of
that compensation should be is not a proper subject for inquiry
here; it is a matter resting between the road creditors and trus-
tees on the one hand, and the railway companies on the other.
Considering ourselves entitled, however, to assume that some por-
tion of the large debt affecting the roads in question will be under-
taken by the railway companies, we would, as a rough guess, call
it £10,000, which, deducted from the £74,528, 4s. 8d., would
leave us burdened with the still heavy sum of £64,528, 4s. 8d.
Upon this we would remark, that the situation of road credi-
tors would be improved by a consolidation of Road Trusts, be-
cause their security would then depend not on the prosperity of
one particular road, but on the prosperity of the roads in the
county generally. Were the roads as a whole to be benefited by
additional traffic consequent on a railway being opened, then the
loss of toll-revenue on any single line of road in the county would
be unfelt amid the general prosperity. A consolidation also
would give railway companies fewer sets of road creditors and
trustees to deal with. Amid so many divided and sub-divided
Road Trusts as we have, a railway company, after satisfying
those connected with one Trust, often have to fight the same
battle over again with the creditors on one or more adjoining
Trusts; so imposing upon them additional trouble and also
additional expense.
We would remark, farther, that this very question betwixt road
creditors and trustees and railway companies, as to compensation
for loss of toll-revenue occasioned by railways, would be in a great
measure done away by the adoption of that part of our plan
which proposes the abolition of toll-gates as instruments for col-
lecting road money, and the substitution of a rate upon horses.
Where the traffic on any turnpike road is almost annihilated by a
parallel railway, the continuation of a series of toll-houses and gates,
with their collectors, on that road is just so much money wasted.
According to our plan of a rate on horses, the horses used in the
county must be paid for, whether the traffic is continued upon
present lines or is shifted to other lines. Road creditors and
trustees would not then have to distress themselves about projected
railways or contingencies of any kind likely to arise to diminish
the revenue of particular lines of road. Where there is much
road traffic there must be many horses to pay the rate; where
238 PART III. —PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
there are few horses the traffic and the expense of road repair
must be proportionally light,
The interest of a debt of £64,528, 4s. 8d. upon the whole road
funds of Fife and Kinross-shires, or in two sums apportioned be-
tween the counties, would, in the present state of the money
market—giving the creditors a preferable security over the pro-
duce of the rate—be three-and-a-half per cent., or £2258, 9s. 9d.
But besides this, it is necessary to provide for the gradual liqui-
dation of the debt. The term assigned for this purpose, as re-
gards the South Wales debt of £225,000, is 31 years, being the
ordinary endurance of road acts, and the same term may be as-
sumed as a proper one within which existing Scottish road debts
should be cleared off.
The sum of £3272, 1s. 2d., calculating interest at three-and-a-
half per cent., applied annually in reduction of the above sum of
£64,528, 4s. 8d., would pay off the same, both interest and prin-
cipal, by the expiry of the 31 years. The annual payment would
be equal to an annuity for 31 years of £5, 1s. 2d. on every £100
of the principal sum. If our estimate of the debt be in any
respect wrong—if, for instance, more or less compensation money
shall be got than assumed by us for loss by railway—then for
every £100 the debt shall exceed or fall below our estimate, we
must vary the yearly dead weight the sum of £5, 1s. 2d. For
example, were our estimate under-rated or over-rated to the extent
of £1000, the dead weight would be increased or diminished by
£50, 11s. 8d. yearly.
Assuming £3272, 1s. 2d. to be the dead weight burden for the
period of 31 years, it would, as we shall see, be equal to about
5s. 6d. yearly on each horse presently employed within the
counties of Fife and Kinross—a heavy down-draught certainly
on our plan. The debt exists and must be paid; no better way
occurs to us of getting rid of it than by proposing to spread
the burden over the 31 years, and pay it out of the road money
from the horse rate. As value for this, the owners of horses
have 887; miles of roads in the two counties made to their hands,
many of them of the best possible description; and it is un-
doubtedly fairer to make all who are to enjoy these roads
during the 31 years to share the burden, than, by means of high
statute labour and toll exactions, to run off such a large debt in
fewer years at a severe cost to present interests.
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 239
3. In the management of the roads our plan dispenses with
statute labour assessors and collectors, and bridge money collec-
tors, and with the whole host of toll tacksmen and their collectors.
In their stead we would substitute the surveyor of assessed taxes
to take up the list of horses, and the assessed taxes collector to
collect the rates.
Besides their relative local positions, and their already inti-
mate connection in the management of each others roads, the
eounties of Fife and Kinross are united in the matter of public
taxes. They are under the same surveyor and collector both as
regards land tax, assessed taxes, and property and income taxes.
While, therefore, we would, under the authority of Parliament,
sweep away statute labour and bridge money assessments—toll-
gates and every thing connected with them—we would assess
and levy the rate upon horses by means of the surveyor and col-
lector of the public taxes. The union of the two counties in the
assessing and levying their public taxes seems to us an addi-
tional and cogent reason also for uniting them in the support and
management of the roads.
The making and maintaining of roads being a matter of para-
mount public interest, we do not anticipate any objection on the
part of Government to their officers, the surveyors and collectors
of taxes, being employed as proposed by us. The surveyor, in
course of his present duties, must annually visit each locality to
charge the window and horse duties and other taxes, and the
parties assessed must find their way with the required sum to the
collector. When the one therefore makes his survey for assessed
taxes, he could at the same time most easily make a correct survey
of the horses for the road money. He would obtain returns
from their owners of the number kept, and an additional line in
the present printed tax-papers would answer the purpose. When
stating his servants, and riding horses, and carriages, and dogs,
and windows, the party would just add “Horses in use during
the year rateable for road money ’’—so many. Were any party
over-assessed he would have his remedy by appeal to the com-
missioners of assessed taxes, to be disposed of in the same easy
and expeditious and equitable manner in which they always deal
with assessed tax appeals. The collector of assessed taxes would
collect the road money charged along with the public taxes.
Many of the parties to be assessed for road money pay public
taxes of one kind or other to the collector, and to such it would
240 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
manifestly be a relief were the road money, according to the num-
ber of horses, received from them in one payment along with their
public taxes by one and the same collector instead of their being
called on by one person for a large sum of statute labour
money one day, by another for bridge money another day, and by
toll-keepers for tolls every day. -
By the aid of these two officers, the surveyor and collector of
public taxes, we think the necessary road money might conveni-
ently be assessed and levied over the whole of Great Britain by
an annual rate upon horses, in lieu of statute labour and tolls,
now defectively collected by cumbrous and expensive machinery,
and at about one-fifteenth part of the expense.
The present cost of collecting the road and bridge money for
Fife and Kinross shires is as follows (Table II.):—
Collectors of statute labour and bridge money, their com-
mission - - - ** * * **s gºs 39208 2 4
Assessors of statute labour—generally the road-surveyors,
and their remuneration for this included in their salaries
—separate amount unknown.
Repair of toll-houses, gates, steel-yards, tables of tolls,
lighting lamps at toll-gates, &c. ſº ſºy sº ** 376 17 10
Advertising and rouping toll-bars gº ºs ** 159 7 5
Miscellaneous expenses, £412, 2s. 4d.—one-half of them
connected with those assessments and tolls gº gº 206 1 2
One hundred tacksmen and toll-collectors, their remunera-
tion *.*, ** * * * * * * * 3,795 11 5
[These are steadily on the increase.]
Annual value of toll-houses, gardens, and steel-yards, esti-
mated at ~ ** ** ~ -- ** gºs fº 400 0 0 .
Annual amount of expense of litigation about road tolls in-
curred by the Trustees and their tacksmen and private
parties—unknown.
365,146 0 2
Deduct proportion supposed applicable to 31% miles of
road in other counties &^* tºº ** **, *, 184 15 4
364,961 4 10
Whereas the cost according to our plan would only
be :— -
Surveyor of assessed taxes, for taking up list
of horses tº ºr ºs º ºs #9100 0 0
Collector, his usual commission of 3d. per pound
on £18,000 of collection tººs gº ** 225 0 0
325 0 0
Annual saving, according to our plan, upon the collection
of road money for Fife and Kinross shires ... .. 64,636 4 10
PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 241
Were there toll-houses and toll-gates to be also erected on the
statute labour roads to give the toll-bar system fair play, the
above estimated annual expense would be increased, and the ex-
cess shown over the cost, according to our plan, enormous as it
is, would be proportionally greater. On the other hand, were it
necessary to have £19,000 yearly from the rate upon horses, in-
stead of £18,000 as supposed, the collection of the additional
thousand pounds at 3d. per pound would only add £12, 10s. to the
commission of the collector.
To the clerks to the Trustees we would, according to the ex-
tent of the districts, assign salaries amounting in all to the sum
of the collector’s commission ... * * * tº e G 33225 0 0
To the treasurers, the same tº e sº tº º 225 0 0
For management of debt, auditor, and contingent
expenses tº g e tº $ tº tº e º is tº º 125 0 0
To the surveyors we would assign salaries -
amounting in all to £1 per mile on the roads to
be superintended by them © º g is 4. ... 855 17 6
#1430 17 6
This would be a saving to some extent as compared with the
present salaries. But then if the salaries are reduced, as pro-
..posed, the work of the officers—the clerks and treasurers at least
—will be not less so. They will no longer have to call meetings
of the Trustees for fixing roups of tolls, or to advertise the roups,
or to prepare the articles of roup; neither will they have to at-
tend on persons seeking information anent roups of tolls, nor
will they have to attend the roups themselves—sometimes ad-
journed roups—nor will they have to take securities from the
persons preferred for the payment of the promised rents, nor to
collect the rents in monthly instalments from the tacksmen, or
otherwise to make the rents good by legal diligence against the
tacksmen and their cautioners; nor will they have to collect
coach tolls from coach proprietors, or from the post-office. All
these irksome parts of duty will require no longer to be per-
formed. The clerks will merely have to attend meetings and
keep records in reference to repairs and improvements. There
will be no more stormy meetings about the application of statute
labour money to turnpike roads, or the positions of old or new
toll-gates, or the raising or lowering rates of tolls, or about re-
newals of toll acts, or about toll-gates and tolls leviable—all
H h
242 PART III.-PEAN OF ROAD REFORM.
will go merry as a marriage bell. Instead of dunning, and
threatening, and using legal compulsion, to get hold of the funds,
the treasurers will find them at their hand in the Trustees’ bank
accounts, placed there by the collector of assessed taxes. The
treasurer’s duty will thereafter be limited to that very agreeable
one—the paying away money.
In some Road Trusts the clerks and treasurers are remune-
rated by a per centage on the amount of the tolls collected by
them from tacksmen and coaches; and in the prospect of a re-
duction of these, through the operation of railways, such clerks
and treasurers may, in any view, contemplate a diminution of
their salaries—probably to as great an extent as that indicated in
our estimate. In Fife and Kinross-shires the road treasurers
have had to collect, and also to distribute, an annual average
amount of nearly £30,000; whereas, according to our plan, they
will merely have to distribute the more limited sum of £18,000.
The surveyors also, by the adoption of our plan, would be re-
Heved of much unpleasant work which at present lies upon them
in reference to building and maintaining toll-houses and toll-
gates, the selecting sites for them, sometimes incurring the displea-
sure of influential parties in giving their honest opinion where a
toll-gate should be placed so as most fairly to tax the loeal traf-
fic; also in reference to the terms of sets of tolls, the exemptions
to be granted or refused, or the compositions to be accepted; also.
in reference to disputes betwixt the tacksmen and private parties
about alleged evasions, over-charges of toll, &c. &c. These, and
other points of the present system which we would abolish, oc-
cupy the surveyors’ time, and tend to distract their attention
from their proper duty—the close superintendence of the roads
in their every repair and improvement.
We would not trouble any of the surveyors with disbursing any
of the road funds; on the contrary, we would exclude them alto-
gether from touching any part of them, excepting only their own
salaries. We think it wrong in principle that the same person
should both check and pay the accounts of those working under
him. In this matter his duty should be confined to the examining
and certifying of the aceounts due for men's wages, and for work
done upon contract. These should be attested by one or more of
the Trustees on the spot, and then paid by the treasurer from the
funds in the bank—the treasurer himself never being allowed to
hold any of the road funds in his own hands. The late General
Sir Alexander Hope of Craighall and Waughton, supported by
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 243
Sir George Campbell of Edenwood and other gentlemen in the
Cupar District of Fife, introduced this financial system there so
far back as the year 1829; and, wherever adopted, it has been
found to be most beneficial in its operation.
We need scarcely add, that in freeing the clerks and treasurers
and road-surveyors from all these drags upon them, there would be
a corresponding relief to the Road Trustees—a saving to them
personally of much trouble and expense, to which they are now
constantly exposed.
In our judgment, then, the following annual amount will suf-
fice, under our plan, for the roads and bridges of Fife and Kin-
ross shires, exclusive of the burghs :—
1. For annual repair and improvement -- ** £13,027 18 0
2. For interest and fund for paying off estimated debt
of £64,528, 4s. 8d. in 31 years ** ** ** 3,272 I 2
3. For expenses of collection and management:—
Surveyor for taking up list of horses £100 0 0
Collector -- ** ** **w ** 225 0 0
Clerks ... -- -- ** Pºw- 225 0 0
Treasurers ** ** a. ** * * 225 0 ()
Management of debt, auditor, and
miscellaneous fº, ºw ** ** 125 0 0
Road surveyors -- - - ** 855 17 6
1,755 17 6
------
Gross annual sum required ** £18,055 16 8
The sum thus shown to be sufficient for the whole purposes of
the roads and bridges in the two counties—ordinary repairs and
improvements, interest of debt and sinking fund, and expenses of
collection and management—amounts to £18,055, 16s. 8d. yearly;
while the average sum which has been levied from the public of
the two counties for some years past, under the names of statute
labour, bridge money, and tolls, has amounted to nearly double
that sum—that is (Table I.), to the large sum of £33,547, 7s., in-
cluding therein the tolls from the 31% miles of turnpike in the
other two counties above named. The fact of the actual levy of
so very large a sum over and above what appears really neces-
sary should induce the public to give a fair consideration to the
system now proposed by us. Our plan relieves the road funds
of all the sums annually ineurred in remuneration to tacksmen
of tolls and their collectors—expense of keeping up toll-houses,
gates, and steelyards—advertising and rouping toll-bars—com-
missions to collectors of statute labour and bridge money; and
244 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
it. implies a reduction, to a limited extent, of the salaries of of.
ficers; also a reduction of the rate of interest on the road debt,
and a limitation of the sum annually applied towards clearing
off that debt.
On this latter point it is proper to mention, that during the
years 1841–43 the sum annually applied to reduction of debt
amounted (p. 179) to £6435, 18s. 11d.; whereas, according to the
foregoing scheme, the sum applicable, in the first instance, to the
same purpose will (besides £2258, 9s. 9d. of interest) be only
£1013, 11s. 5d. yearly—which, however, as we have already
stated, is sufficient to clear off the estimated debt in 31 years.
We are persuaded that, great as is the difference between the
past annual expenditure and the amount of our estimate, the lat-
ter will, upon a fair trial, be found amply sufficient. -
Supposing the average of £12, 6s. 6d. per mile, as estimated
by Mr M'Connell, were bare enough for the ordinary repair of
the general roads of the counties, and that £1 per mile was bare
enough for carrying forward the improvements that may be called
for, we think the future expenditure, as compared with the pre-
sent, may be materially lessened from two causes. One of these
will arise from the discontinuance of public conveyances on a
number of the roads upon the opening of a railway in competi-
tion with them. .
It will be remembered that we have provided for the repair of
the Great North Road at its present ordinary average of £46,
13s. 2d. per mile. But once discontinue the daily coaches, and
reduce this spacious road to one of mere local traffic, the keep-
ing of it will not be more expensive than the keeping of any
other of our local roads. For the 293 miles of that road in the
counties of Fife and Kinross we have, at the above rate, provided
an annual sum of £1393, 18s. 3d. But at the general estimate of
£12, 6s. 6d., no more than £368, 4s. 2d. would be necessary—so
making an annual reduction from our estimate, upon this single
item, of no less than £1025, 14s. 1d.
For the same reason, though not to the same extent, there
would be a reduction of the expense estimated for the repair of
the great road through Fife, the Drumtenant road, and other
Fife turnpikes, parallel with the Fife Railway.
Whenever a railway is opened, and the adjoining roads are
nearly deserted, there must be a corresponding diminution of the
expense of keeping up these roads. It is true, if traffic arise
upon other roads, that these will require a greater sum for their
PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 245
*º-
support. But then we shall not have the grinding of daily
coaches, morning, noon, and night—the same wheels in the same
ruts, good weather and bad, which are so trying, and soon cut up
the strongest road. Cross traffic might be expected to be of a
more diversified description—more inclined to move in fair wea-
ther than in foul, and so less injurious to the roads.
The other cause we refer to is the diminution of tear and wear
which would take place under our system, because of its permit-
ting—nay, inviting—every one to use the shortest road to his
destination, and not, like the present, driving people miles about
to save a toll. We have already mentioned instances where such
extra driving has occurred to a considerable extent, and every
one who lives within a toll-bar country must be familiar with
numerous cases in which persons systematically take any road,
however lengthy, rather than the toll road. When a horse is
once in the yoke, it matters little to the owner, at some seasons
of the year, whether he send it to the market or the coal-hill by
a four-mile road or an eight-mile road. The former costs a toll
of eightpence or a shilling—the latter is free, and is preferred.
This economy is found to answer to-day—it is tried again to-
morrow—and finally persevered in. At the year’s end the
owner counts up his gain by this saving, and finds it to amount
to several pounds, and congratulates himself that, while he has
all this sum in his pocket, he does not know either horse or cart
a bit the worse for it. However this may be, it is evident
enough that the roads must have suffered doubly every time the
horse and cart went the eight miles instead of the four. Tolls
thus frequently operate as a premium to persons who will
damage the roads most by using the longest instead of the
shortest.
There are those also who frequently take circuitous drives for
reasons not the least based on economy. Any, for instance, or
many, who have had quarrels with the tacksman of a toll-bar,
have been known, from enmity to him, and an unwillingness to
give him a shilling of their money, to go a mile or two about
with all their traffic, even where they had a toll also upon the
longer road. They had their revenge, let the roads suffer from
the extra length of the driving as they might.
One exemplification of economical circuitous driving is worthy of
record. A couple of years ago a respectable builder in St An-
drews contracted for the erection of certain public buildings in
that ancient seat of learning. The stones were to be from the
246 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
quarries at Strathkinnes, which is four miles to the westward of
St Andrews by a direct turnpike road. On the entrance of that
road into the city stands the Argyle Port toll-bar—one of the in-
exorable fifteen, schedule (B) of the Fife act, p. 32—and, knowing
well that the full toll upon a cart-load of stones frequently comes
to as much as the price of the stones themselves, the builder pro-
posed to the tacksman, as an equitable arrangement, that he
should allow the stones for the buildings to pass at a reduced
toll. The toll-keeper—short-sighted man—declined this pro-
posal, and, in consequence, the builder had all the carriages
driven round by another road—the Kincaple turnpike—by which
the distance betwixt St Andrews and the quarries is nearly six
miles. There was a check toll-bar at Kincaple which the carts
had to pass through, and to pay the full toll if insisted for.
This check, however, was not in the hands of the Argyle Port
tacksman, but in those of another, who, it is presumed, had in
this transaction turned his back on his table of tolls, and on the
statutory enactment, which imposed a penalty on him for taking
less than the full toll. He of the Argyle Port bar computed
with sorrowful heart that he lost £40 of tolls by the builder’s
roundabout, and the builder computed that, after paying the
carter’s charges for the extra mileage, and the composition ac-
cepted by the check toll-keeper, he saved himself £20. In the
ordinary affairs of life an additional quantity of any article al-
ways costs an additional price; but by the toll-bar system, as we
have here seen, a six-mile road can in some places be had vastly
cheaper than a four-mile one. Supposing the toll upon each of the
carts averaged sixpence, here, to produce the £40, were so many
as 1600 carts driven back and forward in this one affair by a six-
mile road instead of a four—making a tear and wear upon 3200
miles more of road than would have been had not the Argyle
Port toll-bar barred the way.
An abolition of the toll-bar system would put an end to all
such abuse of the roads, by no longer holding out encouragement
to parties to deviate from the shortest and most direct road. Of
the extra tear-and-wear to which roads are at present subjected
from day to day, in consequence of the traffic being frequently
forced out of its natural channel for the purpose of evading toll-
bars altogether, or of getting one tacksman to undersell another,
it is impossible to form any estimate.
A diminution of the tear and wear of roads to a certain extent,
however, would undoubtedly take place through the operation of
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 247
the causes referred to, and the estimate of £12, 6s. 6d. per mile
may, therefore, be reckoned a perfectly safe one.
The expense of making and repairing roads is likely to become
lighter than it has yet been, owing to the great attention devoted
to the subject by those respectable and intelligent officers—the
road-surveyors—with Sir James Macadam at their head. The
science of road-making has been steadily progressing ; its the-
ories have been carried into practice; and practice makes perfec-
tion. A difficulty overcome on one road teaches how difficulties
of a similar kind may be overcome on another; and the public
road funds may henceforth be expected to go as far and even far-
ther than they have ever yet done.
On the question of road-making we do not presume to touch,
except to suggest an alteration in the form of the metal depots.
These are usually of large size, and square or rectangular. A
depot of that form, besides the space occupied by itself, throws
waste a corner of ground on each side, to the loss of the proprie-
tor and tenant. We would have the metal depots of more
limited size and semicircular. A semicirle, with a radius equal
to the side of a square, holds very nearly as much as that square.
The difference in surface size is the merest fraction. As often as
possible we would place these depots where the cross fences strike
the sides of the roads. They would just occupy the unproductive
corners usually found at the cross fences. Less materials would
be required for the semicircular wall than a rectangular wall
to enclose the same space. Land would be saved as well as ma-
terials, and the farmers’ horses would turn more closely and
safely upon the circle than upon a sharp angle. Where two pro-
perties march at the road, then by placing the depot one-half on
the one and one-half on the other, each property would suffer
alike—could it be called suffering to give the unoccupied corners
of the fields for so useful a purpose. Where fields are broad, and
no cross fences within convenient distances, then the insertion of
our depot in the side of the field would be every way less injuri-
ous to the farmer, and at the sametime more pleasing to the eye,
than the form of depot which we object to. Economy and taste
would here go hand in hand. An increase in the number of de-
pots would then be more réadily submitted to by proprietors. A
certain sum of expense would be saved to the road funds in the
construction of each depot. Expense would be saved by the fael-
lity of wheeling instead of carting metal from the depots to where
248 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
it has to be applied—expense which on many roads, according to
our present few-and-far-between system, is of considerable an-
nual amount. We cannot conceive any possible objection to this
proposition— unless, indeed, our friends the road-surveyors,
in measuring metal, might prefer plain cubic measure to the
conic—an objection, however, which they would never urge
against an economical and palpable improvement.
It becomes necessary now to enquire into the number of
horses which are actually at use within the two counties at this
time, and upon which the proposed rate would fall. In this we
do not pretend to have arrived at a perfectly accurate know-
ledge; and, indeed, without an authorised survey, the total num-
ber of horses employed in any county cannot be ascertained with
certainty. Feeling, however, that this is a trying part of the ques-
tion, we have taken every means in our power to arrive as nearly
as possible at the truth. For this purpose we requested the
Superintendent of Police for the county of Fife, Mr Robert'
Adamson, to cause his men to take up lists of the numbers of
horses within their respective beats throughout the whole county;
and this step having been readily sanctioned by the convener of
the police committee, George Makgill, Esq. of Kemback, we have
procured returns for the whole of Fife. In Kinross-shire, Dr
Walker Arnott of Arlary, at our request, very obligingly ob-
tained the permission of the Sheriff-Substitute, David Syme,
Esq., for the Kinross-shire constabulary taking up similar lists in
that county. These returns embrace the whole parishes within
the two counties, all stated separately, with the names of the
owners, the names of their farms or residences, and distinguish-
ing the horses into two classes, “employed in agriculture”—“em-
ployed otherwise.” Though the constabulary had been at con-
siderable pains in making the lists as accurate as might be, still
we found defects in many of the returns—arising, no doubt, from
the novelty of the inquiry imposed on them, and from their
want of acquaintance with parochial boundaries. To be as
accurate as possible, we have had several of the returns tested by
putting them into the hands of intelligent individuals connected
with the parishes embraced in them, and in almost every instance
omissions have been discovered to a considerable amount per
cent. As thus partially amended, we present the following abstract
of the returns from each parish and district in Fife and Kinross
shires—probably the first of the kind ever made up or published:—
RETURN of HoRSEs AT work IN THE COUNTIES
OF FIFE AND KINROSS IN THE YEAR 1844:-*

> • - - Employed Employed -
I. FIFE—CUPAR DISTRICT. ºf j Tora-
In Abdie parish sººt ºf tºº rºi º 163 21 184
Abernethy (part of) - - - - 41 4. 45
Arngask (part of) - - - - - 38 l 39
Auchtermuchty ... * ** * wº 100 45 145
Balmerino ~ ſº gº **s gº º 101 32. 133
Ceres tº gº tºº ſº tº gº 277 24 301
Collessie º tºg ſº ** tºº tººd 138 33 171
Creich º * tºº Rºg tºº * 66 30 96
Cults - - - - - - - 83 I0 93
Cupar &ºts iºs ſºng *At fº * 230 145 375
Dairsie * Rºº º Pº º ºr 96 14 110
Dunbog - - - - - - 56 4 60
Falkland - - - - - - 128 82 210
Flisk ~ * ~ * ~ * 80 5 85
Kettle - fº *g ** - Nº. ** ** 188 62 250
Kilmany - * tº *** *s fººts 132 19 151
Logie - - - - - - - 89 15 104
Monimail - fºs pºº fºs *** ** 150 29 179
Moonzie gº ** gººs ſº ** **g 44 3 47
Newburgh *º **s *** ** ** 55 23 78
Strathmiglo - - - - - - 194 44 . .238
ToTAL IN CUPAR DISTRICT ~l 2449 .645 . . . , 3094.
II. FIFE-ST ANDREWS DISTRICT,
In Abercrombie or St Monance parish **g 50 3 53
Anstruther Easter -- gº * g. ** 31 13 44
Anstruther Wester gºe tºº ** * 30 8 38
Cameron ... gº fº ** * **s 193 9 202
Carnbee tºº *** ** fº ** ſº 222 19 24l
Crail *** tººs **s * *4 * 232 9 24].
Denino º ** ** **s ** ſº 100 7 107
Elie tºº *As º ſº gººd ** 68 10 78.
Ferry-Port-on-Craig *& ſº *** ** 40 9 49.
Forgan - - - - - - 135 54 189,
Eemback . . . ſº * ** **s ** 63 17 80
Kilconquhar - - - - - 154 47 201
Rilrènny ... gºº sº ** tºº, ** 130 7 137
Kingsbarns gºs ºs º ºsºs ºssº 134 12 146
Largo - - - - - - - 24l 28 269
Leuchars ... wº ſº jºº ſº gº 287 35 322
Newburn ... º tºº *** gººd 75 15 90
Pittenweem *** * * * fº 58. 3 61.
St Andrews ... ... - - - - || 412 78 490
St Leonards - - - - ** 19 5 . 24
ToTAL IN ST ANDREws DISTRICT - 2674 388 3062
* (1.) In several instances horses included in the agricultural column are reported to be
also employed otherwise, (2.) In other instances parties declined to state the number of their
horses from a misapprehension of the purpose for which the information was asked: these are
either omitted or imperfectly guessed at. (3.) Young stock not included.
I i
RETURN OF HORSES-CONTINUED.

*Rºd Employed
III. FIFE-RIRECALDY DISTRICT. .#. |othº. ToTAL.
In Abbotshall parish -- fººt ſº fºº ºa, 104 69 173
Auchterderran ... ** ** sº ſº 187 68 255
Auchtertool - yº ſº tºº ** ** 54 9 63
Ballingry - - - - - - 88 20 108
Burntisland ... gººs ** tº gº **t 57 123 180
Dysart - - - - - - 124 65 189
Rennoway - - - - - - 129 15 144
Ringhorn º tºº *A, ** ** jºs 174 39 213
Kinglassie - tº ºf * * * 190 44 234
Kirkaldy - - gºe * ~ - 116 37 I53
Markinch - - ** ** gº ** 239 232 471
Scoonie ſº gºt ** **s *** * 158 30 188
Wemyss ... -- ~ - > - 112 30 142
ToTAL IN KIRKALDY DISTRICT----| 1839 869 2708
IV. FIFE—DUNFERMLINE DISTRICT,
In Aberdour parish - - - - - 135 53 188
IBeath * ** * gºve tºº **s 86 54 140
Dunfermline * tºº yººs gº gº 397 297 694
Inverkeithing -- iº tº gº Pºe 139 37 176
Saline gº gºs * fºs gººs ſº **s 1 9 l 24 2 l 5
Torryburn gº * ** Pºe ** 85 27 112
ToTAL IN DUNFERMLINE DISTRICT....…. 1196 564 1760
TV. KINROSS-SHIRE. k
In Arngask parish (part of) * Peº rº 34 5 39
Cleish tº ſº, ** gº sº gºs 60 4 64
Torgandenny (part of) - - - - 4 0 4
Fossaway ... ... ſº ſº gº *A* 89 16 105
Kinross ** ** ** * ** rº 221 19 240
Orwell * fºe ** tºº, ** ** 179 52 231
Portmoak ... ſº ** * ** gºs 136 22 158
- ToTAL IN KINRoss-shire… - 723 118 841
ABSTRACT.
IN FIFE—Cupar district . . . . . 2449 645 3094
St Andrews district tººs *As 2674 388 3062
Kirkaldy district - - - | 1839 869 2708
Dunfermline district ** * 1196 564 1760
* * - ToTAL •l 8158 2466 10,624
In KINRoss-shire * º gº * 723 118 841
HoRSEs RETURNED As AT work IN THE Two
Counties.…~~~ E v. -- * 8881 2584 |11,465
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 251
The total number we have been able to ascertain is thus 11,465
horses. But, considerable as this amount may appear, we have
the strongest reasons for believing that it falls below the real
amount, and that an authorised survey by a paid officer would
give a return exceeding this by several hundreds. Supposing
the omissions to be only five per cent., this would make an ad-
dition of 573, and give a total of 12,038; and we have no doubt
that this number at least is annually at work within the counties
of Fife and Kinross. Taking, then, twelve thousand as a safe
number, the rate, were it uniform, would be 30s. per horse to
produce £18,000 annually.
To this fund we would add a rate equal to one-fourth of the
horse rate upon all other beasts employed in drawing or carry-
ing, donkeys included. Taking them at 200, the produce, at
7s. 6d. each, would be £75.
We have farther to add the annual value of the toll-houses and
steelyards in Fife and Kinross shires belonging to the Road Trus-
tees. These toll-houses (exclusive of small lodges or collection
boxes) and steelyards number as follows:—
toº. sº.
Fife—Cupar District fººd *sº fº tº
St Andrews do. . ſº *.* ** ... 17 '17
Kirkaldy do. º ** ** ** 11 10
Dunfermline General do. tº *s ** **** 7 7
TVWhitehill ** ** ** ** l I
Aberdour and Duloch ** ** ~ 1 I
Leven road ** ** ** f** 5 4
Rinross-shire turnpikes asº ** ~ 14 10
Great North Road **s Rºsº **g 6 6
Kinross and Alloa Road ** ** ** 2 O
78 Ҽ 69
According to valuations with which we have been favoured by
the road-surveyors, the highest of the toll-houses (garden in-
cluded) is worth £250; the lowest £20. The steelyards are
estimated at from £4 to £25 a-piece. The small lodges or collec-
tion boxes (of which there are a goodly number), and such of the
toll-gates as are of iron, may be worth £50. These data give the
following aggregate :-
78 toll-houses at £50 average ... ſº, ** ** £3,900
69 steelyards at £12 sº ** tºº ** ** 828
Small properties and iron toll-gates ... ** º 50
- £4,778
252 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
If these subjects, after standing many of them for years, are
worth this sum at this moment—as we believe they are—we may
fairly conclude that, in their original construction and annual re-
pair, they have cost the road funds more than twice as much, or,
in round numbers, £10,000. Most of the houses are commodi-
ous and substantial, with gardens corresponding, and nearly all
of them are in the very choicest situations—the entries to towns
and the junctions of roads, where property is of value, and can be
readily sold or let to advantage. Were they converted into money
at the above price, they would take off so much debt, and at 3%
per cent. diminish the interest £167, 4s. 8d. yearly. -
We think, however, that instead of selling them it would be
more profitable to retain all, or nearly all, of the toll-houses and
steelyards, and to let them annually for behoof of the roads.
Or it might be convenient to give a certain number of them at
the principal points as residences for the county constabulary. It
would be a deprivation to the public were the steelyards with-
drawn, as they are trusted to by all classes for weighing much of
the produce which is supplied to our towns and villages, and
shipped at our ports. This suggests the idea, that the toll-
houses and gardens, with the adjoining steelyards, should be let
to individuals on the condition that they would wait upon the
public, and be at their service, in weighing carts at a small fee,
as the toll-keepers heretofore have been. Such would be a com-
fortable home and an easy employment to persons of advanced
years, by which they might, after paying a rent, clear a few
pounds to themselves. $
We have a steelyard in our eye which was erected by an en-
terprising joint-stock company, consisting of forty individuals,
with a paid-up capital of 10s. each (£20); and they readily let
their steelyard, without house of any kind, at £5 a-year, being a
return of 25 per cent. on their capital. The steelyard referred to
is at a minor port, where there is very little traffic, and yet some
years ago it brought upon competition so much as £10 a-year of
rent. It has now, however, for several years past steadily pro-
duced £5. Presuming that the tacksman, through the fees.
drawn by him, has a fair remuneration for his trouble over and
above his rent, we think that the toll-houses, gardens, and steel-
yards, throughout the two counties, would, if let in the way sug-
gested, bring an average rent of £5—the tenants to be bound to
uphold the fabric of the toll-houses and the steelyards in proper
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 253
working order, and at all times to be ready to serve the public in
weighing.
The retaining of these properties will have this recommenda-
tion in the eyes of those who have an affection for the present
system, or who dread a failure in our plan, that, should their fears
be realised, the toll-houses and toll-gates will be ready, on the
shortest notice, for the resumption of the toll-bar system in all
its accustomed rigour.
The annual road funds, according to our calculations, will be
as follows:–
12,000 horses at 30s. * * tºº -- #218,000 0 0
200 donkeys at 7s.6d. tºº aº tºº 75 0 0
60 toll-houses, gardens, and steelyards, let at £5 300 0, 0
The remaining 18 to be at the service of the constabu-
. at 5s. per annum ~ gº * gºsºs 4 10 0
Small lodges and iron toll-gates * * 0 0, 0
Annual funds ... £18,379 10 0
And, according to a preceding state, the gross annual
sum required is ** * ſº gº 18,055 16 8
Probable annual surplus £323 13 4
We have already mentioned two causes which will reduce the
future expense of maintaining the roads—the discontinuance of
public coaches on lines of road parallel to railways, and the dimi-
nution of tear and wear on roads, by all being permitted—toll-
gates once abolished—to use the shortest roads.
We have also to mention causes which will increase the number
of horses, and lighten the rate. The satisfactory progress every-
where making in agricultural improvement—the extent of yearly
drainage—the successful application of new manures—and the
enterprise which is at work in this branch of national industry—
is bringing every year additional land into cultivation; so giving
more labour to the horse, and consequently requiring an increase
in the numbers of this useful animal. Then, again, the abolition
of tolls would cause infinitely more driving : more driving infers
more horses; more horses infer an increased demand for hay and
corn. At present we are in an artificial state. The toll-gates
bound the drives of many, whether for business or for pleasure.
Once remove them—once throw the roads open—and we shall
see public and private vehicles of every description, flying over
the length and breadth of the land.
We will be no longer disgracefully barren of cross public con-
\\
- - -----> * *
254 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
veyances between one town and another, and between one village
and another. Each locality will have its stage-coach, or omni-
bus, or fly. At this moment the toll-tax on a daily two-horse
coach, running an ordinary eight or nine mile stage, with one
gate as it leaves the one town and another as it enters the other,
usually pays 2s. going and the same returning, being 24s. a-week,
or £62, 8s. per annum. This sum the coach proprietor must
realise over and above the mileage, the keep of horses, and
tear and wear of coach. Again and again" has such a project
been tried between places pretty numerously peopled, and with
every prospect of success. But again and again, owing to the
high fares necessary to meet the high toll, has the project been
abandoned as a ruinous concern, and the locality left without
any public conveyance—the former impassable gulf, as it were,
still between them. What an unfortunate state of matters | Ac-
cording to our plan, the rate upon the horses for the coach—four in
number (two to do the work each alternate day)—would be only
£6, making an annual saving to the coach proprietor and the pub-
lic, in the item of tolls or road money, to the extent of £56, 8s.
Casting one’s eye along the march betwixt Fife and Perthshires,
we look in vain for any coach communication between the capital
of the one county and the other. The distance betwixt Cupar
and Perth is twenty-one miles, yet not one single coach. The
four tolls which obstruct the road have to answer for this. They
force a traveller going from Cupar to Perth round by the ferry
at Dundee and the Carse of Gowrie. Neither is there any public
conveyance from the capital of Fife to the capital of Kinross. The
four tolls on that road of nineteen miles have to answer for this.
Persons going between these towns must either hire a special
conveyance or take coach to Burntisland, so doubling the dis-
tance. Neither is there any public conveyance betwixt the east
and the west of Fife. The flourishing manufacturing town of
Dunfermline desires very much to have free intercourse with the
“lang toun.” of Kirkaldy. That, however, will not do, because the
twelve short miles which separate them are obstructed by three
tolls. For the same reason there is no regular conveyance on
the road betwixt Cupar and Newburgh—11 miles and two tolls;
Cupar and St Andrews—9 miles, 2 tolls; Cupar and Elie—13
miles, 3 tolls; Cupar and Largo—9 miles, 2 tolls; Cupar and
Leven—10 miles, 2 tolls. These, but for the excessive tolls,
#
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 255
would all soon become better acquainted with each other. So
would all towns, which, through the blighting toll-bar system,
are practically shut against each other.
Coaching on toll roads will, under the present system, only pay
betwixt very populous towns, and with fares so high as to pre-
clude the mass of the community from ever presuming to set foot
in the coaches. It is true that praiseworthy efforts have of late
been made in various directions—Parker's Fife vans for instance
—to carry passengers and light goods at a cheaper though
slower rate than the stage-coaches; but so long as such convey-
ances are mulcted in a heavy toll—6d. per horse every six or seven
miles going, and a like heavy toll coming—they cannot thrive;
they must sink under toll oppression. To allow an increase
in the communication betwixt neighbouring towns, an abolition
of road tolls is imperiously demanded, let the substitute which
must be found be what it may.
We think there are abundant grounds for anticipating a speedy
reduction of the rate of 30s, which, for Fife and Kinross
shire, is requisite at present. Of that rate, as already men-
tioned, there is—
For interest of debt and sinking fund, nearly 5s. 6d. per horse,
OT º ſº ſº ** fºº ** tºº £3,300
The remaining 24s. 6d. for repair of roads, collection of rate, and
management ſº fººd **s tºº fºº 14,700
#18,000
Those who can patiently look forward to the end of the thirty-
one years will see that, when that happy period arrives, the rate
per horse will at once fall 5s. 6d.-that is from 30s. to 24s. 6d.
—the whole debt being then cleared off.
In the meantime we must here grapple with a rate of 30s.
upon each horse.
To many even of those who pay statute labour and bridge
money, and an unknown amount of tolls—having, in fact, their
hands scarcely ever out of their pockets in meeting such demands
—this annual, rate proposed to be charged on horses, and to be
paid in one sum, may appear large. But we should think that a
computation of the various charges now falling upon them in a
variety of forms under the present system will convince them
that a great relief would be afforded under the one now proposed,
both in pecuniary amount and in the simplicity of the new rate.
256 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
*
In Fife, owners and occupiers of land are, as we have already
seen, at present annually burdened with statute labour assess-
ment—a tax equal in many cases to 18s. or 20s. per horse; and
over and above, they must pay tolls for the use of the turnpike
roads in the same way as if they paid not one farthing of that
assessment. The statute labour assessment is exacted annually
from the heritors at or immediately after the 25th March, and
they again apportion and collect the same at their own time from
among their respective tenants—generally, however, along with
their rents—the very time when tenants are inclined to consider
all extra payments peculiarly vexatious. '
The Kinross-shire farmers, as already mentioned, do not pay
quite so heavy a rate of statute labour assessment as the Fife
farmers. But then the Kinross-shire tolls (p. 168) are higher
than the Fife ones; and the tolls on the Great North Road,
which is their way to the markets of Perth on the north and
Bdinburgh on the south, are higher still. Between Kinross-
shire and the city of Perth they pay three tolls on the Great
North Road—Damhead, Bridge of Earn pontage, and Friarton;
and between Kinross town and Burntisland or Queensferry they
have other three—Gairney, Crossgates, and Burntisland or
Inverkeithing. The rates of these tolls are (p. 75)—For a cart
of sixteen cwt., fourpence; twenty cwt., sixpence; twenty-two
cwt., eightpence; twenty-five cwt., ninepence. By the Fife turn-
pike act, a cart not exceeding this latter weight pays only four-
pence. Then on that, the Great North Road, when a cart weighs
thirty cwt.—just an ordinary cart-load for a good road—the toll
is one shilling and twopence. The toll rises twopence per cwt. the
length offorty cwt.(making a forty cwt. cart pay 2s. 10d.), and above
forty the toll is a prohibitory one of one shilling per cwt. Thee
statute labour and tolls payable by the Kinross-shire farmers
may, therefore, be held to be on a par with those payable by the
Fife farmers—both suffering alike.
All such parties, then, whether of the one county or the other,
should, we think, lend a favourable ear to our proposition for
payment of the moderate rate of 30s. per horse as in full of all
burdens whatever leviable from them for a year's free and unre-
stricted use of the whole roads, at all times and at all seasons,
and with every kind of conveyance—horse, cart, dog cart, gig, car-
riage, &c.—and without detention to men or horse, either re-
freshing where the toll-houses have the double debt to pay,
PART III.—PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 257
and are also ale-houses, or in getting carts weighed at steel-
yards, &c.
Farmers generally are in the practice of contracting with their
blacksmith for shoeing their horses at so much a pair per an-
num. Some are also in the practice of contracting with the sad-
dler for keeping up their plough and eart harness. Others, again,
have yearly contracts with wrights for repairing their carts, and
ploughs, and harrows. They find it cheaper and better to have
everything about their horses and carts kept in good order by
repairs, whenever needed, upon a yearly contract, than to run up
bills for the different items, and have long unintelligible accounts
to settle with the tradesmen at the end of the year. Those parties
who have tried and benefited by such yearly contracts will, we
should think, readily enter into our plan for the making a yearly
contract also for their having the full use of the roads, by an an-
nual rate upon each horse. This would save them from putting
their hands in their pockets every time they had to send away
their carts, and it would save them also from count and reckon-
ing with their servants as to the number of tolls they had paid
and the weights charged. It would also prevent such a thing as
the taking the carts a considerable round to evade a toll, and yet
charging the master as if they had gone the direct road and paid
the toll.
If it be advantageous to the farmer to have a contract for the
free run of the blacksmith's, and saddler's, and wright's shops, at
so much a year per horse, we think it would be not less advan-
tageous to him to have a cheap contract—a moderate horse rate
—for the free run of the roads with his whole horses.
Tenantry seeking information anent farms in the market are,
according to the present system, obliged to make enquiries about
the certain amounts of statute labour assessment, and the uncer-
tain amounts of tolls likely to fall upon them. A candidate for
a farm, though an excellent judge of the capability of its soil,
may be—often is—wholly unacquainted with those obstructions
—toll-gates—which lie betwixt him and his markets, manure, &c.
He, therefore, as a slump thing, estimates £10 for his ten horses'
statute labour, and £10 for tolls; but to his loss he finds the lat-
ter just £10 under estimated, and this, in a nineteen years' tack,
is a drawback to him approaching to £200. Again, even could
he form a true estimate of what existing toll-gates would cost
him, he might not have the wisdom to foresee that scarcely
K k
258 PART III. PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
would he be set down in his farm when a toll-gate would be
placed by his side, under which he must smart throughout the
whole tack. A fixed annual rate on each horse would remedy
all such evils, and inform the tenantry of the precise amount of
the road money which would fall upon them.
A fixed rate would be equally of service to many—if not to all
—other classes. The baker, the brewer, the bleacher—in short,
every one entering upon business involving carting upon public
roads, could do so with much more comfort and safety did he
know beforehand what the yearly use of the roads would cost
him. He would set down so much for interest on capital, rent of
premises, expense of establishment, and so much for his own re-
muneration—to which, instead of guessing at his tolls, and pro-
bably miscalculating grossly, he could add with certainty the
exact sum which a year’s use of the roads by his so many horses
would stand him. To all such parties, as well as to the man of
moderate income and the professional man, an annual fixed rate
—be it more or less—would be an unspeakable boon.
Cattle—cows, oxen, calves, sheep—all of which we find rigidly
taxed under the present toll-bar system—would now pass free,
probably not a great saving to the farmer, but still a saving, in
going to and from grazing lands and markets.
Toll-gates abolished, farmers would be no longer under any re-
striction in driving manure—dung, lime, bone-dust, and guano;
or in driving tiles and stones for drainage, now so extensively
practised by our enterprising agriculturists; or stones or wood
for enclosing their lands, or materials for building or repairing
steadings—in entering on all which concerns it is well known
that the first question usually put is, How many tolls have we
to pay ? What an absurdity is it that the general improvement of
the country should thus oftimes be in the hands of the toll-
keepers l Where they adhere to their table of tolls, the improve-
ment stands still ; where they violate the statute, and accept a
less toll, the improvement goes on.
According to our plan, farmers would not be under any re-
striction in carrying their produce to the best market, and bring-
ing back whatever suited them, or in going, though it were a few
miles farther, to some cheap or favourite lime-work or coal-pit.
Their horses once on the road, and no toll intervening, they
would take whatever benefit offered, either through cheapness or
superior quality, or any other inducement, and thus freely sup-
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 259
ply themselves with the necessaries referred to, and indeed with
all those numerous articles which they must daily require.
When delivering grain, a farmer might then, without dread of
tolls, bring back manure, or coal, or anything the place could
furnish to him. At present he is restrained from doing so
by the toll exigible on each new loading. The manure, at 3s.
or 4s. for a good cart, might be very tempting as a return load,
but add eightpence or one shilling for toll—that is several pounds
per acre—the thing will not do at all. The farmer rather trusts
to getting a few stacks for straw at some neighbouring roup;
but there the way-going tenant is so well liked, and has so
many friends helping his roup, that he is obliged to pay two
prices for the straw. His only consolation is that none of
his money has gone into the pocket of the toll-keeper. A
system which has the practical effect of preventing the farmer
from bringing home, as well as from taking away—a system
which gives a positive premium for returning with unladen
horses and empty carts, really demands a remedy.
Our plan would permit agriculturists free access to exchange
the produce of the earth with each other—for instance, in the im-
portant matter of seed. Nay more—and what probably would
be not the least important advantage—it would permit agricultu-
rists freely to attend as many markets and agricultural societies’
meetings as their time would allow—to visit their different farms
—and to interchange visits with their friends, far and near.
Profit and instruction would arise from such intercourse, and
from the facilities that would thus be afforded of their personally
marking and making themselves acquainted with the progress of
improvement in the different parts of the country.
Parties then would no longer have occasion to drive illegal bar-
gains with toll-keepers for getting through their gates at lower
rates than the authorised tolls. There is much inducement to this
both to private persons and to toll-keepers because of the severity
of the tolls. The toll of ninepence upon a gig, for instance, makes
the folk of Fife try every expedient to break down the charge.
Weekly visitors of the neighbouring markets deem a charge of
ninepence for a gig little short of imposition. They therefore
propose that the toll-keeper should accept sixpence, instead of the
full toll. In this they mix themselves up in a transaction by which,
under section 55 of the General Turnpike Act (p. 96), any tacks-
man taking less than the full toll is declared to be liable to “for-
260 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
feit and pay any sum not exceeding £5,” for every such offence.
The toll-keeper shakes his head at the proposal, and pleads the
act, and insists upon the ninepence. Next week our visitor
makes an effort and walks to market, or he may come on
horseback, leaving the lady and all the family parcels at home,
at a charge of twopence, which the toll-keeper takes sulkily.
This repeated once or twice has the desired effect; the toll-
keeper gives in, and agrees thankfully to pass the gig, as often
as he pleases, at sixpence—both he and the passenger thus com-
mitting a fraud on the act, of course on the honourable under-
standing that the toll-keeper is not to be informed on and spunged
of the £5, to which undoubtedly he had thus subjected himself.
The toll-keeper referred to probably flits at next term, a new
man comes, and with him again must this paltry contest be re-
newed, till he in turn knocks under and takes the sixpence.
Many ingenious devices have been practised by the lieges in
eluding the toll-keeper, or, as he views it, in defrauding him ; and
with many, such is their estimation of the toll-bar system, the
accomplishment of a feat of this kind is reckoned almost a cardinal
virtue. When not possible to cheat him out and out, it is thought
good to slice a-half or a-third from his legal toll. One excellent
help to this is to have a statute labour road at hand by which,
though two or three miles round, the toll-gate may be evaded.
Then say to the toll-keeper, either take a nominal toll or the carts
will be driven the long road : the toll-keeper shuts his eyes to acts
of Parliament and to his tables of tolls and takes what he can get.
An excellent help, too—a paradoxical one indeed—is to be placed
between two toll-gates which clear each other, and which are by
the Trustees’ arrangements set to two different tacksmen. It is
then quite beautiful to play off the one against the other. Those
having to drive south try the toll-keeper with sixpence for their
gig, telling him that his predecessor never took more. But the
toll-keeper assumes high ground; disclaims his predecessor’s
rule, and exacts the full ninepence. Next day the same party
bargains with the north toll-keeper to pass his gig for sixpence;
he gets a ticket, drives through this gate a few yards, then turns
about, and instead of parleying with the south toll-keeper, pops the
barren ticket into his hand and whips on. This repeated once or
twice, the ninepenny toll-keeper discovers the trick, and is fain to
beg the traveller not to take the trouble of sending his gig through
his antagonist’s toll-gate, but to come freely south at sixpence,
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 261
acknowledging, with much humilty, his stupidity in not having
taken the sixpence from the first.
Under the present system our agriculturists are taxed for their
grass lands for the support of the roads by the statute labour as-
sessment upon them. But by the proposed system grass lands
would be exempted from paying road money, and for this plain
reason, that grass lands do not use the roads. Occupiers of
such lands having horses, either for breaking them up or for im-
proving them in draining or fencing, would of course be obliged
to pay the rate for them.
Were our plan generally adopted, and tolls and statute labour
assessment abolished from one end of Scotland to the other—
which we most strenuously recommend, and earnestly hope to see
effected—a Fife farmer in sending a lot of cattle or sheep to the
great mart of Glasgow, through the intervening counties, would
save the ten or twelve toll-gates which presently obstruct his
course, equal to about one shilling a-head on his beasts.
The freedom of grass lands and of cattle from contributions to
the road funds, either in statute labour or tolls, would operate as
an encouragement to the farmer in resting his lands, and also as
an encouragement to the breeding and rearing of cattle. His
fields, when broken up, would yield so much more white and
green crop to each horse's labour, according as they had been well
laid down and rested. The owners of horses would bear the
burden of maintaining the roads, but then they would experience
the benefit of a plentiful supply of grass both for their horses and
cattle, and a cheaper supply too; there not being any statute
labour assessment on the grass lands, the grass proprietor would
be able to let his grass so much the cheaper.
It may be suggested, also, as matter of consideration for
the farmer, that, besides the privilege which the proposed sys-
tem would confer directly on himself in passing his carts and
horses to and fro without payment of a heavy, almost a prohibi-
tory toll, he would indirectly profit by corn-merchants, cattle-
dealers, stablers, butchers, and others, requiring farm produce,
coming freely to him. They would no longer be deterred
from inspecting, and pricing, and buying, and driving away his
excellent stock, dead and alive, by the heavy expense of tolls.
Those parties could then make their roads at their pleasure,
going here and calling there, wherever there was anything to sell;
and in turn the farmer could deliver grain, hay, potatoes, and
262 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
other heavy produce, at a considerable distance, almost without
expense. At present the active and public-spirited corn-mer-
chants who frequent the markets of Fife are severely taxed
for tolls on their gigs—one house, we believe, to the extent pro-
bably of thirty or forty pounds a-year, in attending the markets
of Kirkaldy, Cupar, St Andrews, Newburgh, and Perth, whereas
under the proposed system they would be clear for thirty shill-
ings. Were those heavy toll-taxes on corn-merchants and
dealers done away, the farmers individually would reap the
benefit, at least a great part of it. Lessen the expense of travel-
ling the round of the markets weekly, and there will be more
merchants—more competitors for the farmer's produce. Only
make the roads free for payment of a small annual rate per
horse, and the farmer will not be under any restraint as to the
market he should go to, or the length of his drive, in selling and
making delivery to his merchants.
It is possible there may be individual farmers who are so
situated that, excepting their statute labour tax, they contribute
very little to the road revenue because of their having access from
their farms, by some statute labour road or untolled turnpike, to
port, market, and mill, as yet free from tolls. Those parties, how-
ever, who have heretofore escaped from bearing their fair share are
not entitled to object to being now made to pay what is right.
They should have been paying all along like others for the sup-
port of the public roads; and if they will cling to the toll-bar system,
they must have applied to them the principle wisely recommended
to the St Andrews district, of putting on additional tolls to catch
the traffic, and this will soon find those parties out. The toll-bar
will at last reach them to their cost, and they will then begrudge
themselves that they have given even a passive support to so ex-
pensive a mode of raising the road funds, and be ready to join in
crying out for a change which would make their one shilling go
as far as two.
In the parishes of Logie, Kilmany, and Leuchars, in Fife, many
farmers have access to the ports at Balmerino and Guard-Bridge,
and to the market-town of Cupar, and to corn-mills, without pay-
ing any toll whatever. None of them, however, are missed by
the statute labour assessment, and most of them have also a con-
siderable amount of toll to pay in sending their produce to other
quarters. They have lime and coal to drive from the interior
of the county; they have weekly tolls for their gigs in going to
PART III.--PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 263
the markets of Dundee, St Andrews, and Newburgh; they find
freedom from tolls in certain quarters an apparent ease to them,
but it has its disadvantages. To escape the toll-gates they some-
times use bad and circuitous roads. Then, when a dealer knows
that they can deliver to him free of toll, he just offers them so
much less price, saying they may as well give the bargain to him
as go to his antagonist upon the toll road, and put the differ-
ence (the toll) into the toll-keeper's pocket. Many a transaction,
disadvantageous to the farmer, has arisen from this apparently
trivial cause. It has often stopped him from going to his best
market with his produce, and stopped merchants from coming to
him. This argument we would urge upon all who, from the defec-
tive state of our toll-bar system, have hitherto escaped from such
a disagreeable neighbour as a toll-bar. They may rest assured
that, either in the one way or the other—either by the toll-bar
system at an enormous expense of collection, or by our plan at
a very trivial cost—they must make up their minds to pay. If
economy be their object they will cheerfully go along with us.
An intelligent Fife farmer has stated to us that though he can
deliver at the two ports last mentioned, and in the county town,
free from toll, he would much prefer a commutation of his statute
labour and tolls at 30s. per horse to his present position. He
has eighteen horses, and his statute labour is #18. At one
toll alone—the Cupar south toll—on his way to deliver to a
miller, he pays annually some £9 of tolls, making, with his
statute labour, $27 yearly. His statute labour, with his pay-
ments at this one toll, for itself only, amounts to as much as
would a rate of 30s. upon each horse, to give him the unrestricted
use of all the roads within his reach. If the experience of the
generality of our agriculturists be anything like that of the gen-
tleman we have alluded to, we may venture to anticipate their
cordial concurrence in our plan.
The tenants of coal, lime, and iron works, brick and tile works,
and quarries of every description, would find an immense ease,
and not a little profit, from the abolition of the toll-bar system.
Persons are in many cases restrained from resorting to such
works owing to the expense of the tolls. Frequently a field can-
not be limed and drained, nor buildings erected, nor even a dyke
built, because of there being two or three intervening tolls.
The coal consumption of the towns and villages would be much
greater, were many of the inhabitants not compelled, by the ex-
264 PART III. —PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
pense of the tolls, to do with a very scanty supply of fuel. A ton
of third Scotch coal can sometimes be had for half-a-crown; but
before a cart can go to the colliery for it, one or more toll-gates
must be paid, probably to the extent of another half-crown, so
doubling the price to the purchaser, and frightening him from
again trying that otherwise inviting colliery.
The importance of free access to coal-fields is of the utmost con-
sequence to inland manufacturing towns and villages which are
without canals or railways. These labour under great dis-
advantages from want of water or railway communication; and
when blockaded with tolls, as is too often the case, the expense
of coal—that all-essential article in the production of steam-
power—absolutely paralyzes the industry of the inhabitants.
The obstruction to the transit of coal arising from the expense of
road tolls is a heavy discouragement to the increase of manufac-
tures—indeed to the use of steam-power generally—and a conse-
quent loss to the communities alluded to, as well as to the trade
and commerce of the country at large. -
The farmers, too, who would economise their horses by abolish-
ing horse thrashing-mills, are often thwarted in their intentions,
not so much by the price of the coal at the coal-pit, which they
would willingly pay, as by the tolls upon their cartage, which are
increased according to the weights.
Minerals form an important item of the wealth of Great Bri-
tain, and any system by which they could be rendered more
easily accessible would be obviously advantageous to their pro-
prietors, to their enterprising tenants, and to the public. Unre-
stricted access to all such works would considerably augment the
demands upon them, and afford lucrative employment to addi-
tional numbers of the labouring population.
Coach proprietors upon thorough lines who hold up against
the toll-bar system can speak from sad experience of its oppres-
sive nature. Each horse in a daily goach costs them from eight
to ten pounds of toll annually. Suppose there are two sets of
horses, and that the stages are from six to nine miles, with only
one toll-bar per stage: each set goes and comes every alternate day,
paying in Fife sixpence per horse going and the same returning,
that is one shilling every second day per horse. In a daily mail-
coach each horse at this rate costs £9, 2s. 6d. of toll yearly. In an
ordinary stage-coach, which does not run on Sundays, the annual
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 265
toll per horse is £7, 16s. 6d. If the toll-bars are exactly six-
mile ones, and the stages longer, then the toll-duty, per horse,
will be proportionately higher.
- This ºads us to the important question, Whether, supposing
the general principle of our plan—a rate upon horses—were
assented to, it would be right to have one uniform rate applica-
ble to all horses however employed, or to have a scale of rates to
be charged according to their kind of work?
It is no doubt true that coach proprietors and carriers take
much greater use of the roads than the other classes, and they
would probably submit to pay two or even three rates for their
horses. It might then, with apparent reason, be proposed that
horses used in coaches and in carrying should pay three rates,
or £4,10s. ; horses used in carriages and gigs, and for riding,
two rates, or £3; and other horses, including agricultural, one
rate, or 30s. Whether a scale be adopted, or whether a uniform
rate be adopted, is a matter of detail, and does not affect the
general principle of our plan, which simply is, that road money
should be raised by a rate upon horses, and not by statute labour
assessment and tolls.
After all the consideration we have been able to give the matter,
we decidedly incline to the opinion that the rate should be a
uniform one, and that all horses, however employed, should pay
alike. We would not have any individual asked how he uses his
horses—whether in coaches, or carriages, or gigs, or upon farms,
or at coal or lime-works, or in carrying. All we would say is,
... What number have you in use ? For these you must pay the
rate. We would not make any distinction either because of the
nature of their employment, or of their size. Upon the owner
of a pair of fancy ponies we would make the same charge as upon
the owner of a pair of coach horses.
Those desirous of starting carriages or gigs would do so all
the more readily because of their horses not having to pay a
double road rate. Such parties are liable to assessed taxes for
horses, and also for servants in connection with their carriages,
and it would be bad policy to discourage them from taking the
road in good style by charging an additional rate upon their car-
riage and gig horses. The more carriages and gigs at work, the
more demand for the farmer's hay and corn, and the more trade
for the coachbuilder and blacksmith. l
L
266 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
*
- Those keeping posting establishments would make their charges
for horses, or horses and carriages, to cover the road rate. But
any additional charge on this head would be very small, as at
30s. the rate would only be three half-pence per day per horse.
Supposing post-horses out every second day, threepence added to
each hire would cover the road rate. This would be as nothing
compared with the present costly tolls, which are seldom far dis-
tant from posting stations. -
The humbler class of hirers—the common carters—would also
be entitled to three halfpence a-day additional from their em-
ployers to cover the rate. They would, assuredly, profit by
the change. Were road tolls no more, carters would be much
oftener on the road than they now are. There would be
more commissions for them in all directions than are now
dreamt of. Among the humbler classes we would find many
families transporting themselves in carts to visit their relatives,
and take the benefit of watering-places and sea-bathing, and to
see sights, who must now stay at home, and but very seldom get
beyond the smoke-range of the town. It is true, they say, that
many horses are a sort of idle, and can easily be hired, but then
these tolls cost money. Emancipate the roads from the tolls, and
the entire population would enjoy freedom of motion.
A uniformity of rate would tend greatly to the easy working
of our plan. Horse owners would not be restrained from run-
ning them in coaches, or carriages, or gigs, or from letting them
to hire, either one day or many days, by the fear of having to
pay extra road money rates. There would be no cavilling
in the appeal courts about the class under which they should
be rated—whether, having merely lent one to supply a jaded
coach-horse for a few days, that should make him liable for three
rates; or whether, having just tried him in an old gig one day,
when going to dine with a friend, to see how the animal would
do, that should make him liable for two rates. All such vexa-
tious questions we would at once put aside by making the rate a
uniform one.
Were there several different rates, owners of horses would be
restrained on many occasions from making an advantageous use of
their property. They might have a tempting offer for a horse to
run in a gig for a few days, or a few weeks, but then the putting
it to that work would infer the double rate of £3. They there-
fore refuse the job. A uniform rate would permit—nay, en-
PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 267
courage—the owner to employ his horse wherever and however he
could; the rate must be paid, and better have him on the road,
though but poorly recompensed, than have him standing eating
his head off in the stable.
Again: Were there several different rates, the higher one would
not be so productive as at first sight might be supposed. The
coach-horses employed in the counties of Fife and Kinross do not
amount to any considerable number. The roads upon which the
principal coach traffic occurs are the Great North Road and the
Great Road through Fife—extending in the two counties, the one
to 293 miles (partly a double line), and the other 34. The ordi-
nary complement for a daily four-horse coach is one horse per mile ;
and there being usually six or seven coaches upon the two roads,
the number of horses so employed may be somewhere about
three hundred. The services of these horses, however, on these
roads will at no distant day be dispensed with by one railway or
another. The cross-coaching will be continued, and most likely
materially increased, but still no sum of any large amount can be
counted on as certain to be realised by making coach-horses pay
three rates instead of one. A heavy direct tax of that kind,
added to the mileage and assessed taxes laid upon coach proprie-
tors, would greatly discourage the running of cross coaches,
which are so much wanted.
Supposing, however, that a few extra hundreds could be taken
out of coach proprietors by a triple rate, they again would of
necessity take the amount out of the public in one shape or
other. It would be an excellent apology to them for an extra
coach fare—a thing which the public at large are interested in
preventing. The fewer the burdens on coach proprietors, the less
capital will be required for their business—the greater will be
the competition, and consequently the cheaper the fares. The
public, and not the coach proprietors or carriers, would reap all,
or nearly all, the advantage of having the rate upon horses used
in public conveyances kept at the most moderate rate.
The encouraging of those conveyances, by allowing them to
run at cheaper tolls than private vehicles, has been recognised
for a number of years past in different parts of the kingdom.
The Fife Turnpike Trustees granted an ease of one-third upon
coach tolls—that is to say, they reduced the coach toll from nine-
pence per horse to sixpence, while the toll upon horses in private
vehicles, carriages, and gigs, has been kept up at the full rate of
268 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
ninepenee. In other parts of the kingdom, public coaches are
allowed to pass at one-half of the ordinary toll; and in some in-
stances—rare indeed—the Trustees make the toll upon public
conveyances in their localities almost nominal; so well convinced
are they of the absolute necessity of lessening the expenses of
those engaged in supplying public conveyanees. We would not,
however, propose to go so far as this, and to give those parties a
greater ease in the matter of road money than private persons.
What we would propose is, that all horses, to whomsoever be-
longing and howsoever employed, shall be charged at one uni-
form rate.
A system of different rates would not be all gain to the farmer,
because under it—were gig and saddle horses rated double—he
would have to pay accordingly for his gig or saddle horse. If
his stud consisted of seven—six work horses and one gig or
saddle horse—he would have to pay for six at twenty-eight or
twenty-nine shillings—the rate of these being lowered by the
supposed extra charge on eoach and carriers’ horses—and for
one at double that rate, three pounds or nearly—together, say
eleven guineas; whereas, at the rate of thirty shillings overhead,
the charge would only be ten guineas.
A scale of rates would tend to embarrass the working of our
plan, and create annoyance to individuals in restricting them in
the use of their horses, or in inducing them to return them as
liable only to the lower rates. We are sure that by it there would
hot be any perceptible gain to any class. In this country we have
many interests blended together which forbid the dealing with
one class in one way and another in a different way. In the same
person we often find united the coach proprietor and farmer—the
carrier and farmer—the professional man and farmer—the manu-
facturer and farmer ; so that, to a great extent, the imposing of
different rates would in many cases just take out of one pocket
what it put into the other. g
We can suppose strong eases—ponies employed in a coal-pit,
or horses on a horse railway—animals which set not a foot on a
highway; these we would nevertheless rate the same as others.
Though these do not use the roads at all, their owners will have.
their recompense in the vast additional traffic, which will imme-
diately open up to their works on the abolition of our present re-
strictive system of toll-gates. -
The fact of much or little use of the roads being taken by the
PART III. PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 269
horses of any individual should not be the question. Were such
a principle admitted, then an individual who uses his carriage, or
his assessed horses, or his dogs, only on rare occasions—once
a-year, for instance—might plead off from being charged the same
public taxes as those who are always driving, or riding, or hunt-
ing; so one who only throws open his drawing-room on state oc-
casions—say for his annual marriage-day party—might plead off
from the charge for a full year's use of the windows of that part
of his house. Or an elderly person, who makes it a rule never to:
cross his threshold after sunset, might, with equal reason, object,
to paying one farthing of the lighting assessment of the town in
which he lives. The answer to all such arguments would be, that
the assessed taxes were imposed, for the general good of the
State, on all persons possessed of the articles referred to, how-
ever little they used them; and that the lighting tax was neces-
sary for the benefit of the inhabitants of the town, whether the
objector profited personally by it or not. If he did not avail
himself of it in going out of an evening to see others, it would at
least enable others to come and see him : so, indirectly, he would
have the benefit of the lighting—as would the owners of horses
have benefit from the roads, though, in some cases, not directly
by their own horses. *
Under the plan proposed by us, we do not presume to say
that individual cases will not occur where the uniform rate may
exceed or fall below the amount it properly should be, as special
inequalities are to be found in the operation of every general tax. .
The inequalities, however, surely never can approximate to those
of the present system, under which grass lands pay a heavy
amount of statute labour, though they use not the roads at all;
some pay for using only one hundred yards of the road, while
their neighbours, for a similar payment, have the use of the
roads for six miles, or 10,560 yards; and others, again, in parti-
cular situations, contrive to carry on their business almost toll-
free. ---
. The only classes of horses we could think of exempting from
the rate, besides those in her Majesty’s service, are the young
stock which have never been put to work, and those Superannu-
ated servants which have done their duty well in their time, and,
after a life of toil and active exertion, are, through the kind con-
sideration of their owners, allowed to eat out the evening of their
days in peace and plenty.
270 PART III. PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
The plan of a uniform penny rate on all our letters, which is
now working so admirably throughout the three kingdoms, was,
when brought forward by Mr Rowland Hill, much objected to,
because of the inequality of making a three-mile letter pay the
same rate as a letter carried three hundred miles. But, as ex-
perience has proved, the proposal to have a scale of rates in the
Post-Office was most wisely rejected, and the uniform rate estab-
lished. On the same principle, we would humbly urge a uni-
form road-money rate on all classes of horses—however much
or however little they may use the public roads.
Among those to whom we would particularly appeal for sup-
port to our plan are the landed proprietors. These gentlemen
are most deeply interested in every measure which concerns the
prosperity of the country, and this is one which we believe comes
as closely home to them as almost any can possibly do. They
have the trouble, as we have seen, of advancing the statute
labour assessments for their tenants, and of apportioning and re-
collecting them. They have also in Fife the expense of paying
what is called bridge money—a small tax, but still a tax. The
resident proprietors—happily a very numerous class in this king-
dom—have also their tolls to pay. These proprietors, and all
others who have given the slightest attention to the operation of
the toll-bar system, must, we doubt not, have observed at their
own doors many defects, and imperfections, and iniquities in it,
which have either not occurred within our observation, or to
which in the compass of our limits we have been unable even to
allude.
It is evident that, although the tenant's statute labour assess-
ment and his tolls come directly out of his pocket, and may be
called a tax upon him, yet in substance and in reality his statute
labour and tolls are an indirect tax on the landlord—as, barring
these, the tenant would just have given so many more pounds of
rent. Whatever, therefore, has a tendency to lighten the tenant’s
road money will, in the same degree, lighten the burden on the
landlord. He is thus, both by self-interest and by the desire
which he must feel for the welfare of all around him, very deeply
concerned in any measure which would reduce and equalise the
expense of maintaining the public roads. If it shall appear that
the adoption of our plan would be a direct saving, even to a
small amount, to the tenantry, then we would claim the cordial
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 271
countenance and co-operation of the landed interest. If, indeed,
in some instances tenants, who at present have access to ports
and markets by statute labour roads free of tolls, would not
be directly relieved by the change proposed, still, even in such
cases, and without reference to toll-gates which may be imposed
upon them, we would ask the favourable consideration of their
landlords, on the ground that the measure will unquestionably
be of advantage to the country generally.
Our plan, we think, would have some effect in improving the
breed of horses, as it would be an object, wherever possible, to
have good and strong animals, to make four suffice for what at
present is the work of five. It is true that light horses must be
used on particular soils, and to these this argument may not be
applicable. In the matter of labour, as in the matter of seed
and produce, good land will ever have the advantage of infe-
rior—the latter will yield less to the same amount of seed and
labour. The remedy for this is to improve by drainage, manure,
and shelter. • *
If it be true that the statute labour assessments, and bridge
money, and tolls, levied from the counties of Fife and Kinross on
the average of years, according to the present system, exceed
thirty thousand pounds yearly, and that, according to our plan,
the comparatively small sum of eighteen thousand pounds will
be amply sufficient—then we hold that we have made out a
strong case for the two counties applying, together or separately,
for a statutory enactment to carry out such a measure as we have
proposed. --
Our desire is, that the plan now recommended by us should be
adopted as a general measure by all the counties in Britain as a
substitute for road tolls wherever they now exist—in which case
its advantages would be fully and fairly brought out. But to
show the benefits which would result to individual counties that
might adopt it, we have, by way of illustration, given what we
think would be its probable operation in our own counties of Fife
and Kinross.
The expense of road tolls prevent many commercial men from
visiting the smaller towns throughout the country—so depriving
those places of the full amount of mercantile competition of which
otherwise they would have the benefit. We now see comparatively
few commercial gigs on the roads. The great bulk of commercial
272 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM,
men content themselves with doing what business they can on
the lines of the railways and coach roads, and leave the local
merchants and dealers to supply themselves the best way they
may. Under our system all mercantile men would be at full
liberty to make their rounds in their gigs without any toll, and
call at every town, and village, and store, where they could sell
a single parcel of their commodities. •
Supposing the county of Fife were to father this measure,
and to succeed in procuring an act of Parliament for applying it
to itself alone, while other counties choose to remain in their
present toll bondage, we have no doubt that our plan would
operate beneficially, though not to the extent that it otherwise
would do. Any county which supports its roads by a rate upon
its own horses, and gives them without charge to all and sundry
who will come and take the use of them, is very likely to
have numerous visitors, not only in the way of business, but in
the way of pleasure. Those coming with their horses and gigs
twice a-year, and spending a fortnight each time, in making the
round of the county, calling on their customers in the different
towns, would have a month’s use of the roads for nothing ; and
how much would this be had they to pay their share of the
rate for that time 2 Why, only half-a-crown, where the rate is
thirty shillings for the whole year. During the month they
would spend some thirty pounds of good ready money among
our innkeepers and stablers—from which they and the farmers
who supply the hay and corn, and the provision dealers, will
have very greatly more than the half-crown of profit. *
A county free from tolls might induce families to come to it
for summer residences or bathing quarters, particularly those
who were smarting under the toll-bar system of their own county.
They would delight in the varied scenery and the refreshing
breezes all the more that they could enjoy these blessings toll-
free. Though such families would have their use of the roads
with their carriages and pairs, or their gigs and dog-carts, for three
or six months, and which, by a strict accounting, should make
them liable for a fourth or a half of the horse rate, still we think
the profit which would arise upon their articles of consumption
would, as in the case previously supposed, much over-balance their
proportion of the rate. A county with emancipated roads would
tempt many not merely to make temporary visits, but to form
permanent residences, and become valuable additions both to its
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 273
wealth and its population. Their horses would then be rated like
those of others. On passing from a county where their every
movement was trammelled by toll-gate upon toll-gate into one de-
livered from these grievous and hateful restrictions, they would
feel a delightful sensation approaching to that ascribed to the
dark son of Africa, when, escaped from the yoke of his taskmaster,
he first sets foot on the free soil of Britain.
By the Post-office, as now regulated, we can have our thoughts
carried from one end or one side of the three kingdoms to the
other, at a penny per half-ounce. It would be not less advan-
tageous to have the power of cheaply transporting our persons
hither and thither by a free system of coaching.
The Post-office is exempted from paying road tolls upon mail-
gigs and two-horse mail-coaches, but it pays for four-horse
mail-coaches. Of these latter, which are of considerable annual
amount, the Post-office revenue would be disburdened under our
system, and the officers of that great establishment would be re-
lieved of all their trouble in periodically receiving, checking, and
paying the demands made upon them for such tolls. The tolls
so paid by the Post-office for the year 1843, according to the
finance accounts presented to the House of Commons, and ordered
to be printed, 26th March 1844, amounted for Great Britain to
the sum of £17,353, 4s.-a considerable annual draft certainly
on the penny letter revenue. -
In paying tolls upon four-horse mail-coaches, the Post-office
insist that these shall not be at a higher rate than the tolls upon
stage-coaches passing through the same gates. But Road Trus-
tees, when keeping by the letter of this regulation, sometimes
break it in spirit. There is an instance in the west of Scotland,
where there are two parallel roads leading betwixt two towns
eighteen miles apart, and where there is one toll at the junction
of the roads, and other four tolls—two on the one road and two
on the other. The mail runs upon the shortest line, and is
charged for three tolls at the full rate; the other coaches run
by the longer line—diverging, indeed, a mile to avoid one of the
mail toll-gates; yet though passing through three gates, these
coaches are charged toll only at the gate on the junction road.
In consequence, the stage-coach fares are a very trifle. Were the
stage-coaches to run upon the mail road, then they must either
pay full toll like the mail (which would stop them), or the mail toll
M II
274. PART III.--PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
must be reduced to the rate exaeted from them. Neither of these
afternatives would answer; and because the Post-office is a broad
board, and can afford to pay, the Trustees keep the mail-coach tolls
at the highest pitch to enable them to let ordinary coaches pass
two of the three gates free. Such are the equivocal expedients
sometimes taken to ease the cost of tolls falling upon coach pro-
prietors. -
But while we would save the Post-office revenue from being
étit down by any road toll charges, and while we would place the
burden of maintaining the roads on the owners of horses, these
parties would be well entitled to be relieved of all, or at least of a
portion, of the taxes upon their horses and carriages. If the
owners of horses maintain the public roads, and not for their own
purposes alone but for the horses and carriages of her Majesty
and of the State, and for pedestrians of every grade, down to the
boys with their girds, then we humbly think they do all that
should be required of them, and that, as regards horse and car-
riage taxes, they should be very tenderly dealt with. The as-
sessed taxes on horses used in riding and drawing carriages
amounted for 1843 to so much as £376,001, 18s. 4d.—a large sum
of public revenue to meddle with, but still, for the reasons already
mentioned, some part of it should be yielded.
We would most earnestly contend for the abolition of the
present progressive scale by which persons are assessed for their
horses used in riding or drawing carriages at from £1, 8s. 9d. to
£3, 6s. each, according to the number kept. An individual
having only one such horse pays £1, 8s. 9d. If he extend his
ëstablishment by an additional horse, this costs him for the second
horse no less than £3, 5s. 9d., making for the two £4, 14s. 6d.
A person who keeps three horses is charged £2, 12s. 8d. on
each, making for the three #7, 16s. 9d. If he have a turn-out to the
standard number of four, the rate is then increased to £2, 15s.
per head, or £11 for the four. The scale thus rises, on and on.
When he gets the length of ten the charge is £3,3s.6d. per head,
or £31, 15s. for the ten; and if he is so much a friend to the employ-
ment of grooms and stable boys, and to the consumption of hay
and corn, as to have a stud of twenty, they are rated at £3, 6s.
each, or £66 in all. A uniform rate of £1, 8s. 9d. would for the
twenty be only £28, 15s.
Instead of discouraging parties from increasing their establish-
ments by a rising progressive scale of this kind, we would rather
PART III.--PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 275
put them upon a decreasing scale in the same way as we find, in
the assessed tax schedule, the butcher's first horse rated at
<$1, 8s. 9d., but his second at only 10s. 6d. -
The doing away with assessed taxes on riding and carriage
horses, or even reducing them to a moderate uniform rate, would
lead to the immediate increase of the number of horses employed
for such purposes. This would be another ease to our road rate,
and but very little loss to the public revenue. Persons setting
up or extending their establishments would require additional
servants, and there would be a corresponding increase in the con-
sumption by those families of all sorts of taxed articles. Ever
opportunity should be seized to encourage the expenditure of the
rich in these and all other beneficial ways by modifying the direct
.taxes. These often deter individuals from assuming that style
•of elegance and grandeur to which their rank and fortune fairly
entitle them, and by doing which they would the more share
their wealth with the numerous classes below them, to whom,
.in all their movements and in all their splendour, they are furnish-
-ing employment and wages; acting really, as Burke well said
the rich must do, as stewards for the poor.
In speaking of a reduction of a class of direct taxes, we are
aware that we are treading upon ground which is not in the least
new, and for that reason we would have avoided the-topic alto-
gether but for its immediate bearing on the main question which
we are handling. If there must be public taxes on horses used
in riding and drawing carriages, we only wish that they shopli
be at one and the same rate upon all horses, in the same way as
we would have a uniform rate upon horses for road money; and
, that by no means should persons be disheartened from having two,
four, ten, or twenty horses, by a progressive increase upon the
duty corresponding to the number kept by them. -
Connected with the taxes on travellers is the gig tax of £3,5s.
This may be easily avoided by using vehicles under £21 of cost,
and painting the owners’ names upon them, so that those who
-run and those who gallop may read. The restriction of cost is
—not very pleasant or profitable to the coachbuilders; neither is the
display of the name at all times agreeable to the traveller, unless
he be a professional man desirous of advertising himself. It
often limits the using of such articles. A clerical friend of cours
* Tº .
a short jaunt. Soon afterwards he was accused by several
276 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
friends in the quarter where his gig had gone of having been
there without visiting them. He assured them they were mis-
taken, which, however, they refused to believe, asserting that
in point of fact his very gig had been seen at such and such
inn doors. He felt scandalised at being so taunted, and though
one of the most obliging of men, would never lend his gig and
his name again. This system of low-priced gigs, with the names
upon them, is not at all relished; and we have often heard it
suggested that a uniform rate of twenty shillings on gigs and
dog-carts, of whatever value, would be both more agreeable to
those using them, and more productive to the Exchequer.
Among others, there is a most important consideration upon
which we would urge the abolition of the present system of toll-
gates, and a modification of the public taxes on horses used in
riding or drawing. We allude to the defence which is neces-
sary for the welfare of the country at large against the extra-
ordinary and almost overwhelming power of the railway sys-
tem. Railways are universally admitted to be of the highest
utility. It was most desirable that the great towns of Lon-
don and Manchester and Liverpool should be put in imme-
diate connection with each other by those rapid means of
transit. It was not less desirable that Edinburgh and Glasgow
should be also linked together by railway. These great works
have been accomplished, much to the advantage of their proprie-
tors, and much also to the advantage of the public. Similar
works have been projected and executed between a number of
other leading points in the three kingdoms, and at this moment
the table of the House of Commons is loaded with bills for
many additional lines, north, east, south, and west. The en-
couragement which the existing railways have received from all
classes of society, from her Majesty down to the humblest tra-
veller, makes it perfectly evident that, far as this system has
already advanced, it is in truth yet but in its infancy in these
kingdoms, and that the day is not distant when we shall see
every road which can in the least be called a trunk line super-
seded by the triumphant railway—when the railway shall make
its way through the blue hills of Caledonia as far north as John-
o'-Groat’s House, exultingly exclaiming—
Veni, vidi, vici.
But while all this is going on—while those immediately on the
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 277
borders of railways are drinking deeply of their advantages—
what is to become of the parts of the country which the rail-
Ways do not penetrate 2 They will be little other than mere
stagnant pools, never moved by the breath of trade, but drying
up and disappearing under the all-absorbing influence of the
great railway leviathan. The balance will be inevitably cast
in favour of those towns and districts which are connected toge-
ther by railway lines, and against the other portions of the
country which depend solely upon the old-fashioned communica-
tions of turnpike and statute labour roads. Mr Canning called
the New World into existence, as he expressed it, to redress the
balance of the Old ; and it is not less necessary, recognising the
same principle in humbler matters, to raise up a wholesome
rivalry to the gigantic and daily increasing power of the railways.
. This is to be done by throwing open the roads—that is, by
abolishing the vexatious system of tolls upon them, and also by
abolishing as far as possible the assessed taxes upon horses, so
as not merely to give the freest use of the roads, but also the
freest use of the animals by which only, apart from steam
power, these roads can be effectually traversed.
Measures of this kind would, where railways do not imme-
diately exist, facilitate not only ingress and egress betwixt one
town and another, and betwixt inland districts and shipping ports
which have the sea for their railway, but also betwixt such towns
and districts and the stations of the railways which may happen
to be nearest them. They would, by admitting frequent runs of
coaches at very reduced fares, put the most remote parts of
the country in easy and rapid communication, either with sea-
port or with railway, and enliven the agriculture and trade and
commerce of all of them to an extent hitherto unknown.
Such measures would have a beneficial effect in two different
ways: they would place road communication betwixt country
towns and districts on a practicable and convenient footing, and
they would at the sametime be valuable feeders to the railways.
At present it is matter of complaint by passengers set down at
many railway stations throughout the country, that they have
been whirled there, and then left to walk and carry bag and bag-
gage to their destinations, probably a mile, or half-a-dozen miles,
as the case may be. If they won’t or can’t walk, then their only
remedy is to find a special conveyance for their internal transport,
and all because, what with road tolls and taxes on coaching and
posting, such establishments cannot be kept up.
278 PART III. — PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
JPublic conveyances of this sort are very smartly taxed.
Those who conduct them must take out certain annual licenses,
and pay assessed taxes upon the carriages employed by them,
besides taxes upon certain of their servants, and also duty upon
each mile which their coaches or hired horses shall travel.
By 5 and 6 Victoria, chap. 79, passed 5th August 1842, the
amnual license for every public coach is fixed at three pounds
three shillings; and a duty of three-halfpence per mile, accord-
ing to the length of road the coach travels, is payable both
going and coming—that is threepence per mile. The same act
removed all restrictions on the number of passengers to be carried
in these vehicles—the only requisite being sixteen inches of seat-
room for every passenger. This act both reduced and simplified
the licenses and duties which were previously payable upon public
coaches under 2 and 3 Will. IV., chap 120, passed August 16,
1832. -
This last-mentioned act, however, still regulates the licenses
and duties payable upon posting establishments. Each license
for letting horses is 7s. 6d., and a duty of three-halfpence per
mile is payable for every mile the horse travels; if for no greater
distance than eight miles, the duty is one-fifth part of the hire
(20 per cent.), or, in the option of the posting-master, 1s. 9d. The
taxes upon carriages kept for hire are—those with four wheels
#3; those with two wheels the same.
Here are ample charges on posting-masters, and which, one way
or other, they must make out of their customers. We do not
ivery well know what per centage these public taxes upon the
-year's business of a posting establishment may amount to, but
it is evidently heavy. When posting is 1s. 6d. per mile, the
hire of a chaise and pair for a ten mile stage is 15s. Of this
2s. 6d., or 163 per cent., goes to the public revenue for duty at
three-halfpence per mile on each of the two horses for this dis-
tance. The public taxes drawn from posting establishments,
counting taxes on the vehicles kept, and mileage and servants,
probably do not fall much short of 20 per cent. on the gross
amount of the hires. Take the case of a horse and gig hired for
ten miles at ninepence, with two tolls, as in Fife, at ninepence
each; the trip costs the traveller © C & ... #0 (9 0.
Of which, for duty ten miles at 1%d. 30 - 1 3
For tolls tº º º tº s & = e, e. g. tº tº ſº 0 1 6
For the use of the horse and gig 0 6 3
"— £0 °9 °0' .
-- ºt-i-º-º-
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 279
Here, what between mileage and tolls, there is a down-draught
on the traveller of about 33 per cent.
While those who make use of the public roads suffer thus fear-
fully, railways are allowed to escape with comparative impunity
—for their sole public tax consists of five per cent. upon the sums
charged or received for the conveyance of passengers, and no
more. The words of the act 5 and 6 Victoria, chap. 79 (5th August
1842), are, “For and in respect of all passengers conveyed for
hire upon or along any railway, a duty at and after the rate of
£5 for £100 upon all sums received or charged for the hire, fare,
or conveyance of all such passengers.” No license is required
by the railway companies for running their trains, and no taxes
are payable by them for their guards, engine-men, stokers, or other
servants employed on their trains. -
While, however, we point to the disadvantageous discrepancy
which exists betwixt the taxes on road travelling and on railway
travelling, we do not for one moment propose that the latter
should be raised to the height of the former. Our whole desire is,
that taxes on road travelling should be reduced—at least so as
never to exceed the railway five per centage.
The railway system, now set a-going in Scotland in good
earnest, is putting Road Trustees everywhere on the alert to see
how they can best protect the road revenue and road creditors.
Wherever a railway station is made to serve any town or village
at a little distance, then we find the Trustees stepping forward
and holding meetings, and giving orders for the erection of ad-
ditional toll-houses and toll-gates and steelyards, that the grow-
ing traffic may not escape untolled. This excites opposition on
the part of the railway proprietors, as well as on the part of the
towns and villages which are to be separated from the railways
by the new toll-gates. But let all these parties grumble as they
may, the Road Trustees, under the present system of tolls, have
no other alternative; they must make good their point, and they
erect the toll-gates in defiance of all opposition. -
-New railway stations and new harbours, and new coal and
lime and iron works, and new manufactories and public works—
in short, everything which creates much traffic where there was
little or none before, gives the Road Trustees something to do in
the matter of new toll-houses and gates and steelyards. All
we have already said in reference to the expense which would
280 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
bé incurred in erecting toll-houses and toll-gates and steelyards
upon statute labour roads, were they declared turnpike, and the
toll-bar system made complete, might be repeated in reference to
the toll-houses, toll-gates, and steelyards, which will be required
throughout Scotland at the stations of the railways at present on
the carpet. It would be well, therefore, before expending a large
amount in such erections, and raising up many additional toll-
keepers, that it were maturely considered, Whether a better system .
of providing road money than by toll-gates and toll-keepers may
not be found? and, Whether what we propose is not that better
system ? *,
It would be wrong to suggest the possibility of Road Trustees,
who have a favourite but deeply indebtedline of road nearly paral-
lel to a railway, trying to keep the traffic upon it by the erection of
toll-gates on the cross roads, with Smart rates, as a prohibition
against vehicles getting to the railway. If such things, however,
have not actually been done with this design, railway companies
at least have sometimes been almost persuaded that they were
really so intended. Under our system nothing of the kind could
ever take place. Instead of having any toll obstruction to pre-
vent the public from getting at each and every railway station,
we would have the roads made free as air. -
The natural working of our system will lead parties to take the
utmost possible use of the roads, and the more frequently they
can make their way with their horses, loaded with live or dead
cargoes, to the railway, the more to their profit, and the more also
to the profit of the railways. The greater the gain in these
ways to the parties referred to, the greater also will be the ease to
the roads; because, the sooner that traffic of any kind can be
transferred from the roads to the railways, so much the less will
be the tear and wear on these roads, and consequently so much
the less will be the expense of maintaining them. - -
In this view we confidently anticipate a concurrence in many
of our suggestions, not only from railway proprietors, but from
all who would ever make their way across the country to a
railway from the interior of the country, or from a railway into
the interior—in short, from the whole travelling public. If the
access to and from railways is to be restricted by a continuance
of our present system of road tolls, and by heavy taxes on horses
used in riding and drawing carriages, public and private, then
undoubtedly railways will be beneficial only to those towns.
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 28i
and districts bordering upon their lines, while all beyond will be
thrown as it were fifty years behind. -
On this part of the question we would only farther say, that
those who are to bear the burden of maintaining the public roads
—the owners of horses as we propose—have this strong claim on
the consideration of the Legislature in the matter of public taxes,
that they will support these roads not for themselves alone, but
for the entire mass of the community. Horse owners will have
their annual road rates to pay, but no annual dividends to re-
ceive. Their recompence will be in the vast diminution of the
road money by a uniform rate on their horses as compared with
the insufferable system of tolls and toll-gates—in the encourage-
ment of agriculture—in the increase of trade and manufactures,
of which facility in communication is the most powerful promoter
—and, generally, in the benefit of the country, in which they, the
horse owners, will well deserve to be large participators.
In every kind of manufacture where the aid of machinery is
required, water-power is the cheapest and best assistant that we
have. But it must be sought, generally speaking, in places
remote from seaports, and then there is land carriage with
the raw materials to the works, and land carriage again with the
manufactured article to the market or shipping port. In such
situations the expense of these transits for road tolls alone is
very severe, and cuts deeply into the advantages which the manu-
facturer would otherwise have from the use of the water-power,
and of workmen at a shade of cheaper wages, because of cheaper
houses and cheaper provisions in the country than in large towns.
As a matter of general policy, it is obviously of great utility
that public works should be encouraged in rural districts, both
because they bring the water-power to account and save the con-
sumption of coal, and because they draw masses from the large
towns to their great advantage, and give them good and health-
ful employment in the country. It is delightful to turn from
the confined unwholesome closes in many manufacturing towns,
with every room crowded from the sixteenth storey downwards,
to a public work in a rural situation—every family with their
comfortable cottage and garden spread out to the sun, such as
we find in Fife at Mr Fergus's extensive spinning and bleaching
works at Prinlaws on the Leven, and at Mr Yool's in Dura Dea.
Our plan has a peculiarity which is seldom to be met with
N Il
282 PART III,_PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
in reforms of any kind, and which is a strong recommendation
in its favour. It is this, that no new machinery is required for
carrying it into full and complete effect. On the contrary, it is
based on a sweeping reduction of existing machinery. We have
already, often enough perhaps, rung in the ears of our readers
that we are to do away at once and for ever with tolls, toll-gates,
and toll-keepers, the disappearance of all which from the face of
the country will not, we believe, cause any deep public regret.
Earther, our plan embraces a consolidation of the Trusts, and
a reduction of the number of officers, and an abolition of assessors
and collectors of statute labour and of bridge money. The whole
business of these toll-keepers, assessors, and collectors, we would,
as already explained, have performed by those already existing
officers—the surveyors and collectors of public taxes.
We may be asked, Under whose management we would place
the road funds?—whether under the present bodies of Trustees
or under what other body ? It will be seen from the local road
acts that every one of them appoints Trustees possessing quali-
fications different from the others. Among them they embrace
as Trustees, the Lord-Lieutenants, the Sheriffs and their Substi-
tutes, the Justices of Peace, Commissioners of Supply, proprietors
of lands to the extent generally of £100 yearly, and their eldest
sons, and the chief magistrates of burghs. All these parties may,
with much advantage, be continued as Trustees; and in addition
to them we would suggest farmers paying a certain amount of
rent—say £100, and generally all persons rated for a certain
number of horses—say four, and upwards. Whatever qualifica-
tion might be adopted, we would have it uniform over all the
country.
Then, instead of the whole body of Trustees of any county
being called upon to meet and discuss details of road manage-
ment, we would empower them, as in the South Wales Road
Trusts under Sir James Graham's act, to elect County Road
Boards, dividing each of these Boards into districts according to
the requirements of the county. Upon these County Boards we
would devolve the election of officers and the entire management
of the roads and road funds, much in the same way as the Prisons
Act, 2 and 3 Victoria, chap. 42, devolves the management of pri-
sons and prison funds in each county upon County Prison Boards
elected annually by the Commissioners of Supply and Magis-
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 283
trates of burghs. We would, however, keep in the hands of the
-general body of Trustees the important matter of fixing the rate
to be imposed per horse—the rate once fixed to continue for three
years, and then to be of new fixed by the general body of Trus-
tees for the next three years, and so on, upon the principle
adopted in assessment for police purposes in the burghs under
the Burgh Police Act, 3 and 4 William IV., chap. 46.
We would empower the assessors and collectors of public taxes
to assess and collect the horse rate at the same time and in the
same manner that they assess and collect the other public taxes
—the collector to pay over the amount, less his commission, to
the county roads bank accounts under the same regulations as he
makes his payments of public taxes to the Receiver-General.
Where a county is divided into districts, the proceeds of the rate
should be allocated amongst them in proportion to the number of
horses in each, reserving to general meetings to make a different
arrangement should they in any instance deem such to be neces-
sary. Commissioners should be named—the Sheriffs of counties
for instance—to allocate upon the respective counties such debts
as at present affect roads in two or more counties; and the com-
missioners should also be empowered to strike off the list of
debts any old subscriptions which, under the present system, are
irrecoverable.
The Road Trustees should be empowered to continue for a
time the loans from the present creditors, and pay them off gra-
dually, so as to be clear at the end of thirty-one years; or other-
wise, to borrow money on annuities of that duration and pay off
the present creditors.
For the protection of the roads and road funds, we would pro-
hibit any carriages not drawn by animal power from running on
the roads, unless by agreement with the County Roads Board.
For the regulation of the roads in the whole toll-bar counties
of Scotland we would have one single act of Parliament, under
which annual and triennial meetings of the Trustees should be
appointed, and the powers referred to should be given. We
would give plenary powers of altering the present lines of road,
whether old highways or byeways, or statute labour or turnpike
roads, and of making new lines—the consent of the proprietors
interested being first obtained. We would as seldom as possible
go to Parliament for a special act to make a road improvement.
In order to enable the Trustees to provide for the expense of any
284. PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM,
new line that should be found necessary, they should have the
power at their triennial meetings of increasing the horse rate so.
as to cover the expense. Suppose, for instance, that £1800 were
necessary for such an improvement, then, where there were 12,000.
horses, that sum would be produced in the three years by a single
shilling added to the annual rate. This would be an easy way,
indeed, of accomplishing such an object compared with the pre-
sent system of providing for an expense of that kind by erecting
toll-houses, and gates, and steelyards, and check-bars, upon the
new line, and advertising and rouping the tolls, and then giving
the new toll-keepers a high remuneration for collecting them.
The act should require the officers of the Trustees in each
county to have their accounts made up by a given day annually.
—the Martinmas or Whitsunday term; and, after being audited
and passed by the County Roads. Board, they should be published
for the information of all concerned for a certain period—say a
calendar month—previous to the annual election of the county,
road boards, as is done in the matter of municipal accounts.
previous to the day of the election of town-councillors under
the Burgh Reform Act 3 and 4 William IV., chap. 76. The act
should also require that copies of the accounts of every different
county should be laid annually before Parliament, and also
lodged in the Register Office in Edinburgh, where the whole may
be at once consulted.
Such is an outline of what might be the act for carrying the
proposed measure into effect. Whether the adoption of our sug-
gestions as a whole would be so beneficial as we conceive, is a
very fair question for discussion; but we think that even those
who may not concur in our plan, and see disadvantages in it
which are not obvious to us, will admit that the system which
we would remedy is radically bad and imperfect. If authority
be wanted, to confirm the views laid down in these pages with re-
gard to the evil course of legislation under which the toll-bar
system has grown up, and is to this day administered, we may be
permitted to refer to the following forcible remarks of an able
writer in the Quarterly Review for June 1844. The article we
quote from is entitled “Rebecca,” and contains a very clear and
interesting account of the causes which led to the late unhappy
riots in South Wales, in connexion, with the toll-bars in that
country. Speaking of toll-bar legislation the writer says–
PART HII.--PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 285
- “. In *. if any one wishes to designate the very type of negli:-
ent and perfunctory legislation, no illustration is so apposite as a turnpike-
ill. “Hino illa lacrymoe.' It is simply because parliament has in past
times recked nothing of turnpike-bills, has let anybody have one who
wanted it, and suffered interested parties to legislate as best suited their
own convenience—delegating to irresponsible bodies the dangerous power of
taxation, and omitting all control over a system peculiarly liable to abuse
—that the manifold confusions of the system have arisen. The oppressions,
the vexations, the iniquities, of the turnpike-laws, the dearness of tolls, and
the badness of roads, eight millions of debt in England, Rebecca and her
Daughters in Wales, are the legitimate results of this general default and
oversight of the Legislature in respect of the great national interests of its
public roads. We are not now arraigning the system on the ground of its
local administration, or as the advocates of centralized powers. It is
enough to say that, such as it has hitherto existed, it has been left utterly
destitute of those checks from which no delegated powers ought ultimately
to be exempted, and that it has been regulated by no principles of equality
or consistency, but private interest and haphazard have been the main ele-
ments of its origin and constitution.”
Although, however, this writer has done great service to the
public by his able exposure of the evils of the existing state of
things, he has done little in the way of suggesting a remedy.
The cure tried by Government in the case of South Wales was a
consolidation of Trusts, equal and moderate rates of toll, gates
to clear one another at fixed distances, reduction of salaries of
officers, improved economy in repairs, and more careful and re-
sponsible administration of funds. These improvements are
comprehended in our scheme, and we urge the adoption of
them in reference to Scottish roads even if our proposal for a
new mode of raising funds for their maintenance should not find
favour with the public.
It is but fair to admit that, with all the advantages anticipated
by us, the abolition of the toll-bar system would cause a consi-
derable diminution of the amount of legislation as well as of liti-
gation, both civil and criminal. Under the proposed change we
would no longer be able to show such a goodly array of statute
labour and turnpike road acts, and acts to renew, explain, en-
large, and consolidate, continue, and repeal acts—we could no.
longer boast of such a rich list of litigated cases in the civil
courts—and no longer point to such a black roll of conflicts, be-
tween man and man, as the records of the criminal courts in
the history of toll-bars exhibit.
If the toll-bar cases are numerous upon the face of the law.
reports, we need scarcely say that those which never get into
court at all are much more so, and which, could they be brought to
286 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
the bar of the public, would have a very formidable appearance
indeed. These latter, like the goods of the flying stationer, are
often vastly amusing.
In passing through Peeblesshire one day on the top of the
Dumfries mail, the coach made a momentary pause at a toll-bar
on the road, which broke the thread of an interesting conversa-
tion betwixt an eminent divine and a distinguished member of
the Scottish bar and ourselves. “Once on a time,” said the
counsellor, “a very curious incident occurred to a servant of
mine at this bar. He was on his way from Dumfriesshire to
Edinburgh with one of my horses, and I had given him a twenty
shillings' note to pay charges. As it happened, he tendered this
note to the toll-keeper here in payment of his toll. The toll-
keeper cast a very suspicious eye first on the note and then on
the man, and after consulting with his better half, the two set
my honest lad down in their wise heads as the utterer of a forged
note and the thief of the horse. They had him instantly seized,
horse and all, and carried before the nearest Justice, who, as it
chanced, was one of the Lords of Session then enjoying country
quarters. His lordship, at a single glance, knew the note to be a
genuine one, and the butler recognised my servant, and fully
corroborated his account of himself, and of his horse and note.
His lordship dismissed the charge as utterly unfounded, and the
toll-keeper beat a very inglorious retreat.” Had the accused but
innocent party chosen, a most inviting action of damages cer-
tainly lay before him on account of the gross reproach which
the toll-keeper had unjustly cast upon him, as well as on account
of his loss of time by the detention.
In another county (Fife), and more recently, we had a singu-
lar affair, showing the great obstruction to which lawful travel-
lers are sometimes exposed from the conduct of sleepy toll-
keepers. During the night a carriage drove up to the toll-gate,
but, notwithstanding repeated cries of “Toll ! toll !” no one
came forth. A phaeton also came up, and shortly after a gig ;
and then ensued such a bawling as made the hills and the val-
lies re-echo around with the impatient travellers calling for the
toll-man. This not having the desired effect, some of the par-
ties knocked loudly at the door and windows; but still no toll-
keeper—male nor female. A council of war was then held, and
the parties deliberately formed the resolution, and executed it
too, of breaking open the toll-bar by physical force. Here was
PART III,_PLAN. OF ROAD REFORM. 287
another fine field for actions—one at the instance of the parties
for the detention, and another at the instance of the Trustees for
breaking the bar, and a third at the instance of the toll-man for
his tolls; none of these cases, however, are to be found in the
law reports.
The embarrassment and difficulties experienced by the travel-
lers last referred to remind us of a suggestion which we have
heard made, that every toll-bar should have a bell to rouse the
keeper—the bell to be connected with a spring placed under the
road after the manner of a weighing machine, which, being
pressed by the horses’ feet or the wheels of the vehicle, would
ring the bell, and warn the toll-keeper to turn out. Upon this
we would propose as an amendment—if toll-gates are to be conti-
nued—that the alarum should sound without as well as within,
to warn travellers, strangers in the localities, of their prox-
imity to the toll-bar, and prevent, in dark nights, the smash-
ing of their horses and carriages against the obstruction. The
execution of those contrivances, however, would cost the Road
Trustees a tolerable penny were they to be adopted over all the
country.
There would also be a loss in the means of communicating a
knowledge of topography and proper names to those who thirst
after such acquirements. For instance, any one anxious about
learning the names of places about the Modern Athens could
hardly get a better exercise to work on (provided his sight is
good) than is presented in the following mysterious toll-ticket:—
Bonnington Toll.
23d July 1844.
1 Carriage drawn by
1 horse, &c. load.
Clears the following bars, viz. Drumseuch Wright's
houses Whitehouse checks grange loan hailes
quarry cameron bank blinkbonny mayfield grange
slateford and checks cairntowe drylaw dean
checks stockbridge pitt street fair-mile-head bel-
levue tynecastle claremont goldenacre crue comely
bank dean park bonnington jock's lodge trinity
seafield braid-hills abbeyhill or marionville south-
field niddry mill north leith leith links myreside
morningside

Or in the following specimen of toll-bar geography in the west
of Fife :—
288 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
SPITTAL Toll Bør. - -
July 1844 - -
CARRIAGE drawn by
Horse &c. Loaded.
Clears—North Ferry. Inverkeithing Bridge,
and check. Ladys mill and check. Pittencrieff,
Crossford, Rumblingwell and check. Gillander-
son, and check. Crossgates, Towngreen, Buck-
lyvie -
Around the city of Edinburgh we have thus about thirty-six
of those obstructions to travelling which we would do away with,
and around the town of Dunfermline the disproportionate num-
ber of fifteen. If fifteen are needed for a provincial town—a very
thriving one certainly—surely the capital of the kingdom must be
scrimply served with thirty-six. Some toll-bars require two per-
sons for night and day work; but, granting that one suffices for
the toll-bars referred to, we have in these two localities so many
as fifty-one men, living on the toll-duties, and constantly on the
outlook, for the interest of themselves, and of the Road Trustees
—every one of them most watchfully taking care that neither
horse, nor cart, nor carriage, shall pass his toll-bar untaxed.
We are obliged farther to confess, that the demolition of the
toll-houses, or their conversion to other uses, would deprive the
youth sauntering along our roads of a great deal of fine out-door
reading, combined with figuring, which they enjoy in the very
copious painted tables of tolls that all toll-men are bound to have
on their houses, and also bound, under a penalty of five pounds,
to give every facility of perusing to those who desire to imbibe a
knowledge of the information therein contained.—General Turn-
pike Act, sec. 55, pp. 96–97.
This reading, however, would be considerably more extensive
if the Road Trustees had also been obliged—as they ought to be
—to publish on the walls of the toll-houses a table of the exemp-
tions vis a vis with the tables of tolls. These, which are by no
means of the nature of what would be called light reading, would
form perhaps fully as curious, and (to those whose pockets would
be saved by them) a much more agreeable branch of the subject.
The numerous grounds of exemption probably show more clearly
than a volume of argument could do the extreme weakness of the
present system of tolls. We enumerate those allowed by one
clause of the General Turnpike Act (pp. 89–90) :-No toll shall
be taken—1. For any horse or waggon, &c., employed in convey-
ing road materials; 2. Nor for any horse or carriage conveying
PART III.—PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 289
implements of husbandry or farm produce from one part of any.
farm to another; 3. Nor for any horses or cattle going to their
usual pasture or watering-place, or to their usual Smithy : 4. Nor
from any person going to his usual place of worship; 5. Nor from
any clergyman going to visit any sick parishioner, or on his other
parochial duties within his parish; 6. Nor from any person at-
tending the funeral of any one who shall die and be buried within
the parish; 7. Nor for any horse or carriage employed in convey-
ing the mails under the authority of the Postmaster-General, ex-
cept where the carriage has more than two wheels; 8. Nor for
the horse of any officer or soldier on march or on duty; 9. Nor
for any horse or waggon employed in conveying the arms or bag-
gage of such officers or soldiers, or any sick, wounded, or disabled
officers or soldiers; 10. Nor for any waggon or horse employed
in conveying public stores belonging to her Majesty, or for the
use of her Majesty’s forces; 11. Nor for any carriage conveying
volunteer infantry, nor for any horse belonging to any corps of
yeomanry in going to any place of exercise, inspection, or review,
or on other military duty; 12. Nor for any horse or carriage
used by the officers of the Road Trustees when employed exclu-
sively on the business of the road on which he is travelling; 13.
Nor for any horses, cattle, or carriages, which shall not travel
above one hundred yards on any road before or after passing any
bar at which toll-duty is leviable for using the same.
This voluminous catalogue of exemptions, which is swelled by
many exemptions in local acts, is, for the protection of the tolls
and the toll-keepers, closed by a stringent proviso, that if any
person shall claim or take the benefit of any exemption not being
entitled thereto, he shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five
pounds; and in all cases the proof of exemption shall be upon
the person claiming the same. The interpretation of the exemp-
tion clauses has, as will be seen from our Appendix of Law Re-
ports, occasioned a good deal of work to the courts. Our exemp-
tions, however, as already stated, will be contained in a schedule
short and simple as compared with the preceding catalogue. We
would exempt from the rate, the horses of her Majesty and of
the State—including those in the service of the Army—and young
stock and aged horses; but none other. Very few if any ques-
tions could occur about exemptions; and nearly all horses being
subject to the rate, the rate would be kept low.
It may be objected to our whole scheme, that though very pro-
O O
290 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
mising in theory, the advantages anticipated from the throwing
open the roads would not be realised in practice; and we may
be challenged to specify instances where such a measure has suc-
ceeded. Here we are driven nearly to the wall, as under the
long-continued system of adding toll-gate to toll-gate—the Road
Trustees always taking care to trammel the growing traffic by
new toll-bars—it is indeed difficult to find instances illustrative
of the probable effect of our scheme.
We can refer to one example, however, which in the strongest
degree confirms the views we have urged. We allude to the great
road from the city of Edinburgh to the town of Leith, commonly
called Leith Walk. This road was included in the county of
Edinburgh Turnpike Act, 49 George III., cap. 37, passed 12th
May 1809, and by virtue of it a toll-bar was placed on the Walk
at which a two-horse stage-coach—then the usual public vehicle
—was to be charged various rates of toll, from one shilling to
nine shillings each trip, according to the number of passengers.
Another act of 3 George IV., cap. 45, was passed in relation to
the Leith Walk district of roads. w
This toll-bar was continued on the Walk till the passing of
the act 5 and 6 William IV., cap. 68 (3d July 1835), which (sec-
tion 33) enacted, that the tolls and duties authorised to be
levied in the Leith Walk district of roads, including the Walk
itself, should cease and determine on 25th May 1836—the Leith
Walk district roads thenceforth to be included in the county of
Edinburgh middle district of roads, and kept in repair by the
Trustees of that district. We do not know during how many
years after the erection of the toll-bar on Leith Walk the rates
of from 1s. to 9s. were exacted; but for a number of the later
years of the toll-bar the charge upon the two-horse stage-coaches,
which then leisurely plied on the Walk, was 1s. 6d. going and
the same returning; and for some short time previous to the
removal of the toll-bar, the toll upon these stage-coaches was
modified to ninepence each passing. This was still sufficiently
severe for the distance—two miles.
During the year preceding the removal of the toll-gate there
were, at the reduced toll, three stage-coaches on the Walk, and
they managed to make six trips up and the same number down
daily at the fare of sixpence. Each of these coaches required two
pairs of horses—the one to relieve the other. The capital then
engaged in those public conveyances was –
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. " 291
Three coaches at £30 sº tºº gº ** ** **. :9, 90 0 0
Twelve horses at £10 ... gºs *s **. ſº gºsºs ~ 120 0 0
In all ... ** ~$210 0 9
The toll upon these three coaches was 27s. a-day, or £422, 11s.
a-year—being more than double the amount of the ordinary
capital required for carrying on the business. Other vehicles,
public and private, were, during the twenty-seven years referred
to, taxed at this toll-bar according to the same rates, and the
toll-bar must either have been very productive to the tacksman, or
the traffic, because of the toll, must have been very limited.
The cost of maintaining and running these three stage-coaches
for the year would be:–
Tolls as above mentioned gº tº ºsºs ºº &º 4:422 11 0
Tear and wear of the coaches and horses—say 20 per cent. 42 0 0
Hay, corn, and stable rent—15s. per week for each of the
twelve horses * ſº ſº ** ** ſº ** 468 0 0
Three drivers at 12s. each per week ... gº.” ** **s 93 12 0
Two strappers at 12s. each ** ** **4 ** ** 62 8 0
Annual cost exclusive of coach licenses and duties 361088 11 0
A great change has since taken place in reference to the public
conveyances on this road—a change which is mainly, if not en-
tirely, to be attributed to the abolition of the toll-bar. Since
that happy event in 1836 the old lumbering stages have given way
to gay and spacious two-horse omnibuses, comfortably fitted up
for eighteen passengers each—twelve in and six out. These have
gradually increased in number; and during the last twelve
months (1844) there were so many as twenty-one such omnibuses
constantly plying on the road from morning till night—each
making twenty-four trips a-day, twelve up and twelve down, at
the small fare of twopence Several of these omnibuses have
four pairs of horses each, but we believe three and a-half pairs
may be taken as the average, or seven horses for each. The pro-
bable capital now engaged in these public conveyances is:—
Twenty-one omnibuses at £100 each” ... ... .. 62100 0 0
147 horses at £10 each ** * * *** ** 1470 0 0
Capital stock ... c. 363570 0 0
* These are frequently hired from coach-builders at ld. per mile. The daily
distance is 48 miles; so that the rent drawn for the use of such a vehicle, at that
rate, is 4s. daily, or 24s. weekly, or £62, 8s. yearly.
292 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
The cost of maintaining and running these for the year would
be :—
Ordinary expenses—
Tear and wear of omnibuses and horses at 20 per cent #: 714 0 0
Hay, corn, and stable-rent, at 15s. eachihorse per week 5,733 0 0
Twenty-one coach-drivers at 12s. each per week . . 655 4 0
Twenty-one hangers-on at 10s. each per week - - 546 0 0
Twenty-one strappers at 12s each per week gº ... 655 4 0
Office-keepers and check-clerks at £5 per omnibus - 105 () 0
368,408 8 0
Public taxes—
Twenty-one coach licenses at three guineas
each - - - - - ſº 3963 0 0
Twenty-one coach drivers at £1, 5s each 26 5 0
Mileage—one coach 48 miles at 1%d. per mile,
6s. per day—twenty-one coaches at this rate
per day, £6,6s., or for a year, less Sundays 1,971 18 0
2,061 3 0
Annual cost gºº tºº £10,469 11 0
Then, over and above, the coach proprietors’ profit must be
provided for, which, at the moderate computation of twenty
shillings for each omnibus per week, would be £1092 for the year,
making in round numbers the remunerative sum necessary to be
drawn from these coaches upon this road £11,500. To produce
this amount in one year, at the fare of twopence, the enormous
number of one million three hundred and eighty thousand pas-
sengers is required. This is equal to between eight and nine
passengers to each omnibus each trip, which, we believe, is not
far from the mark. Assuming an average of nine, the coach pro-
prietor, at twopence each, draws eighteenpence for their fares. He
pays threepence for the mileage of the trip—being a tax of 16;
per cent. ; and over and above, he has to pay the annual coach
license.
Here there is abundant room for reflection upon the comparative
merits of the restricted and the free system of roads. The latter
gives these great advantages—1. It enables multitudes of people
to travel at an almost nominal charge. 2. It gives profitable
employment to capital, and bread to numbers of families—coach-
makers, office-keepers and clerks, coach-drivers and coach at-
tendants, stablers, strappers, veterinary surgeons, and black-
Smiths. 3. It keeps up a continual demand for coach-horses, and
in them provides home consumers for a prodigious quantity of hay
PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM. 293
and corn. And, 4. It contributes very largely to the public
TeVentle. p
We have shown the immense coach traffic which has opened up
since 1836 on these two short miles of road, and all by the re-
moval of a single toll-bar. Of the increase of other traffic on
the road we have not any means of judging, but undoubtedly it
must be very considerable. The reduced toll of ninepence upon
each of the twenty-one omnibuses, each passing the toll-bar
twenty-four times a-day, would have been so much as £5915, 14s.
yearly, or an absolute prohibition.
It is very true that every road has not Edinburgh at the one
end and Leith at the other ; but the practical operation on all
roads would be the same in proportion to the amount of the
population.
The horses employed in the Leith Walk coaching, without a toll-
bar, have an advantage which our plan would not allow them, in-
asmuch, as under it they would be assessed for road money accord-
ing to the rate required for the county—a fairer system, surely,
than is the maintaining of Leith Walk from the proceeds of tolls
levied at toll-bars on other roads in and around Edinburgh.
Were the rate 30s., then the 147 omnibus horses would contribute
£220, 10s. towards the support of the two miles—a small sum
for this branch of the traffic certainly, and which would scarcely
be felt as an addition to the other annual expenses of the coach-
ing establishments.
The Legislature by a great effort in the session 1844 made pro-
vision that railway companies should run third-class trains to
carry passengers at 1d. per mile ; but here, without any such
enactment, and by the mere allowing of fair play to the road and
to the capitalist, we have the same advantage freely given to us—
the two miles for 2d., with your choice in or out, in elegant and
capacious coaches—the only difference between the railway train
and the omnibus being in the matter of time.
We have now explained at considerable length our whole
scheme, and in this shape we submit it to the judgment of the
public. In the course of stating our main proposal we have
incidentally thrown out suggestions for various improvements in
the management of roads, which it is in the power of Road Trus-
tees to take into consideration; and to make trial of, under the
294 PART III.-PLAN OF ROAD REFORM.
present toll-bar system. We need scarcely repeat, however, the
opinion at which we have arrived, after the most full and de-
liberate consideration, that that system, in the best way in which
it can be wrought, is not merely complicated, cumbersome, and
expensive, but that it is from its very nature unequal and unjust,
while the scheme which we would substitute in its stead is simple
and economical, and would be found as fair in its operation as
any general rate in any case ever can be.
APPENDIX.
A PP E N DIX.
APPENDIX (A.)
TITLES OF THE WARIOUS BRITISH ACTS OF PARLIAMENT PASSED
IN RELATION TO STATUTE LABOUR AND TURNPIKE
ROADS AND BRIDGES IN SCOTLAND.
1707–1844.
Compiled from the Public, and Local and Personal, Acts.
[The act 1617, chap. 8, gives power to justices of the peace to mend high-
ways and passages to and from any market town or sea port, and to punish
those who injure such ; and declares the breadth of highways to market
towns to be twenty feet in breadth at the least, and those of larger breadth
to remain so, and to be maintained by the justices of the peace as well as all
other ways from any town to the parish church, with power to report to the
council for new roads, and with power to punish for refusing to mend high-
ways and passages. The act 1661, chap. 38, renews the above recited act
in the same terms. The act 1661, chap. 41, allows heritors, at the sight
of the sheriffs, &c., to cast about the highways to their conveniency, providing
they do not remove them above two hundred ells upon their whole ground,
excepting burgh and incorporate acres, which are nowise to be packed or in-
closed, unless the heritors thereof shall think it meet and expedient. *.*
The act 1669, chap. 16, appoints the Sheriff and one of his deputes (being à
heritor), and the justices of the peace, to meet on first Tuesday of May yearly,
and to make up a list of the highways, bridges, and ferries, and to divide the
parishes, and to name overseers of portions, with power to those so named to
call on tenants, cottars, and servants, by intimation at the parish kirk, to con-
vene for repairing the highways, with power to name some to direct the rest,
and to appoint such overseers' wages; providing that the days for working do
not exceed six days for man and horse yearly for the first three years, and
four days yearly thereafter, between the bear seed and hay time, or harvest;
with power to the justices of the peace to poind for absence, twenty shillings
Scots for man, and thirty shillings for man and horse, and therewith to hire
others; and, if the absent persons have no goods, to punish them in their
persons: , which highways to be twenty feet broad at least, or broader, if so
before, with power to the justices to change roads at the sight of three of their
number, and to estimate the damage, to be satisfied by the whole shire. The
justices of the peace to meet for three years after the statute each fortnight
during June and July, to enforce the act, with power to visit ferries, and ap-
point boats and landing places. The justices of the peace to meet yearly on the
first Tuesday of June, and to stent the heritors of the shire, comprehending
the heritors of the burgh lands, not exceeding ten shillings Scots upon each
hundred pounds of valued rent, to be uplifted by poinding, and to account
therefor at Michaelmas head court. All persons are prohibited from injuring
P p
298 APPENDIX (A.)
highways; and on proof by oath (that is, the oath of the offender) or witness,
the justices shall fine as they see just, and levy by poinding, to be applied to
the roads, with powers to call accounts of mortifications to highways; and
the convener to report yearly on all matters to the council. The act
authorises the council to ordain the levying of moderate customs at bridges,
causeways, or ferries, in case the stent is deficient, and to punish the heritors
and justices of the peace for failure in duty, as also to name overseers. The
act ordains laboured lands to be fenced, but so as not to be within the fore-
said breadth, and the justices of the peace are to poind for four shillings for
each eln not fenced, and to apply the same for fencing; and declares obstruc-
tions on the road to be held as done by the labourers of the land next ad-
jacent, who shall be fined, with relief against the real actors of the skaith.
The act 1670, chap. 9, allows the time for working at the roads to be
any time in the year, seed time and harvest excepted, and allows justices of
the peace to dispense with the attendance of persons at a distance, on paying
six shillings yearly for every man, and twelve shillings for every horse, to be
expended on substitutes. The act 1685, chap. 39, is directed against the
breaking of trees, and leaping and injuring fences, the half of the fine to be
applied for mending and repairing bridges and highways within the parish.
The act 1686, chap. 8, authorises the commissioners of supply to act
with the justices, five to be a quorum, except in the shires of Clackmannan,
Rinross, and Cromarty, where three to be a quorum (this limitation is not re-
peated in the newt statute, 5 Geo. I. cap. 30)—the meetings to be intimated at
each parish church the Sunday before—persons absent to be fined. Bridges
and ferries between counties to be kept up by both counties, according to
their valuations.—Shires and burghs are bound to repair and uphold the
bridges within their bounds; and customs to be first employed for the repair
of the bridges and causeways, where collected.]
Note:-The above are taken from Mr Sheriff Barclay's Digest of Acts relative to Highways.-
- Law of the Road, pp. 30–32.
12 Anne.—An act for upholding and repairing the bridges and highways
in the county of Edinburgh.
5 Geo. I.-An act for amending and making more effectual the laws for
repairing the highways, bridges, and ferries, in that part of Great Britain
called Scotland. (1718.)
7 Geo. II., cap. 9.—An act to explain and make more effectual the
laws in being to oblige the possessors of lands adjacent to common highways
to cut and keep low such hedges as are adjoining to the said highways.
10 & 11 Geo. II.-An act to enable the magistrates and town-council of
the burgh of Lanark to repair and maintain the bridge over the river Clyde
at Clydsholm, in the shire of Lanark. (1736.)
23 Geo. II.-An act for repairing the roads leading from Douglas Bridge
to the town of Haddington, and from thence to Ravensburgh-burn, in the
county of Haddington. (1748.)
24 Geo. II.-An act for repairing the high roads in the county of Edin-
burgh to and from the city of Edinburgh, and from Cramond Bridge to the
town of Queensferry, in the county of Linlithgow. (1750.)
25 Geo. II., cap. 28.—An act for repairing the post road from the city of
Edinburgh, through the counties of Linlithgow and Stirling, from the Boat-
house-ford, on Almond Water, and from thence to the town of Linlithgow,
and from the said town to Falkirk, and from thence to Stirling, and also
from Falkirk to Kilsyth, and to Inchbellie Bridge, on the post road to the
city of Glasgow. (1752.)
26 Geo. II.-An act for the amendment and preservation of the public
highways and turnpike roads of this kingdom, and for the more effectual
execution of the laws relating thereto. >
26 Geo. II., cap. 81.—An act for repairing the roads from Livingston by
APPENDIX (A.) 299
the Kirk-of-Shotts to the city of Glasgow, and by the town of Hamilton to
the town of Strathaven. (1753.)
26 Geo. II., cap. 90—An act for repairing several roads leading into the
city of Glasgow. (1753.)
26 Geo. II., cap. 91.-An act for repairing the road from North Queens-
ferry through the towns of Inverkeithing and Kinross, to the town of
Perth; and also the road from the said Queensferry to the towns of Dun-
fermline, Torryburn, and Culross; and also the road from the said Queens-
ferry through Inverkeithing to Burntisland and Kirkaldy. (1753.)
26 Geo. II., cap. 93.—An act for repairing and widening the several roads
in the county of Peebles leading from Tweedscross towards the city of Edin-
burgh, by Blyth Bridge, La Mancha, and Wheam, and by Linton and Car-
lops, and from Ingleston through Carlops, until all the said roads join the
limits of the county of Edinburgh. (1753.)
27 Geo. II., cap. 16.—An act for making perpetual several laws for
punishment of persons destroying turnpikes, locks, or other works erected
by authority of Parliament, &c.
27 Geo. II.-An act to explain, amend, and render more effectual, an act
passed in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his present Majesty,
intituled “An act for repairing several roads leading into the city of Glas-
OW.”
28 Geo. II.—An act for enlarging the term and powers granted by an act
of the twenty-fourth year of his present Majesty's reign, in tituled “An act
for repairing the high roads in the county of Edinburgh to and from the
city of Edinburgh, and from Cramond Bridge to the town of Queensferry, in
the county of Linlithgow, and for making the said act more effectual.”
28 Geo. II.-An act to amend an act made in the twenty-sixth year of
the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An act for the amendment and
preservation of the public highways and turnpike roads of this kingdom,
and for the more effectual execution of the laws relating thereto.”
30 Geo. II., cap. 28.—An act to render more effectual the several laws
now in being for the amendment and preservation of the public highways
and turnpike roads of this kingdom.
30 Geo. II., cap. 57.—An act for enlarging the term and powers granted
by an act passed in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his present Ma-
jesty, in tituled “An act for repairing several roads leading into the city of
Glasgow,” so far as the same relates to certain roads mentioned in the
said act; and also to enlarge the term and powers granted by an act passed
in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled
“An act to explain, amend, and render more effectual, an act passed in the
twenty-sixth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled ‘An act for
repairing several roads leading into the city of Glasgow, and to repair
several other roads leading into the said city, and for building a bridge across
the river of Inchinnan.’”
31 Geo. II., cap. 4.—An act for enlarging the term and powers granted by
an act of the twenty-fifth year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled “An
act for repairing the post road from the city of Edinburgh, through the coun-
ties of Linlithgow and Stirling, from the Boathouse ford on Almond Water,
and from thence to the town of Linlithgow, and from the said town to Fal-
kirk, and from thence to Stirling; and also from Falkirk to Kilsyth, and to
Inchbellie Bridge on the post road to the city of Glasgow, and for building
a bridge cross Almond Water.”
32 Geo. II., cap. 15.-An act for the better preservation of the turnpike
roads in that part of Great Britain called Scotland.
| 4 Geo., III., cap. 85.—An act for repairing and widening the road from
Scotsdyke, in the county of Dumfries, by or through the villages of Langholm
and Hawick to Haremoss, in the county of Roxburgh. e
4 Geo. III., cap. 86.—An act to amend and render more effectual two
several acts passed in the twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth years of the reign
of his late Majesty for repairing the high roads in the county of Edinburgh,
300 APPENDIX (A.)
to and from the city of .# and from Cramond Bridge to the town
of Queensferry, in the county of Linlithgow.
5 Geo. III., cap. 38.-An act to continue part of an act made in the thir-
tieth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, in-
tituled “An act to render more effectual the several laws now in being for
the amendment and preservation of the public highways and turnpike roads
of this kingdom, and for making farther provisions for the preservation of said
roads.”
5 Geo III., cap 89.-An act for the building a bridge over the river Tay, at
or near the town of Perth, in the county of Perth.
6 Geo. III., cap. 73–An act for repairing the road from the burgh of
Lauder in the shire of Berwick, to and through Kelso in the shire of Rox-
burgh to the March-Burn.
6 Geo. III., cap. 82.—An act to enlarge the term and powers of an act
made in the twenty-sixth year of King George the Second for repairing
several roads leading into the city of Glasgow, so far as the same relates to
the districts of roads from Inchbellie Bridge to Glasgow, and from Glasgow
to Redburn Bridge; and for altering and ascertaining the course of the last
mentioned district of roads.
7 Geo. III., cap. 40.-An act to explain, amend, and reduce into one act
of parliament, the general laws now in being for regulating the turnpike
roads of this kingdom, and for other purposes therein mentioned.
7 Geo. III., cap. 42.-An act to explain, amend, and reduce into one act
of parliament the several statutes now in being for the amendment and pre-
servation of the public highways of this kingdom, and for other purposes
therein mentioned.
7 Geo. III., cap. 106.-An act for repairing and widening several roads in
the county of Ayr.
8 Geo. III., cap. 5.-An act to explain, amend, and render more effectual,
an act passed in the seventh year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled
“An act to explain, amend, and reduce into one act of parliament, the seve-
ral statutes now in being for the amendment and preservation of the public
highways of this kingdom, and for other purposes therein mentioned.”
8 Geo. III, cap. 59.-An act for repairing several roads leading through
the county of Selkirk.
8 Geo. III., cap, 60.—An act for repairing several roads leading through
the county of Roxburgh.
8 & 9 Geo. III., cap. 74.—An act for enlarging the term and powers
granted by an act of the twenty-third year of his late Majesty for repairing
the roads from Douglas Bridge to the town of Haddington, and from thence
to Ravensburgh Burn in the county of Haddington.
9 Geo. III., cap. 12.—An act for repairing the highways and bridges in
the county of Linlithgow at Bathgate.
10 Geo. III., cap. 93.—An act for building a bridge over the river Clyde,
near the town of Hamilton in the county of Lanark, and for making and
repairing certain roads and avenues leading to the same.
10 Geo. III., cap. 104.—An act to explain and amend an act made in the
thirty-second year of the reign of King George the Second for improving
the navigation of the river Clyde to the city of Glasgow, and for building a
bridge across the said river from the said city to the village of Gorbals.
11 Geo. III., cap. 53.−An act for widening the highways in that part of
Great Britain called Scotland.
11 Geo. III., cap. 60.—An act for enlarging the term and powers of an
act made in the eighth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled
“An act for repairing several roads leading through the county of Selkirk.”
11 Geo. III., cap. 79.—An act to enlarge the term and powers of so much
of an act made in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of King George the
Second as relates to the repairing the road from Cramond Bridge to the
town of Queensferry in the county of Linlithgow.
APPENDIX (A.) 301
11 Geo. III., cap. 85.-An act for repairing and widening the roads from
the town of Peebles to the Kings Eatedge and to Gatehope-knowe, Burnfoot,
to the top of Minchmoor, and to Lochhead, in the county of Peebles.
11 Geo III., cap. 90.--An act to enlarge the term and power of an act
made in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King George the Second for
repairing the roads from Livingston by the Kirk-of-Shotts to the city of
Glasgow, and by the town of Hamilton to the town of Strathaven, and for
repairing and widening the road leading from the confines of the county of
Ayr, at or near Lochgate, to the town of Strathaven in the county of Lanark.
12 Geo. III., cap. 45.—An act for the better regulation of carters, car-
riages, and loaded horses, and for removing obstructions and nuisances upon
the streets and highways within that part of Great Britain called Scotland.
12 Geo. III., cap. 82.—An act for repairing and widening several roads
leading through the county of Lanark, and for building a bridge over the
river Clyde, at or near a place called the Howford, in the said county.
12 Geo. III., cap. 83.−An act to continue and render more effectual an
act passed in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, for re-
pairing the road from the North Queensferry through the towns of Inver-
keithing and Kinross to the town of Perth; and also the road from the said
Queensferry to the towns of Dunfermline, Torryburn, and Culross; and also
the road from the said Queensferry through Inverkeithing to Burntisland
and Kirkaldy.
12 Geo. III., cap. 97.-An act for repairing and widening the roads from
the confines of the county of Berwick, at or near Banghouse Walls, to
Comptor's Lanes and Eyemouth, and from the town of Eccles to Eyemouth,
and from Whitelaw Muir to Comptor's Lanes, in the county of Berwick.
12 Geo. III., cap. 106.--An act to continue the term, and alter and enlarge
the powers, of so much of two acts, made in the twenty-sixth and twenty-
seventh years of King George the Second, for repairing several roads leading
into the city of Glasgow, as relates to that part of the road from the city of
Glasgow to the town of Dumbarton which leads through the county to the
town of Dumbarton.
14 Geo. III., cap. 31.—An act for repairing the highways and bridges in
the county of Fife.
14 Geo. III., cap. 102.—An act to enlarge the terms and powers of two
acts made in the twenty-sixth and . years of the reign of his
late Majesty, King George the Second, for repairing several roads leading
into the city of Glasgow, so far as the same relate to the road leading from
the said city of Glasgow through Cowcaddens to that part of the water of
Kelvin called Milnford of Garscube.
14 Geo. III., cap. 105.—An act to continue the terms of two acts, made in
the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years of the reign of his late Majesty,
King George the Second, for repairing several roads leading into the city of
Glasgow, so far as the same relate to the roads from the city of Glasgow to
Yocker Bridge, to Renfrew Bridge, to the Three-mile-house, to the town of
Airdrie, and from the village of Gorbals, to the chapel of Cambuslang, in
the counties of Lanark and Renfrew.
14 Geo. III., cap. 109.—An act to enlarge the term of an act made in the
seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, for repairing and widening
several roads leading from the town of Ayr and other roads therein men-
tioned, in the county of Ayr ; and for repairing and widening certain other
roads within the said county of Ayr.
15 Geo. III.-An act to continue the term of an act made in the twenty-
sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King George the Second, for re-
pairing and widening the several roads in the county of Peebles, leading
from Tweedscross towards the city of Edinburgh, by Blyth Bridge, La Mancha,
and Wheam, and by Linton and Carlops, and from Ingleston, through Carlops,
until all the said roads join the limits of the county of Edinburgh.
15 Geo. III., cap. 63.−An act for repairing the highways and bridges in
the shire of Argyle.

302 APPENDIX (A.)
17 Geo. III., cap. 106.—An act for repairing and widening several roads in
the county of Dumfries, and for converting the statute labour within the said
county into money; and for applying the same towards repairing the high-
ways within the same county.
18 Geo. III., cap. 69.—An act for repairing the highways and bridges in
the county of Stirling.
20 Geo. III., cap. 24.—An act for converting into money the statute labour
in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, for the purpose of repairing the highways
bridges, and ferries, within the said Stewartry.
24 Geo. III., cap. 18.-An act for regulating and rendering more effectual
the exaction of the statute work, within the shire of Edinburgh, and for
authorising the trustees for putting into execution several acts for repairing
the high roads in the county of Edinburgh, to borrow on the credit of the
tolls arising within the district of Lasswade a farther sum of money, to be ap-
plied for payment of certain sums borrowed on the personal security of the
said trustees, and for farther repairing the roads within the said district.
25 Geo. III., cap. 13.−An act for repairing the highways, and bridges, and
ferries, in the county of Perth.
25 Geo. III., cap. 37.—An act for rebuilding the bridge across the river of
Ayr, at the town of Ayr.
25 Geo.III., cap. 120.-An act for enlarging the term and powers of an
act made in the fourth year of the reign of his present Majesty, for repairing
and widening the road from Scotsdyke in the county of Dumfries, by or
through the villages of Langholm and Hawick to Haremoss in the county of
Roxburgh.
26 Geo. III., cap. 21.-An act for repairing the highways and bridges in
the county of Dumbarton.
27 Geo. III, cap. 51.-An act for making a road from Saint Bernard Street
in the town of Leith, to the foot of Leith Walk, in the county of Edinburgh,
and for widening and enlarging certain streets in the city of Edinburgh, and
the avenues leading to the same; and for amending two several acts passed
relative to the said city in the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of his pre-
sent Majesty's reign.
27 Geo. III., cap. 79.—An act for enlarging the term and powers of an act
made in the sixth year of the reign of his present Majesty for repairing the
road from the burgh of Lauder in the shire of Berwick to and through Kelso
in the shire of Roxburgh to the March-burn.
27 Geo. III., cap. 83.−An act to continue the term and alter and enlarge
the power of several acts made in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years
of the reign of his late Majesty, King George the Second, and the sixth year
of the reign of his present Majesty, so far as relates to the road leading from
Glasgow to Redburn Bridge, and for altering the course of the road from
Glasgow to Redburn Bridge, and for repairing the road from Redburn Bridge
to Benny water, and from thence to or near Loanhead, in the county of Stir-
ling, there to join the turnpike road leading from Falkirk to Kilsyth.
27 Geo. III., cap. 89.--An act for repairing and widening the road leading
from the burgh of Berwick-upon-Tweed, by Ayton-bridge and the new bridge
over the Pees or Pass of Cockburns-path, to Douglas Bridge; and also the
road leading from Billie Causeway and Preston Bridge, to join the said road
at or near Cockburns-path tower, in the county of Berwick.
28 Geo. III., cap. 92.—An act for continuing the term, and altering and
enlarging the powers, of three acts passed in the twenty-sixth and twenty-
seventh years of the reign of his late Majesty, and in the twelfth year of the
reign of his present Majesty, for repairing several roads leading into the city
of Glasgow, so far as relates to that part of the road from the city of Glas-
gow, to the town of Dumbarton, which leads through the county to the town
of Dumbarton.
28 Geo. III., cap. 114.—An act for repairing and widening the road from
Dumfries by Ae Bridge to Moffat, in the county of Dumfries.
APPENDIX (A). 303
29 Geo. III., cap. 7.-An act for enlarging the terms and powers of so
much of an act made in the eighth year of the reign of his present Majesty as
relates to the repairing and widening severalroads leading through the county
of Roxburgh, and for better regulating the statute labour within the said
county.
29 Geo. III., cap. 17.—An act for repairing certain roads in the county of
Perth, and for explaining and amending an act made in the twenty-fifth year of
the reign of his present Majesty for repairing the highways, bridges, and
ferries, in the county of Perth.
29 Geo. III., cap. 20.—An act for repairing the roads in the county of
Forfar, and for regulating the statute labour within the same.
29 Geo. III., cap. 79.-An act for making and repairing the road from the
city of Glasgow, in the county of Lanark, to Muirkirk, in the county of Ayr,
and from thence to the confines of the said county of Ayr, towards Sanquhar,
in the county of Dumfries, and other roads communicating therewith.
29 Geo. III., cap. 87.—An act for repairing and widening the road from
Grateney, by Annan, Dumfries, and Sanquhar, in the county of Dumfries, to
the confines of the county of Ayr, and the road from Corsenarget to Wan-
lochhead, in the said county of Dumfries.
29 Geo. III, cap.92.-An act for enlarging the term and powers of several
acts made in the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, and thirtieth years of the
reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, so far as relates to certain
roads leading through the counties of Lanark and Renfrew.
29 Geo.III., cap. 105.—An act for enlarging the terms and powers of several
acts of the twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth years of his late Majesty's reign,
and of the fourth year of his present Majesty's reign, for repairing the high-
ways in the county of Edinburgh, and for making the same more effectual.
30 Geo. III., cap. 93.—An act for making and repairing the road from
Newmill Bridge, by Foodie's Mill, Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Kirkaldy, Galla-
town, and Cameron Bridge, to Crail, and other roads in the county of Fife.
30 Geo. III., cap. 105.-An act to continue the term and alter the powers
of so much of two acts made in the twenty-fifth and thirty-first years of the
reign of his late Majesty, for repairing several roads in the counties of Lin-
lithgow and Stirling, as relates to the roads lying within the county of Lin-
lithgow.
§ Geo.III., cap. 108.-An act to continue the term and alter the power of
so much of two acts made in the twenty-fifth and thirty-first years of the
reign of his late Majesty, for repairing several roads in the counties of Lin-
lithgow and Stirling, as relates to the roads lying within the county of Stir-
ling, and for repairing the road from Loanhead to St Ninians, in the said
county of Stirling. e
30 Geo. III., cap. 109.--An act for repairing several roads in the counties
of Stirling and Dumbarton.
31 Geo. III., cap. 95.—An act for amending an act made in the twenty-
ninth year of the reign of his present Majesty, for making and repairing the
road from the city of Glasgow, in the county of Lanark, to Muirkirk, in the
county of Ayr, and from thence to the confines of the said county of Ayr, towards
Sanquhar, in the county of Dumfries, and other roads communicating there:
with ; and for the more effectually repairing the said roads, and the road
from the village of Gorbals and new bridge of Glasgow, to the Chapel of
Cambuslang, in the said county of Lanark, and branches thereof; and for
making and repairing the road from the said Chapel of Cambuslang till it join
the high road leading from Hamilton by Burnbank, towards Eaglesham, in the
county of Renfrew.
31 Geo. III., cap. 107.-An act to enlarge the term and powers of several
acts made for repairing the road from Livingston, by the Kirk-of-Shotts, to
the city of Glasgow, and by the town of Hamilton to the town of Strathayen;
and for repairing and widening the roads from the confines of the county of
Ayr, at or near Lochgate, to the town of Strathaven, and for repairing the

304 APPENDIX (A.)
several roads leading into the city of Glasgow, so far as the same relates to
the road leading from the town of Airdrie, towards the city of Glasgow,
through the village of Shettleston, till it falls into the great road from Murrie
Hall to the said city; and for repairing the road from the said great road, by
Drygate and Whitehill, to Carntyne; and for repairing and widening several
other roads; and for building a bridge over the river Clyde, at or near Theeves-
§: and for opening and making certain streets in and near the city of
asgow.
32 Geo. III., cap. 38.—An act for building a bridge over the river South
Esk, at or near the town of Montrose, in the county of Forfar; and for mak-
ing suitable approaches thereto.
32 Geo. III., cap. 68.--An act for making effectual the statute labour in the
county of Renfrew, and for levying conversion money in lieu of labour in
certain cases, and for otherwise regulating, making, and repairing high roads
and bridges in the said county.
32 Geo. III., cap. 93.−An act for improving the communication between
the county of Edinburgh and the county of Fife, by the passages or ferries
across the Firth of Forth, between Leith and Newhaven in the county of
Edinburgh, and Kinghorn and Burntisland in the county of Fife; and for
rendering the harbours and landing-places more commodious.
32 Geo. III., cap. 120.-An act for making, amending, widening, and keep-
ing in repair, the roads from the new bridge over the water of Almond, on
the confines of the counties of Edinburgh and Linlithgow, by the town of
Bathgate to Baillieston, in the county of Lanark; and for making, amending,
widening, and keeping in repair, certain branches of road from the said line
of road; and for building a bridge over the water of Avon, at Torphichen
Mill; and for discharging the trustees for executing two acts passed in the
twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years of the reign of his late Majesty King
George the Second, and two acts passed in the fourteenth and thirty-first
years of the reign of his present Majesty, from the care of such parts of roads
from Newhouse Inn to Glasgow as lead from the confines of the parishes of
Monkland and Shotts, to the east boundary of Baillieston aforesaid, and put-
ting the same under the power of the trustees appointed by this act.
32 Geo. III., cap. 121.-An act for enlarging the term and powers of an
act made in the thirtieth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King George
the Second, so far as relates to the road leading from Renfrew to Greenock,
by Corsehill and by the side of the river Clyde, and by Port-Glasgow and
the bridge at Inchinnan; and for more effectually making and repairing and
altering the course of the said road from Renfrew to Greenock, and for mak-
ing and repairing other roads connecting therewith, and leading to and from
Paisley, in the county of Renfrew, and the branches thereof, and for shutting
up bye roads that are useless to the public.
32 Geo. III., cap. 122.—An act for making and repairing the road from the
town of Lanark to the town of Hamilton, in the county of Lanark.
32 Geo. III., cap. 123.—An act for enlarging the terms and powers of
several acts of the twenty-sixth year of his late Majesty's reign, and of the
eleventh and fifteenth years of his present Majesty’s reign, for repairing the
high roads in the county of Peebles; and for making the said acts more
effectual, and for better regulating the statute labour within the said county.
32 Geo. III., cap. 124.—An act for continuing the term and altering the
powers of so much of an act made in the twelfth year of the reign of his
present Majesty, as relates to the repairing and widening several roads lead-
ing through the county of Lanark.
32 Geo. III., cap. 125.-An act to enlarge the term and powers of an act
made in the eleventh year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled “An act
to enlarge the term and powers of so much of an act made in the twenty-fourth
year of the reign of King George the Second as relates to the repairing the


road from Cramond Bridge to the town of Queensferry in the county of
Linlithgow.”
APPENDIX (A.) 305
32 Geo. III., cap. 149.--An act for repealing an act of the twelfth year of
his present Majesty, intituled “An act for repairing and widening the roads
from the confines of the county of Berwick, at or near Banghouse Walls, to
Comptor's Lanes and Eyemouth, and from the town of Eccles to Eyemouth,
and from the Whitelaw Muir to Comptor's Lanes, in the county of Berwick;”
and for repairing, widening, and amending, several roads, and for regulating
the statute labour in the said county of Berwick. 2
32 Geo. III., cap. 152.—An act for enlarging the term and powers of an
act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled
“An act to continue the term of two acts made in the twenty-sixth and
twenty-seventh years of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second,
for repairing several roads leading into the city of Glasgow, so far as the same
relate to the roads from the city of Glasgow, to Yoker Bridge, to Renfrew
Bridge, to the Three-Mile-House, to the town of Airdrie, and from the village
of Gorbals to the chapel of Cambuslang, in the counties of Lanark and Ren-
frew, so far as the said act relates to the road from the city of Glasgow to
Yoker Bridge; and for more effectually making, widening, repairing, and
keeping in repair, the said road and the road of communication, between the
said road from Glasgow to Yoker Bridge, and the canal from the Forth to
the Clyde. .
32 Geo. III., cap. 154.—An act for altering and enlarging the powers of
an act passed in the thirty-first year of the reign of his present Majesty, for
repairing the roads from Livingston, by the Kirk-of-Shotts, to the city of
Glasgow, and other roads therein mentioned, and for building a bridge over
the river Clyde, at or near Theevesfoord, and for opening and making certain
streets in and near the city of Glasgow; for altering a part of the high road
betwixt Fdinburgh and Glasgow, by carrying a new line of road to the north
of the hills, and another line of road by the south; and for straightening and
making the roads more convenient; as also for altering the road from the city
of Glasgow to the town of Hamilton, and for building a bridge over the river
Clyde, below the present old bridge called Bothwell Bridge; as also for
altering the road from the town of Hamilton eastward until it joins the
great road between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
33 Geo. III., cap. 120.-An act for making effectual the statute labour, and
for levying conversion money in lieu of labour in certain cases, and for other-
wise regulating, making, and repairing high roads and bridges in the county
of Caithness.
33 Geo. III., cap. 158.-An act for explaining, amending, and rendering
more effectual, an act passed in the twenty-ninth year of his present Majesty's
reign, for repairing certain roads in the county of Perth, and for making and
repairing the road from Crieff towards Stirling and Alloa, and other roads in
the said county.
33 Geo. III., cap. 160.-An act for completing, repairing, and maintain-
ing, the road leading from the city of Glasgow to Port Dundas, and from
Port Dundas to the high road leading from the city of Glasgow to Garscube
Bridge, by Dobbie's Loan, in the county of Lanark.
33 Geo. III., cap. 163.—An act for enlarging the terms and powers of two
acts of the twenty-third year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the
Second, and the ninth year of the reign of his present Majesty, for repairing
the high roads from Dunglass Bridge to the town of Haddington, and from
thence to Ravenshaugh Burn, in the county of Edinburgh, and for making,
amending, altering, widening, and keeping in repair, certain branches of the
said road within the said county. -
33 Geo. III., cap. 174.—An act for enlarging the term and powers of an
act passed in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty King
George the Second, intituled “An act for repairing several roads leading
into the city of Glasgow, and of another act passed in the twenty-seventh year
of the reign of his said late Majesty, to explain, amend, and render more
Q q
306 APPENDIX (A)
effectual the said act, and of another act passed in the fourteenth year of the
reign of his present Majesty, for enlarging the term and powers of two acts
made in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years of the reign of his late
Majesty King George the Second, for repairing several roads leading into the
city of Glasgow, so far as the same relate to the road leading from the said
city of Glasgow, through Cowcaddens, to that part of the water of Kelvin
called the Milnford of Garscube.
33 Geo. III., cap. 185.-An act for repairing and widening that part of the
road leading from Kelso towards the town of Selkirk, which lies to the east-
ward of the turnpike road leading from Jedburgh to Lauder, which crosses
the river Teviot near to the town of Kelso, and the road leading from Kelso
towards Coldstream, to the place where it joins the turnpike road leading
from Greenlaw to Coldstream, and from Kelso through Ednam to Orange
Lane, in the parish of Eccles, in the county of Berwick, and from the ford at
Newton-mill through Ednam to Edenfoot, and from Kelso to Cornhill, in the
county of Durham.
34 Geo. III., cap. 129.-An act for repairing the road from Stirling to
Dumbarton, and several other roads in the counties of Stirling, Dumbarton,
and Perth.
34 Geo. III., cap. 138.-An act for making and repairing several roads
leading across the county of Stirling.
34 Geo. III., cap. 139.-An act for making and repairing certain roads in
the counties of Clackmannan and Perth.
34 Geo. III., cap. 140.-An act to continue the terms of two acts made in
the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years of the reign of his late Majesty,
King George the Second, for repairing several roads leading into the city of
Glasgow, so far as the same relate to the roads from the city of Glasgow to
Yoker Bridge, to Renfrew Bridge, to the Three-Mile-House, to the town of
Airdrie, and from the village of Gorbals to the chapel of Cambuslang, in the
counties of Lanark and Renfrew, so far as respects the roads from the toll-
house in Paisley Lane, at the west side of the entry to the new bridge of
Glasgow, by or near Parkhouse, to the east end of the bridge at Renfrew, and
from Parkhouse to the Three-Mile-House, in the county of Lanark; and for
more effectually making, repairing, widening, and keeping in repair, the said
roads.
35 Geo. III., cap. 150,—An act to continue, extend, and enlarge, the term
and powers of an act passed in the thirty-second year of the reign of his pre-
sent Majesty, for making, amending, widening, and keeping in repair, the
roads from the new bridge over the water of Almond, on the confines of the
counties of Edinburgh and Linlithgow, by Bathgate to Baillieston, in the
county of Lanark, and certain branches of road from the said line of road, and
for the other purposes mentioned in the said act.
35 Geo. III., cap. 155.--An act for enlarging the term and powers of an
act passed in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King
George the Second, for repairing several roads leading into the city of Glas-
gow; and of another act passed in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of his
said late Majesty, to explain, amend, and render more effectual the said act;
and of another act passed in the sixth year of the reign of his present Ma-
jesty, to enlarge the term and powers of an act made in the twenty-sixth year
of the reign of King George the Second, for repairing several roads leading
into the city of Glasgow, so far as the same relates to the district of roads
from Inchbellie Bridge to Glasgow, and from Glasgow to Redburn bridge;
and for altering and ascertaining the course of the last-mentioned district of
road, so far as the same relate to the said road from Inchbellie Bridge to
Glasgow; and for more effectually making, repairing, widening, and keeping
in repair, the said road; and the road branching from the aforesaid road from
Inchbellie Bridge to Glasgow, and leading to Calder Bridge, and from thence
by or near Balmore, to or near the church of New Kilpatrick, and from
thence by or near Lawmuir to the town of Old Kilpatrick, beginning at the
APPENDIX (A.) 307
bridge across the Allander on the road from Longbank farm by Balmulie
Bridge to Glasgow on the east, and ending at the said town of Old Kilpa-
rick on the west, and the road branching from the aforesaid road from Inch-
bellie Bridge to Glasgow, and leading over Garngad-hill to Provan-Mill, and
to the present turnpike road leading to Cumbernauld.
35 Geo. III, cap. 161.-An act for making and repairing certain roads in
the county of Aberdeen.
36 Geo. III., cap. 132.-An act for making and repairing the roads from
the Bridge of Dee, southwards through the county of Kincardine, to or
near the town of Stonehaven, and from thence by Inverbervie and by
Laurence-kirk to the lower and upper bridges over the river North Esk,
and for making effectual the statute labour in the said county, and levying
conversion money in lieu of labour in certain cases, and otherwise regulating,
making, and repairing, high roads and bridges in the said county of Kin-
cardine.
36 Geo. III., cap. 134.—An act for continuing and enlarging the term and
powers of two acts made in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of his late
Majesty King George the Second, and the twelfth year of his present Majesty,
in as far as respects the road from North Queensferry in the county of Fife,
to the town of Perth, and more effectually making, repairing, and keeping in
repair, the said road, and the landing-places at the Queensferry.
36 Geo. III., cap. 139.-An act for amending and rendering more effectual
two acts made in the twenty-ninth and thirty-third years of the reign of his
present Majesty, for repairing certain roads in the county of Perth.
37 Geo. III., cap. 152.—An act for regulating and converting the statute
labour in the county of Fife; and for more effectually making and repairing
the highways within the said county.
37 Geo. III., cap. 153.−An act for more effectually making and repairing
certainroads in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and for amending an act made
in the twentieth year of the reign of his present Majesty, for repairing the
highways, bridges, and ferries, within the said stewartry.
37 Geo. III., cap. 161.—An act for enlarging the term and powers of so
much of an act passed in the thirty-fourth year of his present Majesty's
reign as relates to the road from the toll-house in Paisley Loan, at the west
side of the entry to the new bridge of Glasgow, by or near Park-house, to the
east end of the bridge at Renfrew.
37 Geo. III., cap. 162.-An act for enlarging the term and powers of several
acts made in the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, and thirtieth years of his late
Majesty's reign, and in the twenty-ninth and thirty-second years of his present
Majesty's reign, for making and repairing the roads from Gorbals of Glasgow
to Floakbridge and Easter Grange, in the county of Renfrew, and other
roads in the said county; and for making and repairing certain other roads
in the said county branching from or connecting with the roads mentioned
in the said acts.
37 Geo. III., cap. 164.—An act for amending and rendering more effectual
so much of two acts made in the twenty-ninth and thirty-third years of the
reign of his present Majesty, for making and repairing certain roads in the
county of Perth, as relates to the road from Perth to Crieff and the branches
thereof.
37 Geo. III., cap. 166.-An act for altering, amending, and enlarging, the
term and powers of an act made in the thirty-fourth year of his present
Majesty's reign, for making and repairing certain roads in the counties of
Clackmannan and Perth.
37 Geo. III., cap. 171.—An act for making and repairing the road from
Einross, in the county of Kinross, to Alloa, in the county of Clackmannan.
37 Geo. III., cap. 180.—An act for enlarging the term and powers of an
act passed in the thirtieth year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled “An
act for making and repairing the road from Newmiln Bridge by Foodie's Mill,
Inverkeithing, Aberdour, Kirkaldy, Gallatown, and Cameron Bridge, to

308 APPENDIX (A.)
Crail, and other roads in the county of Fife; and for making and repairing
other roads in the said county.”
38 Geo. III., cap. 9.-An act for repairing and widening several roads in
the county of Dumfries, to continue in force until the 1st day of May, 1819,
and from thence to the end of the then next session of Parliament, and for
converting the statute labour within the said county into money, and apply-
ing the same towards repairing the highways within the said county (5th
April, I798.)
38 Geo. III., cap. 20.-An act for continuing, for twenty-one years and
from thence to the end of the then next session of Parliament, the term and
altering the powers of two acts passed in the twenty-ninth and thirty-first
years of his present Majesty’s reign, for making and repairing the road from
the city of Glasgow, by Muirkirk, to the confines of the county of Ayr, and
other roads communicating therewith ; and the road from the village of Gor-
bals and new bridge of Glasgow, by the chapel of Cambuslang, till it joins the
roads from Hamilton, by Burnbank, towards Eaglesham, in the county of
Renfrew, and for building a bridge over the river Clyde at Dalmarnock or
Farme Ford (7th May, 1798.)
38 Geo. III., cap. 21.-An act for making and maintaining a road from near
Dinwoodie Green, in the county of Dumfries, to or near Elvanfoot, in the
county of Lanark (passed 7th May, 1798—Endurance, 21 years.)
38 Geo. III., cap. 24.—An act for more effectually repairing several roads
in the counties of Stirling, Dumbarton, and Perth—(7th May, 1798–21 years.)
38 Geo. III., cap. 36.—An act for altering the powers of two acts passed in
the thirty-second and thirty-fifth years of the reign of his present Majesty,
for making, amending, widening, and keeping in repair, the roads from the
new bridge over the water of Almond, on the confines of the counties of
Edinburgh and Linlithgow, by Bathgate to Baillieston, in the county of Lan-
ark, and certain branches of road from the said line of road, and for the other
purposes mentioned therein (26th May, 1798.)
38 Geo. III., cap. 45.-An act for enlarging the powers of, and rendering
more effectual several acts of, the twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth years of
his late Majesty's reign, and of the fourth and twenty-ninth years of his pre-
sent Majesty's reign, for repairing the high roads in the county of Edinburgh;
and for building bridges over the rivers south and north Esk, and the water
of Leith, in the said county (26th May, 1798.)
39 Geo.III., cap. 3.−An act for making and maintaining the road from or
near Whiteburn, in the county of Berwick, to the town of Kelso, in the
eounty of Roxburgh, to continue for twenty-one years, and from thence to the
end of the then next session of Parliament.
39 Geo. III., cap. 22.—An act for repairing several roads in the counties of
Dumfries and Roxburgh, to continue in force for twenty-one years, and from
thence to the end of the then next session of Parliament.
39 Geo. III., cap. 45.—An act for explaining and amending two acts passed
in the thirty-first and thirty-second years of the reign of his present Majesty,
for repairing the roads from Livingston by the Kirk-of-Shotts to the city of
Glasgow, and other roads therein mentioned.
39 Geo. III., cap. 46.—An act for making and repairing the road from
Dunkeld to Coupar-of-Angus by the bridge of Isla, and the road leading out
of the road between Dunkeld and Perth to the Boat at Caputh, by or through
the village of Stanley, in the county of Perth, to continue in force for twenty-
one years, and from thence to the end of the then next session of Parliament.
39 Geo. III., cap. 53.—An act for building a bridge over the river Tweed
at or near the town of Kelso, in the county of Roxburgh.
39 and 40 Geo. III., cap. 32.--An act for repealing an act passed in the
thirty-fifth year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled “An act for making
and repairing certain roads in the county of Aberdeen; and for the more ef-
fectually amending, widening, repairing, and keeping in repair, the said roads,
and other roads in the said county; and for levying conversion money

APPENDIX (A.) 309
in lieu of the statute labour, and otherwise regulating the making and repair-
ing the high roads and bridges in the said county (30th May, 1800–21 years.)
. .39 and 40 Geo. III., cap. 34.—An act for enlarging the powers of so much
of two acts made in the twenty-ninth and thirty-third years of the reign of
his present Majesty, for making and repairing certain roads in the county of
Perth, as relates to the roads from Perth to Cupar, or the neighbourhood
º towards Glammis, as far as the confines of the said county (30th
ay, 1800.
% and º Geo. III., cap. 52.—An act for explaining, amending, and con-
tinuing an act made in the fifteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty,
intituled “An act for repairing the highways and bridges in the shire of
Argyle” (20th June 1800–25 years.)
39 and 40 Geo. III., cap.63.−An act for continuing the term and enlarging
the powers of an act passed in the twenty-first year of the reign of his present
Majesty, for repairing and widening the road leading from the port of Borrow-
stounness, by the west of the burgh of Linlithgow, and by the towns of Tor-
phichen, Bathgate, and Whiteburn, and from thence southward to the con-
fines of the county of Linlithgow, at or near Toll-house-burn (20th June 1800
—21 years.
39 and † Geo. III., cap. 94.—An act for enlarging the term and powers
of so much of an act passed in the thirty-fourth year of his present Majesty’s
reign for repairing several roads leading into the city of Glasgow, as relates
to the road from Parkhouse to or near the Three-Mile-House, in the county of
Lanark (30th June 1800–21 years.)
41 Geo. III., cap. 17.—An act for levying conversion money in lieu of sta-
tute labour, and otherwise regulating, making, and repairing the high roads
in the county of Selkirk.
41 Geo. III., cap. 49.—An act for repairing and widening the roads from
Dumfries to Moffat, and from Grateny, by Annan, Dumfries, and Sanquhar,
to the confines of the county of Ayr, and several other roads in the counties of
Dumfries and Kirkcudbright.
42 Geo. III., cap. 40.—An act for making and maintaining a new road to
extend from or near to a place called Beattock, in the parish of Kirkpatrick
Juxta, in the county of Dumfries, by the boroughs of Lochmaben and Annan,
to the river of Sark, at or near to the present bridge there (30th April 1802
—21 years.)
42 Geo. III., cap. 55.—An act for repealing an act passed in the eighteenth
year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled “An act for repairing the high-
ways and bridges in the county of Wigtoun; and for the more effectually
amending, widening, altering, repairing, and keeping in repair, the road from
the high bridge of Cree, by Newton-Douglas, Glenluce, and Stranraer, to
Port-Fatrick, and from Stranraer to the confines of the county of Ayr, near
the Cairn of Lochryan; and for levying a conversion money in lieu of the
statute labour, and otherwise regulating the making and repairing the high
roads and bridges in the said county” (24th May 1802.)
42 Geo.III., cap. 97.—An act for making and repairing the road from
Causeway Head, near Stirling, through the county of Clackmannan, by the
foot of the Ochil Hills, and by of west Saline and Crossford, towards Queens-
ferry, and certain roads branching out of the same, and for converting the
statute labour in the said county of Clackmannan (22d June 1802.)
43 Geo. III., cap. 19.—An act for maintaining and repairing the road branch-
ing out of the turnpike road from Edinburgh to Greenlaw, and passing
through or near Thorney-dike, Westruther, Hardlaw, Bedshiell, or the Kaim
and Choicelee, to where it joins the turnpike road from Greenlaw to Dunse
—all in the county of Berwick.
43 Geo. III., cap. 33.—An act for enabling the most noble John Duke of
Athole and his heirs to build a bridge over the river Tay, at or near to the
town of Dunkeld, in the county of Perth, and make roads of communication
thereunto.
310 APPENDIX (A.)
43 Geo. III., cap. 34.—An act for enlarging and altering the powers of and
rendering more effectual several acts of the twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth
years of his late Majesty, and of the fourth, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth,
twenty-ninth, and thirty-eighth years of his present Majesty’s reign, for re-
pairing the turnpike and other high roads in the county of Edinburgh.
43 Geo. III., cap. 36.-An act for enlarging the term and powers of two
acts passed in the fourteenth and thirty-second years of his present Majesty's
reign, for more effectually making and repairing the road from the city of
Glasgow to Yoker Bridge, and the road of communication between the same,
and the canal from the Forth to the Clyde.
43 Geo. III., cap. 56—An act for regulating and converting the statute la-
bour in the county of Kinross, and for more effectually making and repair-
ing the highways within the said county.
43 Geo. III., cap. 96.-An act for making and repairing the road from
Greenock to Kelly Bridge, in the county of Renfrew, and a road branching
out of the same to Ailly Mill, in the same county (24th June 1803–21
ears.)
43 Geo. III., cap. 110.-An act for continuing the term and consolidating
into one act several acts relating to the road from Glasgow to Redburn
Bridge, and for making and repairing the road therein mentioned (4th July
1803—21 years.)
44 Geo. III., cap. 21.-An act for continuing the term and enlarging the
powers of so much of an act made in the twenty-ninth year of his present
Majesty, as relates to the road from Montrose to Brechin, in the county of
Forfar (3d May 1804–21 years.)
44, Geo. III., cap. 51.-An act for altering and amending several acts for
making and repairing turnpike roads in the county of Haddington, for amend-
ing other roads branching therefrom, and for rendering more effectual the
statute labour within the said county (29th June 1804–21 years.)
44 Geo. III., cap. 52.-An act for altering, amending, and consolidating
several acts for making and repairing turnpike roads in the counties of Ren-
frew, Lanark, and Ayr, repairing other roads branching therefrom, and amend-
ing an act passed in the thirty-second year of his present Majesty for making
effectual the statute labour in the county of Renfrew.
44 Geo. III., cap. 65.-An act for repealing an act passed in the forty-
third year of his present Majesty, intituled “An act for continuing the term
and consolidating into one act several acts relating to the road from Glasgow
to Redburn Bridge, and for making and repairing the road therein men-
tioned, and for granting other powers for the amendment and repair of the
said roads (29th June 1804–21 years.)
44 Geo. III., cap. 75.—An act for assessing the proprietors of lands in the
county of Inverness towards the expense of making and supporting such
roads and bridges therein as shall be approved of by the commissioners ap-
pointed by an act of the last session of Parliament for making roads and
building bridges in the Highlands of Scotland (3d July 1804.)
44 Geo. III., cap. 81.—An act for making and repairing certain roads in
the counties of Banff, Elgin, Aberdeen, and Inverness, for building bridges
over the river Spey, and for regulating the making and repairing the high
roads and bridges in the said county of Banff.
45 Geo. III., cap. 16.--An act for continuing the term and altering and
enlarging the powers of two acts passed in the thirty-fourth and thirty-
seventh years of his present Majesty for making and repairing certain roads
in the counties of Clackmannan and Perth, and for making and keeping in
..., several other roads communicating therewith (5th April 1805–21
years.
45 Geo. III., cap. 22.-An act for making and maintaining a road leading
from the limits of the counties of Edinburgh and Lanark to the burgh of
Lanark, in the county of Lanark (10th April 1805–21 years.)
45 Geo. III., cap. 26.-An act for assessing the proprietors of lands in the
APPENDIX (A). 3.11
county of Sutherland towards the expense of making and supporting such
roads and bridges therein as shall be approved of by the commissioners ap-
pointed by an act of the forty-third year of the reign of his present Majesty
for making roads and building bridges in the Highlands of Scotland; for
making a turnpike road from Portinleik to the Ord, and converting the
statute labour of the said county into money (11th April 1805–15 years.)
45 Geo. III., cap. 28.-An act for altering, amending, and consolidating
several acts for repairing turnpike roads in the county of Ayr; for repairing
other roads therein; and for making more effectual the statute labour in the
said county (17th May 1805–21 years.)
45 Geo. III., cap. 29.—An act for continuing the term and altering the
powers of so much of two acts made in the twelfth and thirty-second years of
his present Majesty as relate to the road from Ingliston Bridge by Biggar or
Leadhills, and to the confines of the county of Lanark, and for making and
maintaining a continuation of the said road from Dolphinton to the confines
of the county of Edinburgh (17th May 1805–21 years.)
45 Geo. III., cap. 40.-An act for assessing the proprietors of lands in the
county of Ross, and such parts of the counties of Cromarty and Nairn as lie
in the said county of Ross, towards the expense of making and supporting
such roads and bridges therein as shall be approved of by the commissioners
appointed by an act passed in the forty-third year of his present Majesty for
making roads and building bridges in the Highlands of Scotland (5th June
1805–15 years.)
45 Geo. III., cap. 46.-An act for making and repairing certain roads in the
county of Elgin and for levying a conversion in lieu of the statute labour,
and otherwise regulating the making and repairing the high roads and
bridges in the said county (5th June 1805–21 years.)
45 Geo. III., cap. 56.—An act to continue the term and alter and enlarge
the powers of an act made in the twenty-seventh year of his present Majesty
for repairing the road leading from Berwick-upon-Tweed by Aytoun Bridge
to Dunglass Bridge, and also the roads from Bilie Causeway and Preston
Bridge to join the said road at or near Cockburnspath Tower, in the county
of Berwick (27th June 1805–21 years.)
45 Geo. III., cap. 108.—An act for erecting toll-bars and levying toll-
duties on the road from Dunfermline to Nivingston in the counties of Fife
and Kinross, and for making a new turnpike road from Saline towards the
North Queensferry road, in the said county of Fife (10th July 1805–21 years.)
46 Geo.III., cap. 29.—An act to extend the provisions of so much of an act
passed in the thirty-ninth and fortieth years of his present Majesty as relates
to the repairing certain turnpike roads in the county of Aberdeen to other
roads within the said county (5th May 1806.)
46 Geo. III., cap. 48.—An act for more effectually repairing and amending
certain roads in the counties of Roxburgh and Berwick, and for better regu-
lating the statute labour and making and repairing the high roads and
bridges in the said county of Roxburgh (23d May 1806—endurance as to
tolls 21 years.)
46 Geo. III., cap. 58.—An act for maintaining a wooden bridge over the
River Clyde from the city of Glasgow to Hutchesontown in the county of
Lanark (9th June 1806–21 years.)
46 Geo. III., cap. 71.—An act for altering, amending, and consolidating
several acts, so far as the same relate to the road from Renfrew to Greenock,
and from Kilbarchan to Inchinnan Bridge, in the county of Renfrew (June
1806.)
46 Geo. III., cap. 138.—An act for assessing the proprietors of lands in
the county of Caithness towards the expense of supporting such roads and
bridges therein as shall be approved of by the commissioners for making
roads and building bridges in the Highlands of Scotland (1806.)
47 Geo. III., cap. 3.-An act for enlarging the powers of an act of the
312 APPENDIX. (a)
thirty-ninth year of his present Majesty for amending two acts of the twenty-
eighth and thirty-eighth years of his present Majesty, for enlarging and im-
proving the harbour of Leith, for making certain new streets and roads, and
rººs others adjacent to, and connected with, the said harbour (25th July
1807. -
47 Geo. III., cap. 11.—An act for repairing and maintaining certain roads
in the * of Dumbarton, and building bridges thereon (25th July 1807–
21 years.
47 Geo. III., cap. 12.-An act for further regulating and converting the
statute labour of the county of Fife, and for more effectually making and re-
# the highways, bridges, and ferries, within the said county (29th April
1807.
47 Geo. III., cap. 20.—An act for repairing and keeping in repair several
roads in the county of Perth (25th July 1807–21 years.) -
47 Geo. III., cap. 45.—An act for amending an act of the twelfth year of
his present Majesty for repairing and widening several roads through the
county of Lanark, and for building a bridge over the River Clyde at or near
a place called the Howford in the said county, and for making more effectual
and converting the statute labour within the said county, and for repairing
and regulating the roads within the same (1st August 1807.)
48 Geo. III., cap. 17.-An act for regulating the statute labour and re-
pairing the highways and bridges in the county of Dumbarton.
48 Geo. III., cap. 41.—An act for building a bridge over the river Ness at
Inverness, &c.
48 Geo. III., cap. 54.—An act to continue the term and enlarge the
powers of an act for repairing the road from Kinross, in the county of Kin-
ross, to Alloa, in the county of Clackmannan.
48 Geo. III., cap. 105.—An act for continuing, altering, and enlarging the
powers of so much of an act of his present Majesty as relates to making
effectual the statute labour in the shire of Inverness, and levying a conver-
sion of money in lieu thereof, and otherwise regulating, making, and repair-
ing highways and bridges in the said shire.
48 Geo. III., cap. 112.—An act to continue the term and enlarge the
powers of two acts for repairing the road from Lauder, in the shire of Ber-
wick, to and through Kelso, in the shire of Roxburgh, to the March Burn.
49 Geo. III., cap. 30.-An act for maintaining and repairing the road
leading from the city of Glasgow, through Cowcaddens, to that part of the
river of Kelvin called the Milnford of Garscube (28th April 1809–21 years.)
49 Geo. III., cap 31.—An act for more effectually making and repairing
the Great North Road leading from North Queensferry, in the county of Fife, .
to the city of Perth, and to the town of Dunfermline (28th April 1809.)
49 Geo. III., cap. 32.-An act for altering an act passed in the forty-fifth
year of his present Majesty for repairing roads in the county of Ayr (28th
April 1809.)
49 Geo. III., cap. 36.—An act for repairing and amending certain roads in
the county of Peebles, and for better regulating the statute labour within the
same (12th May 1809—21 years.) *
49 Geo. III., cap. 37.-An act for rendering more effectual several acts
for repairing the turnpike and other high roads in the county of Edinburgh,
and for repairing the roads from the city of Edinburgh to the town of Leith
(12th May 1809.)
49 Geo. III., cap. 38.—An act for more effectually making and repairing
the road from Carlowrie Bridge on the river Almond to Linlithgow Bridge,
on the river Avon, and other roads in the county of Linlithgow (12th May
1809—21 years.)
49 Geo. III., cap. 160.-An act to continue and amend several acts for re-
pairing roads in the county of Dumfries, and converting the statute labour
within the said county into money (1809.) -- - _'-
APPENDIx (A.) 313
50 Geo. III., cap. 16.-An act for continuing the term and altering the
powers of an act made in the thirty-fourth year of his present Majesty for
making and repairing several roads leading across the county of Stirling.
50 Geo. III., cap, 50.-An act to amend an act passed in the thirty-second
year of his present Majesty for building a bridge over the river South Esk,
at or near Montrose. -
50 Geo. III., cap, 69–An act for better regulating the statute labour
within the county of Stirling.
50 Geo. III., cap. 72.—An act for more effectually making and repairing,
certain roads in the counties of Fife, Kinross, Perth, and Clackmannan.
50 Geo. III., cap. 87-An act for maintaining a bridge across the river
Beauley, to be called the Lovat Bridge, in the county of Inverness.
50 Geo. III., cap. 129.-An act for better regulating the statute labour in
the county of Forfar. -
50 Geo. III., cap. 121.-An act for more effectually repairing the roads in
the county of Forfar. -
50 Geo. III., cap. 189.-An act to amend and enlarge the powers of an act
passed in the forty-fifth year of his present Majesty, for assessing the pro-
prietors of lands in the county of Ross towards the expense of making and
supporting certain roads and bridges therein, and of an act passed in the
forty-seventh year of his present Majesty for regulating and converting the
statute labour in the counties of Ross and Cromarty, and part of the county
of Nairn locally situated in the county of Ross. -
51 Geo. III., cap. 38.-An act for building and maintaining a bridge over
the Water of Toon, which runs between the parishes of Ayr and Maybole,
in the county of Ayr (6th May, 1811—endurance, as long as the act of the
forty-fifth year of Geo. III. for repairing roads in Ayrshire.)
51 Geo. III., cap. 39–An act for building a bridge over the river North
Esk, near the village of Marykirk, in the county of Kincardine (6th May,
1811.)
51 Geo. III., cap. 40.—An act for more effectually repairing certain roads
in the county of Berwick, and for building a bridge over the river Whitadder,
in the said county (6th May 1811–21 years.) * ,
51. Geo. III., cap 41.-An act to continue and enlarge the term and powers
of two acts of his present Majesty for repairing the road leading from Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed by Ayton Bridge to Douglas Bridge, and the roads from
Bailie Causeway and Preston Bridge to join the said road at or near Cock-
burnspath Tower, in the county of Berwick (6th May 1811–21 years.)
51 Geo. III., cap. 63.−An act for rendering more effectual several acts for
repairing the turnpike road from Cramond Bridge to the town of Queens-
ferry, in the county of Linlithgow, and for altering and repairing the high
road leading from the west end of the town of Queensferry to the town of
Linlithgow (14th May 1811—21 years.) -
51 Geo.III., cap. 70.—An act for erecting and maintaining a bridge over
#. river gº near Garion and Dalserf, in the county of Lanark (14th
ay 1811.
51 Geo. III., cap. 101,–An act for more effectually repairing and improv-
ing certain roads in the county of Stirling, and the road from or near from
the west end of the town of Linlithgow to Stirling, in the counties of Lin-
lithgow and Stirling (21st May 1811–21 years.)
51 Geo. III., cap. 127.-An act for more effectually making and repairing
certain roads in the county of Haddington, and for rendering more effectual
the statute labour in the said county (25th May 1811–21 years.)
51 Geo. III., cap. 197—An act for regulating and converting the statute
services in the county of Perth, and for more effectually making and regulat-
ing º highways, bridges, and ferries, within the said county (26th June
1811,
51 Geo. III., cap. 198.-An act for more effectually repairing and main-
• R T
314 APPENDIX (A.)
taining certain roads and bridges in the county of Perth (26th June 1811–21
€a.I’S,
52 Geo. III, cap. 55-An act for enlarging the terms and powers of seve-
ral acts for making and repairing certain roads in the county of Renfrew,
building a bridge or bridges at Inchinnan, and regulating the statute labour
of the said county, and for other purposes relative thereto.
52 Geo.III., cap. 79.-An act for amending two acts passed in the fifty-first
year of his present Majesty for more effectually repairing and maintaining
certain roads and bridges in the county of Perth, and for regulating and con-
verting the statute services in the said county, and more effectually making
and regulating the highways, bridges, and ferries, within the same.
52 Geo. III., cap. 91—An act for more effectually repairing and maintain-
ing certain roads in the counties of Perth and Forfar. -
53 Geo. III., cap. 13.—An act for continuing the term and altering and
enlarging the powers of an act made in the thirty-second year of his present
Majesty for making and repairing the road from the town of Lanark to the
town of Hamilton, in the county of Lanark (23d March 1813–21 years.)
53 Geo. III., cap. 39.-An act for amending an act passed in the forty-first
year of his present Majesty respecting the high roads in the county of Sel-
kirk (15th April 1813.)
53 Geo. III., cap. 46.-An act to continue the term and alter the powers
of several acts of the thirty-fourth, thirty-seventh, and forty-fifth years of his
Majesty's reign, for repairing several roads in the counties of Clackmannan
and Perth (15th April 1813–21 years.) -
53 Geo. III., cap. 63.−An act for altering, amending, and enlarging the
powers of several acts for making and repairing certain roads leading into
the city of Glasgow, so far as they relate to that part of the road from the city
of Glasgow to the town of Dumbarton which leads from Yoker Bridge to
the town of Dumbarton (1st May 1813–21 years.)
53 Geo. III., cap. 136.-An act to amend and enlarge the powers of an act
passed in the forty-fifth year of his present Majesty for assessing the pro-
prietors of lands in the county of Ross towards the expense of making and
supporting certain roads and bridges therein, and of an act passed in the .
forty-seventh year of his present Majesty for regulating and converting the
statute labour in the counties of Ross and Cromarty, and part of the county
of Nairn locally situated in the county of Ross, and of an act passed in the
fiftieth year of his present Majesty for amending and enlarging the powers
of the two first-mentioned acts (3d June 1813.)
54 Geo. III., cap. 198.-An act to explain and amend so much of an act
passed in the thirty-third year of his present Majesty as relates to building
a bridge over the river Clyde, opposite to the Saltmarket, in the city of
Glasgow, &c. (14th July 1814.)
54 Geo. III., cap. 199.—An act for altering, amending, and enlarging an
act passed in the tenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled
“An act for building a bridge over the river Clyde, near the town of Hamil-
ton, in the county of Lanark, and for making and repairing certain roads
and avenues leading to the same; and for building and maintaining in
place thereof another bridge over the river Clyde, farther up the river; and
a bridge over the river Avon, near its junction with the said river Clyde;
with the necessary roads and avenues to and from both bridges (14th July
1814–21 years.)
54 Geo.III., cap. 200.-An act to continue and amend an act passed in
the thirty-third year of his present Majesty for making and maintaining the
road leading from the city of Glasgow to Port-Dundas, and from Port-Dun-
das to the high road leading from the city of Glasgow to Garscube Bridge,
by Dobbies' Loan, in the county of Lanark (14th July 1814.) º
54 Geo.III., cap. 202.-An act for repealing several acts passed for making
and repairing the road from Livingston, by the Kirk-of-Shotts, to the city

APPENDIX (A.) 315
of Glasgow, and certain roads connected therewith, and for making further
and other provisions for maintaining and repairing the said roads (14th July
1814–21 years.)
54 Geo.III., cap. 215.—An act for more effectually repairing and main-
taining certain roads and bridges in the county of Lanark (23d July 1814–
21 years.) -
54 Geo. III., cap. 232.-An act to alter and amend so much of an act made
in the fiftieth year of his present Majesty for repairing the roads in the
county of Forfar, as relates to the road from Dundee to Cupar, with its
branch to Meigle (30th July 1814)
55 Geo. III, cap. 34.—An act for more effectually repairing the road from
Stirling to Dumbarton, and several other roads in the counties of Stirling,
Dumbarton, and Perth (2d May 1815–21 years.)
56 Geo. III., cap. 42.-An act to alter and amend two acts of the forty-
third and forty-ninth years of his present Majesty in regard to the statute
labour of the middle district of the county of Edinburgh, &c. (31st May
1816.)
56 Geo. III., cap. 50.—An act for altering and amending an act of the
forty-fifth year of his present Majesty for making and maintaining a road
leading from the limits of the counties of Edinburgh and Lanark into the
burgh of Lanark, with a branch towards Ravenstruther, in the county of
Lanark (31st May 1816–21 years.)
56 Geo. III., cap. 70.—An act for making and maintaining highways,
roads, bridges, and quays, and for regulating ferries in the shire of Argyle;
and for altering and repairing certain military and other roads, bridges, and
quays, in the said shire, and in the parish of Arrochar and shire of Dumbar-
ton (20 June 1816–25 years.)
56 Geo. III., cap. 75.-An act for more effectually repairing and main-
taining the road from Borrowstounness, by the west of Linlithgow, and by
Torphichen, Bathgate, and Whiteburn, to the confines of the county of
Linlithgow, at or near Hollhouse-burn; and for making and maintaining a
sº road from Borrowstounness to the river Avon (24th June 1816–21
years.
56 Geo. III., cap. 83.—An act for improving the road from the city of
Glasgow to the city of Carlisle (1st July 1816–21 years.)
57 Geo. III., cap. 43.−An act to continue and amend an act made in the
forty-second year of his present Majesty for repairing the road from Cause-
way-head, near Stirling, through the county of Clackmannan, towards Queens-
ferry, * certain roads branching out of the same (16th June 1817–21
CarS.
y 57 Geo. III., cap. 52.--An act for more effectually repairing the road from
Bridge of Dee southward through the county of Kincardine to Stonehaven ;
and from thence, by Inverbervie and by Laurencekirk, to the lower and
upper bridges over the river North Esk; and for making and repairing other
roads in the said county (16th June 1817–21 years.)
58 Geo. III., cap. 3–An act for extending the powers of an act passed in
the forty-fifth year of the reign of his present Majesty for repairing roads in
the county of Ayr (17th March 1818.)
58 Geo. III., cap. 10.—An act for making more effectual provision for pay-
ment of the debt due by the Trustees for turnpike roads in the county of
Peebles, and for other purposes connected therewith (17th May 1818–21
ears.) -
58 Geo. III., cap. 27.—An act for altering and enlarging the terms and
powers of certain acts in so far as the same relate to the road leading from
the toll-house in Paisley Lane, at the west side of the entry to the new
bridge of Glasgow, by or near Parkhouse, to the east end of the bridge at
Renfrew (8th May 1818–21 years.)
58 Geo. III., cap. 71–An act for more effectually converting into money
316 APPENDIX (A.)
the statute labour in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, for repairing the high-
ways, bridges, and ferries therein; and for making and maintaining certain
turnpike roads within the said stewartry (23d May 1818–21 years.)
59 Geo. III., cap. 57.-An act for more effectually making and maintain-
ing certain turnpike roads in the county of Elgin, and for more effectually
converting into money the statute labour in the said county for repairing the
highways and bridges therein (14 June 1819–21 years.)
59 Geo. III., cap. 59.-An act for continuing, altering, and enlarging, the
terms and powers of several acts, for making and maintaining certain roads
in the counties of Lanark, Ayr, and Renfrew, and building a bridge over the
river Clyde at Dalmarnock, and for making and maintaining a road from the
confines of the county of Ayr towards Sanquhar, in the county of Dumfries
(14th June 1819–21 years.)
59 Geo. III., cap. 90.- An act for altering and amending two acts passed
in the fifty-sixth and fifty-eighth years of the reign of his present Majesty
for improving the road from the city of Glasgow to the city of Carlisle (14th
June 1849.)
59 Geo. III., cap. 110.-An act for making and maintaining certain turn-
pike roads within the county of Dumfries, and the other highways, bridges,
and ferries therein, and for more effectually converting into money the sta-
tute labour in the said county (21st June 1819–21 years.)
59 Geo. III., cap. 123.—An act for making and maintaining several roads
in the counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk (2d July 1819–21 years.)
60 Geo. III. and I Geo. IV., cap. 4.—An act to amend an act made in the
fifty-ninth year of his late Majesty for making and maintaining certain
turnpike roads within the county of Dumfries, and the other highways,
bridges, and ferries therein, and for more effectually converting into money
the statute labour in the said county.
1 Geo. IV., cap. 27.-An act to enlarge the term and powers of an act
passed in the thirty-ninth and fortieth years of his late Majesty for making
and repairing the road from the town of Stonehaven, through the Slug
Mount, to the new bridge over the river Dee at Coble Heugh, in the county
of Kincardine (22d June 1820–21 years.)
1 Geo. IV., cap. 29.-An act to continue and enlarge the terms and powers
of an act of the thirty-ninth year of the reign of his late Majesty for mak-
ing and maintaining the road from or near Whiteburn, in the county of Ber-
wick, to the town of Kelso, in the county of Roxburgh (22d June 1820–21
ears.) --
y 1 Geo. IV., cap. 47.-An act for maintaining and repairing the military
roads in the county of Perth, and the several branches or roads of communi- '
gation therewith connected (30th June 1820–21 years.)
1 Geo. IV., cap. 50.—An act for taking down the old bridge, and for erect-
ing and maintaining a new bridge over the river Earn, in the parish of Dum-
barney and shire of Perth (8th July 1820.)
1 Geo. IV., cap. 67.—An act for more effectually repairing and maintain-
ing several roads in the counties of Stirling, Dumbarton, Lanark, and Perth
(8th July 1820–21 years.) -
l Geo. IV., cap. 74.—An act for more effectually repairing and maintain-
ing certain roads in the counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh (8th July 1820–
21 years.)
1 Geo. IV., cap. 83.−An act to explain and amend an act for amending
and consolidating several acts for making and repairing turnpike roads in
the counties of Renfrew, Lanark, and Ayr (15th July 1820.)
I Geo. IV., cap. 84.—An act for making and maintaining certain roads
ind bridges in the counties of Lanark and Dumbarton (15th July 1820–21
years.)
! Geo. IV., cap. 85.-An act for making and maintaining a road leading
through the parishes of Nairn and Auldearn, in the county of Nairn, and for
APPENDIX (A) 317
converting and regulating the statute labour of the said county (15th July
1820–21 years.)
1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 23.−An act for more effectually converting into
money the statute labour of the county of Sutherland, and for more effectu-
ally making and maintaining roads therein to which the statute labour is ap-
plicable, and increasing the amount of bridge money leviable within the
$8 bine. -
1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 28–An act to consolidate an act for making and
repairing the road leading from North Queensferry, in the county of Fife, to
the city of Perth and to the town of Dunfermline, with an act for making
and repairing certain roads in the counties of Fife, Kinross, Perth, and
Clackmannan (19th April 1821.)
1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 53.—An act for more effectually making, maintain-
ing, and repairing certain roads in the county of Aberdeen, and in the coun-
ties of Banff and Kincardine (7th May 1821–21 years.)
1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 87.-An act for enlarging, explaining, and continu-
ing certain acts of his late Majesty's reign for repairing and keeping in re-
pair the road from Parkhouse to or near the Three-Mile-House in the county
of Lanark (28th May 1821–21 years.)
1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 120.-An act for erecting a bridge over the river
Almond, which divides the counties of Edinburgh and Linlithgow (23d June
1821—21 years.)
1 and 2 Geo. IV., cap. 127.-An act for enlarging, explaining, and amend-
ing the powers granted by certain acts passed for improving the road from
the city of Glasgow to the city of Carlisle (2d July 1821.)
3 Geo. IV., cap. 17.-An act for altering and enlarging the terms and
powers of certain acts, so far as the same relate to the roads from Inchbellie
Bridge to Glasgow, and leading over Garngad-Hill to Proven-Mill, and other
roads branching therefrom or connected therewith (15th May 1822–21
years.)
3 Geo. IV., cap. 45.—An act for more effectually repairing and maintain-
ing the district of roads in the county of Edinburgh termed the Leith Walk
district, and for other purposes relating thereto, and for altering and increas-
ing the conversions and defining the bounds of the middle district of roads
in the said county (15th May 1822.)
3 Geo. IV., cap. 110.—An act for making certain roads in the counties of
Lanark, Stirling, and Dumbarton (26th July 1822–21 years.)
4 Geo. IV., cap. 26.—An act for continuing the term and powers of an act
passed in the forty-second year of the reign of his late Majesty King George
the Third, for repealing an act for repairing the highways and bridges in the
county of Wigton, and for other purposes in the said act mentioned (12th
May 1823–21 years.) -
4 Geo. IV., cap. 49 (Public act.)—An act for regulating turnpike roads in
that part of Great Britain called Scotland (4th July 1823.)
4 Geo. IV., cap. 112.—An act for making and repairing certain roads from
Redrow to Peathill, in the county of Stirling (17th June 1823–21 years.)
5 Geo. IV., cap. 107.-An act for making and maintaining a road from the
city of Glasgow to the village of Parkhead (3d June 1824–21 years.)
5 Geo. IV., cap. 111.-An act for more effectually making and repairing
the road from the city of Glasgow to Yoker Bridge, and certain roads com-
municating therewith (4th June 1824–21 years.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 16.--An act for repairing and maintaining the road from
Whiteburn, upon the turnpike road from Edinburgh to Greenlaw, passing
through Thorneydike and Westruther, to Choicelea, upon the turnpike road
from Greenlaw to Dunse, all in the county of Berwick (24th March 1825–
21 years. -
Gºrv., cap. 41.—An act for maintaining and improving the road from
Deanburn, in the county of Haddington, through Greenlaw, in the county of
Berwick, to Cornhill, in the county of Durham, with branches from Carfrae
318 APPENDIX (A.)
Mill through Lauder, from Orange Lane to Swinton-Mill, and from Cold-
stream to Mount-Pleasant, all in the county of Berwick, and for maintaining
the bridge over the river Tweed at Coldstream (2d May 1825–21 3.”
6 Geo. IV., cap. 59.-An act for building a bridge over the river Don,
near the village of Balgownie or Polgownie, in the parish of Old Machar
and county of Aberdeen (20th May 1825.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 108.—An act for amending and continuing several acts for
repairing roads in the county of Renfrew (10th June 1825–21 years.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 109.-An act for more effectually making, maintaining,
and repairing, certain roads in the counties of Banff, Aberdeen, and Elgin,
and for ºurs bridges over the rivers Spey and Dovern (10th June 1825–
21 years.
6 Geo. IV., cap. 110.—An act to amend certain acts for making and main-
taining roads, and converting the statute labour, in the counties of Ross and
Cromarty and part of Nairn locally situate in the county of Ross (10th June
1825–21 years.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 126.-An act to amend two acts for building a bridge
over the river South Esk, at or near the town of Montrose, in the county of
Forfar (10th June 1825.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 140.—An act for regulating the conversion of the statute
labour within the barony of Gorbals, in the city of Glasgow and county of
Lanark (10th June 1825.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 190.-An act for making and maintaining a road from the
Glasgow and Parkhead road to Woodend, in the county of Lanark (27th
June, 1825–21 years.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 191.-An act for making and maintaining the road from
Glasgow to Redburn Bridge, and certain other roads in the counties of Stir-
ling, Dumbarton, and Lanark (27th June 1825–21 years.)
6 Geo. IV., cap. 192.—An act for more effectually amending and keeping
in repair the road leading from or near the church of New Kilpatrick, by
Law Muir, to the town of Old Kilpatrick, in the county of Dumbarton (27th
June 1825–21 years.) '
7 Geo. IV., cap. 69.—An act for regulating and converting the statute
labour in the county of Kinross, and for more effectually making and repair-
ing the highways within the said county (5th May 1826.)
7 Geo. IV., cap. 107.—An act for widening and improving the Bridge of
Irvine, for making streets communicating thereto, &c. (26th May 1826.)
7 Geo. IV., cap. 128.—An act for making, amending, widening, repairing,
and keeping in repair, certain roads in the county of Forfar (26th May, 1826
—21 years.)
7 Geo. IV., cap. 133.−An act for making a road from the foot of the Salt-
market of Glasgow to the Kilmarnock or Cathcart turnpike road, and for
building a bridge in the line thereof across the river Clyde from Glasgow to
Hutchinsontown (26th May 1826–21 years.)
7 and 8 Geo. IV., cap. 32.—An act for explaining and amending three
acts for building a bridge across the river Clyde from the city of Glasgow to
the village of Gorbals, and for repairing, widening, and enlarging, the old
bridge across the said river from the said city to the said village, and for
other purposes therein mentioned (28th May 1827.)
7 and 8 Geo. IV., cap. 51.-An act for amending, improving, and main-
taining in repair, the road between the point at which the great roads from
the city of Carlisle to the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively
separate, and Weslington Bridge in the county of Cumberland (28th May
1827–21 years.)
7 and 8 Geo. IV., cap 96.-An act for altering and maintaining the road
from Stirling to Drymen Bridge, in the counties of Stirling and Perth (14th
June 1827–21 years.)
7 and 8 Geo. IV., cap. 97.—An act for amending an act of the fourth year
of the reign of his present Majesty for making and repairing certain roads
APPENDIX (A.) . 3.19
from Redrow to Peathill, in the county of Stirling, and for making and main-
taining certain new roads connected therewith (14th June 1827–21 years.)
7 and 8 Geo. IV., cap. 109.-An act for repairing and keeping in repair
the turnpike roads in the county of Ayr, for making and maintaining certain
new roads, for rendering turnpike certain parish roads, and for regulating
the statute labour in the said county (21st June 1827–21 years.)
9 Geo. IV., cap. 82.-An act for more effectually making, amending,
widening, repairing, and maintaining, certain roads and bridges in the county
of Dumbarton (23d May 1828–21 years.) -
9 Geo. IV., cap. 87.—An act for making and maintaining a road from
Wilsontown Iron-works to the road leading from Edinburgh to Ayr by West
Calder and Allanton, in the county of Lanark (23d May 1828–2i years.)
9 Geo. IV., cap. 102.-An act to amend certain acts for making and main-
taining roads, and converting the statute labour, in the counties of Ross and
Cromarty and part of Nairn locally situated in the county of Ross (19th June
1828–18 years.)
9 Geo. IV., cap. 104.—An act for more effectually making, amending,
widening, repairing, and maintaining, certain roads in the counties of Rox-
burgh and Berwick (19th June 1828–21 years.)
9 Geo. IV., cap. 109.-An act for more effectually repairing several roads
leading through the county of Selkirk, and for better making and repairing
the said roads and other roads in the said county, and in the vicinity thereof
(19th June 1828–21 years.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 43.—An act for erecting a bridge over the river Dee, at
the Craiglug, in the parish of Old Machar in the county of Aberdeen, and
of Nigg in the county of Kincardine, and for making a road from Cairnrobin,
by the said bridge toward the city of Aberdeen (14th May 1829–31 years.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 54.—An act for making and repairing the road from the
bridge over the river Cowie, near Stonehaven, to the road along the south
bank of the river Dee, at or near to Parkhead or Millbank or Maryculter, in
the county of Kincardine (14th May 1829–31 years.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 58.—An act for making and repairing the road from Lin-
lithgow Bridge to Stirling, and other roads in the county of Stirling (14th
May 1829–31 years.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 60.—An act for more effectually making, amending,
widening, repairing, and maintaining, the road from Scots Dyke in the county
of Dumfries by or through the towns of Langholm and Hawick to Haremoss,
in the county of Roxburgh (14th May 1829–31 years.) - *** *
10 Geo. IV., cap. 61.-An act for more effectually making, amending,
widening, repairing, and maintaining, the Great North Roads leading from
the North Queensferry and from the harbour of Burntisland, both in the
county of Fife, by Kinross to the city of Perth, and also the road from the
said North Queensferry to the town of Dunfermline (14th May 1829–31
years.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 66.-An act for more effectually making, amending, im-
proving, widening, repairing, and maintaining, the road from Lauder, in the
shire of Berwick, to and through Kelso, in the shire of Roxburgh, to the
March-burn (14th May 1829–31 years.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 71.-An act for further regulating the statute labour and
repairing the highways and bridges in the county of Dumbarton (22d May,
1829.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 84.—An act for repairing and keeping in repair the turn-
pike roads in the county of Fife, for rendering turnpike certain statutelabour
and parish roads, and for making and maintaining certain new roads in the
said county (22d May 1829–31 years.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 91.-An act for repairing and keeping in repair the road
from Kinross, in the county of Kinross, to Alloa, in the county of Clackman-
nan (22d May 1829–31 years.)
320 APPENDIX (A.)
10 Geo. IV., cap. 111.—An act for making and maintaining certain turn-
pike roads within the county of Dumfries, and the other highways, bridges,
and ferries therein, and for more effectually converting into money the statute
labour in the said county (lst June 1829–31 years.) As
10 Geo. IV., cap. 112.-An act to alter, and amend, and continue, an act
passed in the first year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An act
for making and maintaining certain roads and bridges in the counties of
Lanark and Dumbarton” (1st June 1829–31 years.)
11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV., cap. 77.—An act for further regulating the
statute labour and repairing the highways and bridges in the county of
Peebles (29th May 1830.)
11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV., cap. 78.—An act for making and maintaining
roads, bridges, and ferries; and for converting, regulating, and making ef-
fectual, the statute labour in the county of Inverness (29th May 1830.)
11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV., cap. 102.—An act for making, repairing,
widening, and keeping in repair, certain roads and bridges in the county of
Caithness, and for better regulating and rendering more effectual the statute
labour in the said county and conversion money in lieu thereof (29th May
1830.)
ll Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV., cap. 108.—An act for more effectually re-
pairing and keeping in repair the turnpike roads in the county of Peebles,
for making and maintaining certain new roads, and for rendering turnpike cer-
tain parish roads in the said county (29th May, 1830—31 years.)
11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV., cap. 109.—An act for more effectually re-
pairing and keeping in repair the road from Cramond Bridge to the town of
Queensferry, the road leading westward therefrom through Dalmeny to
IEchline, and the road from the west end of the said town of Queensferry to
the town of Linlithgow, in the county of Linlithgow (29th May 1830—31
years.
y 11 & IV. and 1 Will. IV., cap. 128.—An act for maintaining and re-
pairing the road leading from the city of Glasgow through Cowcaddens to
the north end of the bridge over that part of the river of Kelvin, called the
TMilnford of Garscube, and for making, repairing, and maintaining, the road
leading from Blackquarry Toll-bar, by Possil, to the bridge across the river
Allander at Langbank, in the counties of Lanark and Stirling (17th June 1830
—31 years.)
11 Geo. IV. and I Will. IV., cap. 129.—An act for re-building the bridges
over the rivers Spey and Findhorn, for making accesses thereto, and for
making and maintaining certain new roads in the county of Elgin (17th June
1830—31 years.) -
11 Geo. IV. and 1 Will. IV., cap. 138.-An act for amending and continu-
ing an act for repairing roads in the county of Renfrew, and for altering the
line of road between Glasgow and Kilmarnock, in the said county (16th
July 1830—31 years.)
1 Will. IV., cap. 43.—An act for more effectually making and repairing
the road from the New Bridge over the Water of Almond, on the con-
fines of the counties of Edinburgh and Linlithgow, to Baillieston in the county
of Lanark, and certain branch roads connected therewith (30th March 1831.)
1 Will. IV., cap. 64.—An act for more effectually repairing and keeping
in repair the road from Carlowrie Bridge on the river Almond to Linlith-
gow Bridge on the river Avon, and other roads in the county of Linlithgow
(22d April 1831—31 years.)
1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 9.—An act to alter and amend an act passed in the
sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King George the Fourth, for re-
gulating the conversion of statute labour within the barony of Gorbals, in the
city of Glasgow and county of Lanark (30th July 1831.)
1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 38.—An act for making and repairing certain
roads leading across the county of Stirling, and other roads in the said county
(2d August 1831.)
APPENDIx (A.) 321
1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 43. (Public act.)—An act for amending and
making more effectual the laws concerning turnpike roads in Scotland (15th
October 1831.) 4– -
1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 61.—An act for more effectually making, amend-
ing, widening, repairing, and keeping in repair, certain roads in the county
of Forfar (23d August 1831—31 years.) -- -
1 and 2 Will. IV., cap, 71.-An act for more effectually making and re-
pairing certain roads in the counties of Fife, Kinröss, Perth, and Clackman-
nán (6th September 1831—31 years.) -
2 and 3 Will. IV., cap. 42. –An act to alter and amend an act passed in
the eleventh year of the reign of his late Majesty, King George the Fourth;
for rebuilding the bridges over the rivers Spey and Findhorn; for making
accesses thereto; and for making and maintaining certain new roads in the
county of Elgin, in so far as the same regards the bridge over the river Spey,
near Fochabers, in the said county of Elgin (23d May 1832.) -
2 and 3 Will. IV., cap. 56.—An act for more effectually repairing, amend-
ing, and maintaining, certain roads and bridges in the county of Berwick (23d
May 1832—31 years.) -
2 and 3 Will. IV., cap. 82.-An act for more effectually making, main-
taining, and repairing, certain roads, with the necessary bridges thereon, in
the counties of Perth, Stirling, and Forfar (6th June 1832—31 years.) º
2 and 3 Will. IV., cap. 100,—An act for amending and enlarging the .
powers and renewing the term granted by certain acts passed for improving
the communication between the city of Glasgow and the city of Carlisle (23d
June 1832—31 years.
2 and 3 Will. IV., cap. 101,–An act for amending and continuing the acts
relating to the road from Elvanfoot, in the county of Lanark, to Beattock
Bridge, in the county of Dumfries (23d June 1832.)
3 and 4 Will. IV., cap. 109.--An act for repairing, amending, and main-
taining, the turnpike roads in the county of Haddington, for rendering turn-
pike certain statute labour and parish roads, and for more effectually collect-
ing and applying the statute labour in the said county (28th June 1833.)
3 and 4 Will. IV., cap. 116.—An act for renewing and extending the terms
of the acts relating to the Greenock and Renfrew, and Greenock and Kelly,
Bridge roads, in the county of Renfrew (24th July 1833–31 years.)
4 and 5 Will. IV., cap. 30.-An act for better maintenance, improvement,
and repair, of the road from Livingston, by Shotts, to the city of Glasgow;
and the making and maintaining certain roads connected therewith (22d
May 1834–31 years.) •
4 and 5 Will. IV., cap. 39.-An act to alter and amend an act of the 9th
year of the reign of his late Majesty, intituled “An act for more effectually
repairing several roads leading through the county of Selkirk, and for better
making and repairing the said roads and other roads in the said county, and
in the vicinity thereof.” (16th June 1834–31 years.)
4 and 5 Will. IV., cap. 61.—An act for more effectually making, amend-
ing, widening, repairing, and maintaining, certain roads and bridges in the
counties of Dumbarton and Stirling (16th June 1834–31 years.)
4 and 5 Will. IV., cap. 72.—An act for making, and for more effectually
maintaining and repairing, certain roads in the county of Lanark, and for
building a bridge over the river Clyde at Crossford, in the said county (27th
June 1834–31 years.) * -
4 and 5 Will. IV., cap. 91.—An act for regulating and converting the
statute labour in the Stewartry or Sheriffdom of Orkney, and for more ef-
fectually making, repairing, and maintaining, the high roads and bridges
within the same gº July 1834.) - - - -
5 and 6 Will. IV., cap. 62.—An act for more effectually making, repair-
ing, and maintaining, the turnpike roads in the county of Edinbürgh (3d
July 1835–31 years.) -” s
5 and 6 Will. IV., cap. 68.—An act for further regulating the statute
S S



322 APPENDIX (A.)
labour, and repairing the highways and bridges in the county of Edinburgh
(3d July 1835.)
5 and 6 Will. IV., cap. 87.—An act for altering the line of road from the
Milnford of Garscube to the city of Glasgow, and improving the roads lead-
ing therefrom into the said city (21st July 1835–31 years.)
5 and 6 Will. IV., cap. 109.—An act to improve and maintain the Port-
Dundas road, and to make and maintain another road, in the county of Lan-
ark (31st August 1835–31 years.)
*
6 and 7 Will. IV., cap. 18.-An act for altering and amending an act of
the fourth and fifth years of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An
act for making, and for more effectually maintaining and repairing, certain.
roads in the county of Lanark, and for building a bridge over the river Clyde
at Crossford, in the said county” (19th May 1836.)
6 and 7 Will. IV., cap. 89–An act for altering and extending the powers
of the Trustees upon the road from Livingston, by Shotts, to the city of Glas-
gow, and placing under their charge the bridge across the river of Clyde,
called Hamilton Bridge, and the avenues thereto, and the road between the
east and the west ends of the town of Hamilton (4th July 1836.)
6 and 7 Will. IV., cap. 138.-An act for making and maintaining a turn-
pike road from Anniesland toll-bar to Saint George’s road, and branch
roads * connected, all in the county of Lanark (19th August 1836—
31 years.
jºi' IV. and 1 Vict, cap. 5.-An act for making and maintaining a
turnpike road along the south side of the river Dee, in the county of Kincar-
dine (22d March 1837–31 years.)
7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict, cap. 14.—An act for making and maintaining
certain roads in the county of Aberdeen (21st April 1837–31 years.)
7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict, cap. 15.—An act to enable the Duke of Buccleuch
and Queensberry to make and maintain a pier at Granton, in the parish of
Cramond, and a road therefrom to join the road leading from Leith to
Queensferry, in the county of Edinburgh (21st April 1837.)
7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict, cap. 37.-An act for making and maintaining a
road from the road leading from Glasgow to Carntyne, called Duke Street,
to the east end of Blackfriars Street or Regent Street, in the said city of
Glasgow (8th June 1837–31 years.)
7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict., cap. 39.—An act for further and more effectually
repairing, amending, and maintaining, certain roads in the county of Rox-
burgh, and other roads connected therewith, leading into the counties of
Berwick, Northumberland, and Durham (8th June 1837–31 years.)
7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict, cap. 60.—An act for building a bridge over the
river Tweed, at or near to Mertoun-Mill, in the county of Berwick, and for
making avenues and approaches thereto.
1 and 2 Vict, cap. 7.—An act for more effectually repairing, and keeping
in repair, certain roads in the county of Kincardine (11th April 1838–31
€a,I’S.
y 1 and 2 Vict, cap. 73.−An act for more effectually repairing and main-
taining the road from Borrowstounness, by the west end of Linlithgow, and
by Torphichen, Bathgate, and Whitburn, to the confines of the county of Lin-
lithgow, at or near Hollhouseburn, the road from Borrowstounness to the
river Avon, and the road leading eastward from Borrowstounness to
Champany by the kirk of Carriden, in the county of Linlithgow (4th July
1838–31 years.)
1 and 2 Vict, cap. 79.-An act for altering and amending an act of the
eleventh year of the reign of his Majesty King George the Fourth, intituled
“An act for making, repairing, widening, and keeping in repair, certain roads
and bridges in the county of Caithness; and for better regulating and render-
ing more effectual the statute labour in the said county and conversion money
in lieu thereof.” (4th July 1838–21 and 31 years.)
2 and 3 Vict, cap. 48,-An act for building a bridge over the river Leven,
APPENDIx (A) 323
in the county of Fife, and otherwise improving the road from Boreland Loan
to Scoonie Bridge (1st July 1839—31 years.)
2 and 3 Vict, cap,50–An act for more effectually maintaining and repairing
the road leading from the west side of the entry to the New or Jamaica Street
bridge of Glasgow, by or near Parkhouse, to the east end of the bridge at
Renfrew (1st July 1839—21 years.)
2 and 3 Vict, cap. 82.-An act for extending and enlarging an act passed in
the seventh year of the reign of his late Majesty King William the Fourth,
for making and maintaining a turnpike road from Anniesland toll-bar,
in the county of Lanark; and for making and maintaining another branch
º to be called Saint George's Road, in connexion with the said road (19th
uly 1839.
3 and 4 vie, cap. 16.--An act to continue and amend an act for erecting
a bridge over the river Almond, which divides the counties of Edinburgh and
Linlithgow (3d April 1840.)
3 and 4 Vict, cap. 39.--An act for maintaining and repairing the road from
Causeway-Head, near Stirling, through the county of Clackmannan, by the
foot of the Ochil Hills, towards Queensferry, and certain roads branching out
by the same (19th May 1840—31 years.)
3 and 4 Vict, cap. 40.-An act to alter and amend several acts for making,
maintaining, and keeping in repair, certain roads in the counties of Clack-
mannan and Perth, and for other purposes relating thereto (19th May 1840
—31 years.
3 and 4 Wiel, cap. 66.—An act for further and more effectually repairing
and maintaining several turnpike roads in the county of Roxburgh (4th
June 1840—31 years.)
3 and 4 Vict, cap. 67.-An act for further and more effectually repairing
and maintaining certain turnpike roads in the county of Elgin (4th June 1840
—31 years. -
3 and 4 *e, cap. 82.-An act for more effectually making, repairing, and
maintaining, certain turnpike roads in the counties of Nairn and Inverness
(19 June 1840—31 years.)
3 and 4 Vict, cap. 101.-An act to make, alter, improve, and maintain,
certain roads in the counties of Stirling, Dumbarton, Lanark, and Perth (3d
July 1840—31 years.)
3 and 4 Vict, cap. 102.—An act for making and maintaining certain turn-
pike roads in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and the other highways, bridges,
and ferries therein; and for more effectually converting into money the sta-
tute labour in the said stewartry (3d July 1840–31 years.) .
3 and 4 Vict, cap. 103.−An act to alter and amend certain acts for mak-
ing and maintaining a road from the limits of the counties of Edinburgh
and Lanark, by Wilsontown, into the burgh of Lanark, with a branch to-
wards Ravenstruther, in the said county of Lanark, and for other purposes
relating thereto (3d July 1840–31 years.)
4 and 5 Vict., cap. 97.—An act for further and more effectually repairing
and maintaining certain turnpike roads in the counties of Roxburgh and
Dumfries (21st June 1841—31 years.)
5 and 6 Vict., cap. 11.—An act to explain and amend an act, intituled
“An act to make, alter, improve, and maintain, certain roads in the counties
of Stirling, Dumbarton, Lanark, and Perth, and for making and maintaining
certain new roads in connection therewith ” (22d April 1842.)
5 and 6 Vict., cap. 25.—An act for maintaining and repairing the road
from Glasgow to Redburn Bridge, and a branch road leading therefrom (13th
May 1842–31 years.) tº 8 tº tº
5 and 6 Vict., cap. 37.—An act to improve, repair, and maintain, certain
roads in the counties of Lanark, Stirling, and Dumbarton, and to make and
maintain a new line of road in connection therewith (31st May 1842—31
Gall’S.
y 5 º 6 Vict, cap. 38.—An act for more effectually maintaining and re-
324 APPENDIX (A.)
pairing certain roads in the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine,
and for making certain new roads in the said counties or some of them (31st
May 1842–31 years.)
5 and 6 Vict, cap. 75.-An act to alter and amend the acts for making,
repairing, and keeping in repair, the road from Stonehaven, through the Slug
Mount to the bridge at Cobleheugh, in the county of Kincardine (18th June
1842—31 years.)
5 and 6 Vict, cap. 91.-An act for constructing a low-water pier and me-
cessary works at Burntisland, in the county of Fife, and establishing a ferry
between the same and Granton, in the county of Edinburgh, and for improv-
ing the :* between the said pier and Kinghorn (30th June 1842
—25 years.
5 and 6. Vict, cap. 112–An act for maintaining and improving certain
roads in the counties of Lanark, Ayr, and Renfrew, for maintaining a bridge
over the river Clyde at Dalmarnock, and for other purposes connected there-
with (30th July 1842–21 years.)
6 and 7 Vict, cap. 39.-An act for more effectually maintaining, improv,
ing, and repairing, the road leading from the south end of the new bridge of
Glasgow, by or near Park House, to the Three-Mile-House, in the county of
Lanark (31st May 1843–31 years.)
6 and 7 Vict, cap. 80.-An act to improve, repair, and maintain the road
from Inchbellie Bridge to Glasgow, and to make and maintain certain branch
roads therefrom (28th July 1843–31 years.)
6 and 7 Vict, cap. 81-An act for more effectually repairing, improving,
and maintaining, the roads and bridges in the county of Sutherland, and
further regulating the statute labour in the said county; and for repairing,
improving, and maintaining, a certain portion of road in the county of Ross
(28th July 1843.)
6 and 7 Vict, cap. 97.-An act for making and maintaining highways,
roads, bridges, and quays, and for regulating ferries in the shire of Argyle,
and for altering and repairing certain military and other roads, bridges, and
quays, in the said shire (10th August 1843—21 years.)*
7 and 8 Vict, cap. 101.-An act for widening, repairing, and maintaining,
the bridge of Ayr, commonly called the New Bridge, leading across the river
of Ayr, at the royal burgh or town of Ayr, in the county of Ayr, and for
other purposes in relation thereto (6th August 1844.)
* Under this act the Argyleshire roads are supported by assessments upon lands, houses, and
other heritages, not exceeding 8d. nor less than 4d. on every pound of their real annual value—
one-half payable by the landlord and the other by the tenant or occupier—and by an assessment
of 4s. iipon every person in the district who keeps a horse, J. such person be not other-
wise assessed to that amount under this act. In case of sudden damage or of new roads being
required, an additional assessment of 4d. is authorised. No performance of statute labour to
be exacted in the county.
NoTE.—The endurance of a number of these Road Acts is not limited. Where a certain
endurance is specified, the Acts generally declare that they shall farther extend to the end
of the next session of Parliament after the termination of the period of years specified.
APPENDIX (B.)
DIGEST OF CASES DECIDED IN REFERENCE TO
ROAD TOLLS.
1822–1824.
I.—CASES DECIDED IN THE COURT OF SESSION, JURY COURT, AND
HOUSE OF LORDS.
A lady qualified to be a Road Trustee found not entitled to a preference
over the other Trustees as to the tolls of a road in payment of advances made
by her on the road...Lady M. L. Craufurd, February 14, 1822...] S. D, 321.
TJnder a local road act authorising Trustees to purchase ground for the
erection of toll-houses, and, if the proprietor should refuse to sell, empower-
ing the Quarter Sessions to compel him to do so, found that the Trustees
were not entitled to build a toll-house before the purchase was made...Lady
L. M. Craufurd, May 16, 1822...] S. D. 414.
Proprietors of houses in Inverness held not liable in payment of an assess-
gº º: the repair of the parliamentary roads...Mackay, May 15, 1824...3
S. D. 17.
The statute labour trust of Kincardineshire is divided into four districts.
The Trustees of one of the districts prosecuted the collector before the Sheriff
for a balance due on his intromissions. In an advocation, an objection was
taken to the pursuers' title, they being merely a committee of Trustees. But
the Court repelled the objection...Low, June 1, 1826...4 S. 65l.
An action of reduction and damages was brought against atoll-man who had
obtained a decreet of the Justices of Peace for a penalty for evasion of toll,
although the act permitted what had been found to be an evasion. It was
objected that the action of reduction was incompetent after six months from
the conviction. The Lord Ordinary (Medwyn) repelled the objection, but
the Court altered and sustained the same...Selkirk, June 10, 1826...4 S.
695. + -
Part of an old parish road intersected by a new turnpike road was assumed
and kept in repair by the turnpike Trustees, held to be turnpike to the effect
that carriages, &c., going 100 yards along it, and merely crossing the turn-
pike road, may be subjected in toll...Dixon, June 27, 1826...4 S. D. 759.
Road Trustees having right to manage a road from a certain point to “the
city of Glasgow” held entitled to maintain toll-bars within the bounds of the
royalty, provided they were beyond the buildings constituting the actual
city... Aitken, December 14, 1826...5 S. D. 135.
An exemption from payment of toll in a local road act is not derogated
from or repealed by a general exemption of a more limited nature intro-
duced into the subsequent General Road Act, and not inconsistent with the
exemption in the local act...M'Callum, March 8, 1827...5 S. D. 541.
An original subscriber to a road is not entitled to attach the rents of toll-
bars while there is no surplus, after applying them to the purposes provided
by the acts of Parliament and the payment of the interest of money borrowed
on the security of the tolls...Farie, June 29, 1827...5 S. D. 878.
The provisions as to repairing, &c., the turnpike roads contained in certain
local turnpike acts for the county of Edinburgh were extended, by another
turnpike act, to the great and cross roads within the toll-bars round the city
of Edinburgh. Held, that after the passing of the General Road Act (4 Geo.
IV., cap. 49), these previous acts must be read as if the provisions in the
326 APPENDIX (B.).
General Act were engrossed in them, with reference to the great and cross
roads within the bars, equally as the regular turnpike roads...Menzies, June
30, 1827...5 S. D. 884; May 23, 1828...6 S. D. 845.
Proprietors of a canal are not entitled, by themselves or others, to use the
towing-path as a road for carriages or carts conveying passengers who had
come by their boats, so as to avoid going along a turnpike road, on which
they must have paid toll—the Road Act prohibiting the use of any private
passage or way whereby the payment of toll might be avoided...Mitchell,
July 7, 1827...5 S. D. 909. Remitted by the House of Lords to enquire
whether, where a party accused of evading a toll-bar has been assoilzied by
the Justices of the Peace from a demand for statutory penalties, the Court of
Session has jurisdiction, in an advocation, to find him guilty and award the
penalty, July 14, 1830...4 W. S. 162; found in the negative, January 21,
1832–10 S. D. B. 230.
Questions whether the tacksman of the tolls on a road is entitled to exact
as much toll on carts with broad as with narrow wheels, and whether the
clerk of the Road Trustees has a title to interdict him from doing so...Dykes,
November 24, 1827...6 S. D. 123.
A tacksman of a toll-bar, who had never complained of the omission to put
up a table of rates, and had never asked for a copy, not entitled at the end
of the year to refuse payment of his rent on account of the want of it...Par-
lane, June 14, 1828...6 S. D. 977.
A party purchased a parcel of ground and made a road to enable him to
pass from a turnpike road at the extremity of one Trust to a parish road
without passing through a toll-bar within the next Trust—held that this was
an evasion of that toll, not protected by the exception in the General Road
Act in favour of the proprietors passing along their own private roads...
Merry, November 29, 1828...7. S. D. 90. -
Trustees having shut up part of a road not turnpike for the purpose of
bringing persons travelling along it into the turnpike road in order to make
them pay toll, parties removing the obstructions not allowed their expenses,
in respect of having removed the obstruction brevi manu instead of applying
for redress by law...Trustees of Glasgow and Carlisle Road, December 2,
1828...7. S. D., 115.
Statute Labour Trustees having bound themselves to repay an advance as
soon after the lapse of five years as the funds would admit of it—held that
they were bound to pay the claim although without Trust funds, if they
might have been in funds had they not incurred expenses which they were
not obliged to do, and paid debts not preferable to this claim... Aitken,
February 10, 1829...7. S. D. 390.
A complaint was presented to the Justices of the Peace, complaining that
the toll-man had exacted second toll the same day, and refused to allow the
complainer to pass, and concluding for £5 to the private complainer, 365 to
the Procurator-Fiscal, and for one month's imprisonment, with expenses.
A minute was afterwards lodged, restricting the conclusions to the penalty
of £5, and expenses. The Justices of the Peace found the defender liable
in a penalty of £2, 2s., and expenses. The Quarter Sessions confirmed the
judgment. A suspension was presented to the Court of Justiciary. It was
objected to as incompetent under the statutes. But the Court, on the
ground that the prayer of the petition was not warranted by the statute, sus-
pended the decreet, with costs against the private party...Dumbreck, March
14, 1828...Deas & Anderson’s Rep. -
A party took a lease of a toll-bar advertised to be let by the General Road
Trustees of a county, but of which the lease was granted by those of the
district in which the toll-bar was placed; and the tolls were evicted by the
erection of check-bars in another district—held competent for the tacksman
to insist in an action against the General Trustees and the District Trustees
by whom the lease was granted, for reparation of the loss suffered by the
eviction...Fairlie, May 22, 1829.7 S, D, 637. -
APPENDIx (B.) - 327
An action of damages was brought against the tacksman of a toll-bar
and his servant, and the farmer of the post-horse duty and his servant, for
the stoppage of one of the mourning coaches attending the funeral of the
pursuer's brother, on account of an erroneous ticket. The Jury found for
the toll-man and servant, but awarded £5 of damages against the farmer of
the horse duty...Crawfurd, March 15, 1830...5 Murray 215.
A gentleman was joint clerk-depute of the Justices of the Peace of a
district, and at sametime clerk to the Trustees of a road in the same dis-
trict. As clerk to the Trustees he raised an action against two persons for
evasion of toll. His clerk acted for the prosecution, and also as clerk to the
Justices. The Justices were, however, advised by their principal clerk, and
one of the offenders was fined. A complaint was thereon presented to the
Court of Session by the person fined, to have the clerk removed or suspended,
founding on the act of sederunt 6th March, 1783, which declares it to be
illegal for any one to conduct a cause as agent in a Court in which he holds
the office of clerk. An objection was taken to the title of the prosecutor to
sue without concourse of the public prosecutor. The title was sustained, and
the clerk suspended for twelve months, and costs awarded. The House of
Lords reversed as to the suspension, but awarded £200 costs...MºE'arlane,
April 8, 1830...5 Shaw 537; and 4 Shaw’s Appeal Cases, 123.
A bill of suspension and interdict by the keeper of an inn to prohibit a
neighbouring toll-keeper from selling exciseable liquors, as having no permis-
sion from the Road Trustees, having been refused by the Lord Ordinary with-
out answers, on the ground that he had no title to complain, the Court remitted
to orderintimation in common form...Thomson, June 24, 1830...8 S. D. B. 966.
Under the General Road Act, a summary action for recovering payment
of tolls, without previous seizure of the carriage, &c., of the party refusing
to pay, is competent before the Sheriff...Simpson, June 25, 1830...8 S. D.
T}. 977.
The question, What carriages under the General Road Act are entitled to
exemption ? is a matter committed to the Sheriff by the statute, and his
* thereon is final and conclusive...Simpson, June 25, 1830...8 S. D.
B. 977.
A cart belonging to a carrier and itinerant dealer in groceries, and in
which, besides his own goods, he carries goods and parcels belonging to others
for money, is to be considered as let out for hire, and therefore not exempt-
ed from pontage on passing a bridge a second time within the same day...
Armstrong, June 25, 1830...8 S. D. B. 980.
Under the General Road Act—which provides, that if Trustees “shall
erect” a toll-bar without authority in any act of Parliament, it shall be law-
ful to complain to the Sheriff or Justices of Peace, and that the judgment
of the Sheriff or Justices in all matters committed to them shall be final and,
without review—it is incompetent to apply to the Court of Session for inter-
dict against the erection of such bar, and equally incompetent though the
bar has not been erected, but merely a warrant granted to erect it...Wilson,
June 11, 1839...9 S. D. B. 725.
Penalties being imposed by a road act for evasion of tolls, on conviction
“ before one or more Justices of the Peace,” with leave to parties consider-
ing themselves aggrieved to apply by summary complaint to the Court of
Session for redress—held that an advocation was a competent form of com-
plaint; that the court had no jurisdiction to convict and find offenders liable
in the penalties; and that there must be a conviction by the Justices...Mit-
chell, January 21, 1832... 10 S. D. B. 230.
A complaint was presented to the Sheriff of Lanarkshire against a toll-
man exacting toll where the party did not travel one hundred yards on the road
to which the toll-bar belonged. The defence was, that a portion of road was
common to two Trusts (which formerly had been one), and, reckoning this
portion of the road, the statutory length was travelled. The Sheriff sus-
tained the defence. The Lord Ordinary and the court found an advocation
328 APPENDIX (B.)
incompetent, but thought that the question might have been originally
brought before them by way of declarator...Nelson, March 10, 1832...ſ0
§. 466.
The Fife tolls were let under the local and general acts, with an express
exemption for horses or carriages only crossing the turnpike, or not travel-
ling more than one hundred yards thereon. The Letham toll-bar across the
new Dundee road has two check-bars on the Letham road, which is statute
labour. But power was given in the act to make it turnpike. The toll-man
exacted toll-duties from carts crossing the turnpike by the Letham road.
The Trustees, on the ground that these bars were merely check-bars for the
new Dundee road, presented complaints against the toll-man, who brought
an action of declarator and damages against the Trustees, which was sent to
a jury, and, under the direction of the Lord-Justice Clerk, a verdict was
given for the Trustees...Patterson, March 19, 1832...Deas and Anderson Rep.
By the local act the county of Peebles is divided into six districts. The
clerk of one district prosecuted the clerk of another district as to the posi-
tion of a toll-bar. The Court unanimously found that as district clerk he
had no title to sue, and that the clause in the general act applied only to
lºgº." clerk, and not to district clerks...Williamson, March 2, 1832...
10 S. 413.
Under a temporary road act, allowing certain parties, by payment of a sum
of money, to contract for the removal of a toll-bar, the money having been
paid and the bar removed at the commencement of the period of the act—
held that this contract was not limited to the endurance of the statute, but
was permanent and obligatory on the Trustees under subsequent acts, though
containing no provision for renewing it...Donald, November 27, 1832...11
A toll-keeper is not bound by an agreement to accept of under toll (this
being contrary to the Road Act), but may charge full toll, though the party
with whom it was made alleged he had a choice of two roads, and had been
induced to use one of them for a year on the faith of the agreement...Bal-
four, June 26, 1833...11 S. 784. But see cases in House of Lords 4th April
1831, Maxwell and Co.; and 6th July 1835, Swan v. Blair. -
Toll-books made up daily of the number and weight of carts passing the
bar from jottings taken as each cart passed—held, with the oath of the toll-
keeper in supplement, to prove the amount of carriage on which toll-dues
had been incurred during the year...Balfour, June 26, 1833... 11 S. 784.
A tacksman and cautioners defended against payment of the rent, because
the tacksman had not been put in complete possession of the subject let, and
that certain evasions had not been prevented by the Trustees. The case
being sent to a jury, a verdict was given for the Trustees under deduction of
#610...Threshie, July 18, 1833...Jurist.
A creditor having lent money on a bond granted by the Trustees of a cer-
tain district, without limitation, was found entitled to be preferred on the
tolls of the whole district, although it was shown by the minutes of Trus-
tees that the security was intended to be confined to one particular line of
road, unless it were proved that such limitation was previously communi-
cated to him...Threshie, November 21, 1833...12 S. 105.
An application under 4 Geo. IV., cap. 49, for the removal of a toll-bar, and
to interdict the levying of toll there, having been presented to the Sheriff
within six months after a table of rates was put up, and posts with a chain
thrown across the road, and the Sheriff having pronounced judgment in
gº thereof—an advocation held incompetent...Lang, June 12, 1834...12
. 719.
A check toll-bar was complained of to the Sheriff, who, after a proof, or-
dered it to be removed, and interdicted its being placed without form of law.
The Lord Ordinary and the Court held this judgment not subject to review
...Martin, June 12, 1834...12 S, 719.
A tacksman of tolls is not entitled to retain rent, on the allegation that by
APPENDIx (B.) 329
the operations of the Road Trustees a part of the road was rendered impas-
sable, and bill of suspension of a charge therefor refused to be passed even
on consignation...Hill, Nov. 25, 1834...13 S. 88.
. Special case, involving, inter alia, the order in which a certain Road Trus-
tee in Peeblesshire should be ranked in competition with certain other
Road Trustees on the revenue of the tolls of a district of roads in respect of
disbursements by him...Ferrier, Feb. 19, 1835...13 S. 489.
Circumstances in which interdict was granted against the Trustees of one
sub-district of roads from erecting three check-bars which would intercept
and greatly injure the tolls of another sub-district; in respect, inter alia, that
these sub-districts, having previously formed one district, and having con-
tracted a cumulo debt, a division of that debt took place when the sub-
districts were formed, and a proportion of the cumulo debt was allocated
upon each sub-district corresponding to its existing tolls...Carmichael, June
28, 1836... 14 S. 1013.
Circumstances in which the Court held a bill of suspension of diligence for
levying an assessment of statute labour conversion money an incompetent
ººing, and accordingly refused the bill...Ewing, January 26, 1837...15
. 419.
In an action of damages by the tacksman of a toll-bar against the Road
Trustees for wrongfully shutting up one of four roads after letting the toll-
duties thereon to him—verdict for the pursuer and damages assessed at £30
...Murray, March 21, 1837...15 D. 890.
Held, under the provisions of a county road act, that a toll-keeper had no
title to pursue for penalties alleged to have been incurred by evading the
toll-bar, although the subject let to him by the Trustees was described as
“ the whole tolls and duties and penalties for evading the same”...Mitchell,
June 26, 1839...1 Bell, 1115.
In a local act of Parliament authorising certain tolls to be levied for pass-
ing a bridge, carriages returning and repassing the bridge the same day were
declared to be exempt from toll. But in case such carriages should “pass
the bridge with a new loading a second or more times in the same day,” they
were then to be deprived of the benefit of the exemption. Held, that
brewers’ carts passing the bridge, carrying ale and spirits in casks and bottles
from a cellar to a retail shop, and returning the same day with a different
set of empty casks and bottles, which had been taken full a day or two
before, were only liable for toll on passing the bridge the first time—the
empty casks and bottles not being considered to be a “new loading” in the
sense of the act...Hossack & Co., Nov. 23, 1839...2 Bell, 129. *
Statutes 4 Geo. IV., cap. 49, and 1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 43 (General
Road Acts)—Held, on construction of the general road acts, that when a
road is divided into districts assigned to committees of Trusts, the clerk
appointed for any district is entitled to sue under the 16th section of the
statute 1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 43...Creighton (House of Lords), 26th May,
1840.
Where the roads in a county were, by authority of the general turnpike
and local statutes, divided into districts, which were placed under the
management of separate bodies of Trustees, who had each their clerk or
treasurer—Held, that an action for reparation for injury sustained within
one of these districts, in consequence of alleged insufficiency in the fencing
of the road, was incompetently directed against the clerk of the general
meeting of Road Trustees for the county...Revey, March 11, 1841.3 Bell,
888.
The tacksman of certain toll-dues raised an action against the Road
Trustees, concluding partly for repetition of rent paid and partly for
damages in respect of alleged non-implement of obligations undertaken by
the Trustees in the articles of roup under which he had become tacksman.
Held, that the statute 1 and 2 Will. IV., cap. 43, sec. 118, did not reach such
action, and that the right to insist was not cut off although more than six
T t
330. APPENDIX (B.)
months had elapsed from the date of the wrong complained of before raising
the action...Somerville, Dec. 23, 1842...5 Bell, 383. -
The Court, affirming the judgment of the Lord Ordinary, held that the
military and parliamentary road repair assessment for the county of Inver-
ness was, in terms of the act 59 Geo. III., cap. 135, properly laid upon the
amount of rents and profits as assessed to the property tax in the year 1814;
the defender resisting this criterion upon the ground that since the year 1814
his property had decreased two-thirds in value, and that by the eleventh
section of the statute it was provided that in making the assessment regard
should be had to certain other statutes, assessments under which were upon
the real rent...Thomson, Dec. 14, 1843...6 Bell, 230.
II-SPECIMEN OF CASEs DECIDED IN THE LOCAL COURTS.
The Justices of the Peace at Glasgow, in Quarter Sessions, held that
brewers’ carts passing and paying toll with full barrels are entitled to return
the same day with empty barrels without incurring new toll, although not the
same barrels as had previously passed the same day, but barrels which had
passed and paid on previous days...Steel, Aug. 24, 1821.
The same judgment given, Struthers & Son, Dec. 29, 1821.
Where a toll-man had beat and cut a passenger attempting evasion, the
passenger was fined by the Justices of the Peace in £2, with £3 of expenses
for the evasion. The Sheriff of Dumbartonshire decerned against the toll-
man for £14 of damages and £2 of fine for the assault. But, on advocation
to the Court of Justiciary, the damages were increased to £100 and £5 of
fine, with expenses...MºR'arlane, 1828.
Case of the pontage-keeper of Ayr bridge, who was decerned to repay an
extra pontage levied by him...Nov. 1828. ,
The Dumbartonshire Trust ends near Yoker toll-bar, where the Lanark-
shire Trust begins. Certain millers in the neighbourhood of the toll-bar
entered by a parish road on a turnpike about seventy yards from the bar,
which they insisted on passing toll free because they did not travel one
hundred yards on the road to which the bar was attached. The Sheriff of
ºire held that toll was exigible...Yoker Road Trustees, 12th
pril, 1830.
A gentleman who was a member of the Episcopal Communion usually at-
tended the Presbyterian Church of the parish in which his estate was
situated, but occasionally went to Perth to the Episcopal Chapel, especially
on solemn occasions. The Sheriff-Substitute of Perthshire (Mr Husband)
found toll due on such occasions—the chapel not being the person’s usual
place of worship...Graeme, April 22, 1831.
A lady, whose usual residence was Glasgow, and who had been two weeks
resident at Bridge of Allan, was found by the Sheriff of Stirling liable in toll
when going to the church at Logie, being the church of the parish in which
she was then resident, that not being her usual place of worship...Steven,
1831.
A gentleman hired a gig, and was driven by a boy to Stirling, whence he
sent it back with a lady, driven by the same boy. Toll being again exacted,
the Sheriff at Stirling (Mr Frazer) found, in terms of the General Road Act,
that second toll was not due because the gig was on the same hire, although
the local act warranted toll on every change of loading...M.Donald, April
1832.
The Sheriff at Edinburgh (Mr Tait) found that a military officer was not
entitled to exemption from toll when travelling in a hired chaise...Spears,
keeper of Bonnington toll, October 1832.
The Sheriff of Perthshire (Dunblane district) found that a cart of such a de-
scription as came under the assessment for taxed carts was subject to toll
APPENDIx (B.) 331
duty as such, though not actually assessed, and though not let for hire...
M*Donald, October 24, 1832.
The Sheriff of Stirlingshire (Mr Frazer) found that a toll-man was entitled
to exact double toll on carts having only the company firm, and not “the
christian name and surname of the principal partner,” on the carts...
M*Pherson and M'Naughton, November 12, 1832.
Two military officers having passed a toll-bar driving gigs—in an action
for the penalties by the toll-man, before the Sheriff-Substitute at Glasgow,
because of their having claimed exemption from toll to which they were not
entitled, the Sheriff-Substitute found each liable in the full penalty. The
sº guered, but modified the penalty to £1, Is. each...Peacock, February
2 º
The Sheriff of Perthshire (Dunblane) found that the exemption in the
English Road Act in favour of voters going to and from poll in elections did
not extend to Scotland...Procurator-Fiscal, February 1833.
A Forfarshire farmer rented land from the same landlord on both sides
of the Esk. In going from the one to the other between his steading and
field, his carts had to pass a toll-bar. He claimed exemption, which the
Sheriff-Substitute refused; but the Sheriff reversed, and found toll not
exigible. The toll-keeper appealed to the Circuit Court, when Lord Medwyn
reversed the judgment of the Sheriff and returned to that of the Substitute
...Fettes, April 19, 1833.
The Sheriff of Ayr found that a cart carrying meal to a town and return-
ing with coals, both for the owner and not for hire, was no new loading so as
to warrant exaction of new toll...Douglas, March 5, 1833.
A Stirlingshire toll-man charged three shillings for two horses drawing
two carts having a log of wood suspended between them. He had weighed
the first carriage, and then the second—the two, however, continuing
attached. He found the weight exceeded 35 cwt. ; he therefore charged one
shilling for the two horses, and triple for the weight, all in terms of the
local act for that county. The owner paid the demand of three shillings, but
brought an action of repetition of toll before the Sheriff of Stirling; action
dismissed...Culbert, October 18, 1833.
A carrier bringing coals on his own risk, and not on hire, to Crieff, and re-
turning empty; and between 12 o'clock and 12 o'clock, returning with
another cart of coals, still on his own risk and not on hire (the local act
allowing passing four times), was found not subject to second toll—Justices
at Crieff, Sir Patrick Murray presiding...M*Culloch, August 4, 1834.
By the local act for Perthshire the toll is laid on the horse in draught, and
four passings are allowed for the same toll the same day. In an action for
repetition of toll exacted on the same horse drawing a different cart, the
Sheriff found against the toll-keeper, and decerned him to pay ten shillings
of penalty...Syme, April 1, 1835.
Carters employed by a company having been instructed by their employers
not to pay toll, the toll-keeper brought an action against their employers for
the penalties attaching to the evasion. The Sheriff-Substitute found the
employers were not liable, but the Sheriff reversed, and awarded a penalty
against each of them, for which, with the toll-duty due on each of the occa-
sions, he decerned against them and for expenses...Patterson, May 12, 1835.
The Strath-Tay Road Trustees disputed with the Tummell Bridge Trus-
tees as to a check-bar erected by the latter. A reference was entered into,
and the arbiters found that the bar could not be continued. The Bridge
Trustees, however, became of opinion that the reference was beyond their
powers, and that they could not remove the bar without the consent of credi-
tors on the road; whereon the Strath-Tay Trustees presented a complaint
to the Sheriff of Perthshire to have the bar removed from their road. The
Sheriff-Substitute decerned the defenders, the Tummell Bridge Trustees, to
remove the bar, and interdicted them from levying toll thereat. The Sheriff
(Mr Anderson) affirmed the judgment...MºDonald, July 24, 1835.

332 APPENDIX (B.)
The clerk of a district of the county of Perth pursued one of the tacksmeri
of tolls in the district for levying tolls contrary to his lease, and to the injury
of other bars on the road. The Sheriff and his Substitute, in deference to .
the decision in the case of Williamson v. Goldie, dismissed the complaint...
Moncrieff, September 15, 1835.
{NoTE.—The above are taken from Mr Sheriff Barclay's Law of the Road.}
The Ayr Quarter Sessions by a majority affirmed a judgment of the Petty
Sessions finding toll due in passing from one farm to another, a quarter of a
mile from each other, possessed by the same proprietor, and under one
system of rotation in cropping... Ayr Justice of Peace Court, June 29, 1836.
The defender was tacksman of a bar at A. Another person was tacksman of
a bar at B. There was a check C between A and B held by the defender.
He was taken bound to levy toll at the bar A or C, at whichever bar pass-
age was first made. Tickets at A and B cleared at C, and the reverse.
The Trustees prosecuted for penalties, because that by collusion with cattle-
dealers the defender exacted less than the legal toll at A and C, and so
cleared the bar at B to the prejudice of that toll’s revenue. The Sheriff-Sub-
stitute held (affirmed by Sheriff Anderson), that where the cattle were rested
in a field between A and C, new toll was exigible at both bars if collusion
was not proved, but that it was illegal to charge toll at both bars in the
same day to the prejudice of the bar B...Tay Bridge Trustees, December
7, 1836...Perth Court.
A cart passed a check-toll between eleven and twelve at night, and paid
the toll on horse and cart; passed the main bar between twelve and one, and
paid toll on over-weight, there being no weighing-machine at the check.
Next night returned to main bar between eleven and twelve, and was charged
no toll, but at the check was charged new toll for second day, it being then
past twelve. The Sheriff-Substitute held that both bars must be held as one,
and that no new toll was exigible, the passing the main bar being the rule for
calculating the time... Crieff Circuit Small Debt Court, October 6, 1838.
A farmer took a field beyond a toll-bar for six months. Found that the
cattle passing to and from the field and steading daily were exempt from toll,
though the field was not part of the same farm, but contiguous...Scone toll-
bar, May 14, 1840...Perth Sheriff Court.
A toll-keeper was found liable for the value of a horse seized for toll, and
tied to the bar in a very cold night, when he had the offer of the saddle in
security...Sheriff Court, Edinburgh, February 1841.
The Sheriff-Substitute of Selkirkshire found that Road Trustees could
prosecute without concurrence of the Fiscal, and that a person going a private
road, being the nearest to and from a place and his own residence, was not
liable in penalty where it did not appear he took the road with intent to evade
the toll...March 13, 1841.
In an action for a large sum of toll-duties for every passing of a stage-
coach for a length of time—defence: limitation of action as to a certain
portion ; implemented contract of composition as to remainder—the Sheriff-
Substitute held (affirmed by Sheriff Anderson) that the claim so far was cut
off by the six months' limitation, and that the implemented agreement could
not now be opened up as to the remainder, although it might be held illegal,
and to subject the toll-man in a penalty...Watson, November 3, 1841...Perth
Sheriff Court.
A vehicle, though being on springs, used for carrying race-horses, held to
fall under the class of waggons and not of carriages...Ramsay of Barnton,
January 19, 1844...Perth Court. . -
. The proprietor of a menagerie was taxed for the van which contained his
family as a carriage. Held he was entitled to pass on the toll applicable to
that class...Procurator-Fiscal, August 23, 1844...Perth Court.
[NotE.—These have been obligingly furnished to us by Mr Sheriff Barclay.]
APPENDIx (B). 333
A party prosecuted at the instance of the Road Trustees for breaking open
Strathmiglo toll-bar fined £3, 3s....Wallace, November 2, 1829...Justice of
Peace Court, Auchtermuchty. *
Question whether a cattle-dealer who had used a bye-road in driving a lot
of cattle was guilty of evasion of toll...Strathmiglo Road Trustees, June 1831
...Fife Sheriff Court.
A petition was presented to the Sheriff of Fife by the Trustees on the
Newport road, setting forth that the tacksman of the toll-bar at Newport
had allowed his rent to fall into arrear, and praying for his removal and the
appointment of a collector; the petition ordered to be served on him, and
also on his cautioner...Berry, May 26, 1830. June 7–Order for removal
granted, and person appointed in his stead to collect and account; report by
the collector lodged, and commission granted to take her oath thereto; oath
reported, and approved, and expenses decermed for against tacksman and
cautioner...June 31, 1831.
An action for an account of tolls dismissed in respect the Trustees or the
toll-keeper had not put up a printed table or schedule containing the name of
the toll-bar, with the rates of the tolls, as required by 4 Geo. IV., cap. 49, sect.
42....Paterson, January 30, 1834...Fife Sheriff Court.
The Fife Turnpike Act limited the tolls upon broad-wheeled carts to one-
half of the tolls upon carts with common wheels, while the General Turnpike
Act, 1 and 2 William IV., cap. 43, passed subsequently, authorised Road
Trustees to exempt broad-wheeled carts from part of the toll-duties, not ex-
ceeding one-third. The tacksman of Newburgh bar charged according to the
latter act—that is, two-thirds of the ordinary toll; and a party residing in
Perthshire having refused payment of more than half-toll, he sued him
before the Sheriff Court at Perth for the two-thirds, and obtained decree.
The Justice of Peace Fiscal, Auchtermuchty district of Fife, then instituted
a libel against the toll-keeper for having made that exaction. The toll-
keeper pled—1. That the decree of the Sheriff of Perth was a sufficient
voucher for the legality of his exaction; 2. At any rate, that the General
Turnpike Act, and not the local act, regulated the matter in question, and
justified his charge; and 3. That the wheels of the carts had not the fillies
of the required breadth, and were not cylindrical, nor of the construction
prescribed by the act. The Justices, taking a different view from the Sheriff
at Perth, repelled the two first pleas, but ordered the prosecutor to con-
descend on the facts he could prove as to the third plea. The case went no
farther...Tod, May 2, 1836.
A similar case, where the same toll-keeper had exacted two-thirds toll
from another party, was prosecuted at sametime by the Procurator-Fiscal,
and shared the same fate...May 2, 1836.
A party was tried for an alleged assault upon the collector of the pontage
at Leven, but the case dismissed, as it appeared the pontage collector had
provoked the assault...Procurator-Fiscal, November 30, 1837... Fife Sheriff
Court. -
A builder in St Andrews sued for repetition of tolls in the following cir-
cumstances: His carts on entering St Andrews from the west paid at the
Argyle toll-bar, and in going to the Shore Bridge on the east they were
charged again at the toll-bar there, although they did not travel a hundred
yards upon the turnpike road at this bar. Found that this second toll
was illegally exacted, and repetition ordered, with expenses...Mitchell,
December 14, 1837...Fife Sheriff Court. g
A toll-keeper prosecuted a tenant for an account of toll-duties incurred in
carting sand and lime and stones through his toll-bar. The tolls were
payable by the contractors for the building, but the toll-keeper insisted
against the tenant because of the carts being his. The builder, in name of
the tenant, resisted the claim to a certain extent, because, though few of the
carts had been weighed, all of them were charged according to weight—those
with sand, which cost only sixpence at the sand-pit, at the high rates of one
334 - APPENDIX (B.)
shilling and sixpence and one shilling and eightpence; and he produced an
account, rendered previous to the action, where the tolls were charged on a
lower scale than in the account libelled on. The Sheriff disallowed the high
tolls charged on such of the carts as were not weighed...Berwick, April
19, 1838...Fife Sheriff Court.
A party prosecuted the toll-keeper at Newburgh bar for repetition of cer-
tain alleged over-exactions for tolls on carts. He had charged them at four-
pence halfpenny each, whereas, had they been weighed, threepence each was
alleged to be the full charge. The toll-keeper defended himself, on the
ground that owing to the length of the axles the wheels of the carts were
wider placed than ordinary wheels, and consequently would not go on his
steelyard, which was of the common construction. His practice was to
charge all vehicles he could not weigh ninepence each ; and, assuming the
wheels to be of the proper breadth, and cylindrical, &c. (which he denied),
he had given the pursuer the full benefit of the local act clause by exacting
fourpence halfpenny for half toll...Hendry and Son, December 3, 1839...Fife
Small Debt Court.
The Teuchats toll-bar stands at the crossing of the Cupar and Largo, and
Pratis and Falfield roads. The tenant of an adjoining coalfield had his
access to it by only the latter of these roads, and in order to get to the former
without payment of toll, he made a road across some land belonging to a
different estate, under which also the tenant had a lease of the minerals.
The toll-keeper presented a petition to have him interdicted from using this
road, on the ground that his toll was thereby evaded, but interim interdict
refused...Paton, April 1840...Fife Sheriff Court.
A gentleman in the East of Fife with a hired gig passed the Guard Bridge
bar during the day and paid toll. He returned in the night and was charged
again. In a prosecution for repayment of the second exaction he maintained
that it was not midnight when he repassed; and moreover, that he would
have been entitled to repass any time within the twenty-four hours without
a second toll. His first defence was sustained. At same time the Justices
were of opinion that his second plea would have been invalid...A. v. B., January
1839...Fife Quarter Sessions.
The carts of a farmer loaded with grain passed a toll-bar in going to Inver-
keithing market, and were paid for. The grain was sold, and brought
back in the carts by the same road, and the toll-keeper exacted a second toll.
Found, in an action for repetition by the farmer, that this second exaction
was illegal...A. v. B., June 30, 1840...Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
A farmer was prosecuted at the instance of the Procurator-Fiscal with
evading Pitscottie toll by driving twelve cattle along an old road leading from
Blebo Craigs. He pled in defence that the road used by him had never been
shut. His defence was sustained, and the case dismissed...Procurator-Fiscal
of the Fife Justice of Peace Court, September 10, 1840.
A case of some importance to toll-collectors came before Sheriff Alison, in
the Glasgow Small Debt Court. It was an action at the instance of the Procu-
rator-Fiscal for the county against the tacksman and toll-keeper at Baillieston
toll, for the statutory penalty, arising out of the following circumstances:—
Mr Gerard of Rochsoles was coming into Glasgow on the 4th October last,
in his carriage, and he paid the toll at Coatdyke bar, and received a ticket
clearing several other bars, and among the number that of Baillieston. On
arriving at Baillieston, Mr Gerard presented his ticket to the toll-gatherer,
who declared it correct. Mr Gerard then requested the ticket back, but
the toll-man refused to give it unless he were to be paid a shilling, and fol-
lowed up his refusal by the most unseemly language, and the grossest epithets
towards Mr Gerard. The defence was, that by the articles of roup, the toll-
gatherer at Baillieston was entitled to keep the pass-tickets given at Coat-
dyke, so as to arrange his accounts with that toll-keeper—that the ticket was
equal in value to a shilling to the tacksman at Baillieston—and that there
was nothing in the act directing the ticket to be given back after being shown

APPENDIx (B.) 335
to the toll-man; besides, as Mr Gerard was going to Glasgow, he did not
again require the ticket. The Sheriff held that nothing could justify the
language made use of by the toll-man—that the act of Parliament declared
merely that the ticket should be produced to the toll-man, not to be retained
by him—that it was no business of the toll-gatherer what road a traveller
might go, as by a change of route he might have occasion to pass some others
of the bars—and he added, that in Lanarkshire the toll-keepers seemed to
be more ignorant of the law than any other county in Scotland. He, there-
fore, awarded a penalty of £3,3s. against the toll-gatherer, reserving action
* the principal tacksman if the toll-gatherer did not pay the fine...Nov.
41.
The Trustees of the Cupar District of Fife Turnpikes in-spring 1841
agreed to accept compositions from the medical gentlemen in the district for
freedom to pass all the toll-bars in the district at £1, 2s. for each one-horse
carriage or gig, and 7s. for each riding horse. One of their number had a
lady with him one day in his carriage, and, notwithstanding his composition
ticket, he was charged toll at Newburgh bar, on the plea that the composi-
tion was a personal one, and did not extend to others. The Procurator-Fiscal
prosecuted the toll-keeper for having exacted toll in the circumstances, and
the Sheriff found he had done wrong, and imposed a modified fine...Meth-
ven, 1841.
A party was tried before the Sheriff of Fife, charged, at the instance of the
Procurator-Fiscal, with assaulting a toll-keeper during night, whom he
thought over-exorbitant in his toll exaction ; found not proven....7th Febru-
ary 1842.
The tacksman of Balgarvie bar prosecuted a carter for 4d. The defender
had passed the toll on the 6th September with his cart loaded with persons
going to Perth to see the Queen, and paid toll. He returned with his load
next morning about two o'clock. A second toll was demanded, which he
refused to pay. Mr Sheriff Jameson found the exemption pled by the de-
fender applicable only to horses paying post-horse duty, and decerned in
terms of the libel...November 3, 1842...Fife Sheriff Court.
A person sent a loaded cart from Wemyss through Windygates toll-bar,
and paid the toll. The same day the same cart returned to Wemyss with a
new loading, and a second toll was exacted. The owner prosecuted the toll-
keeper for repetition, and the Sheriff-Substitute, after three different hear-
ings, decerned the toll-keeper to repeat and pay expenses...Ireland, Decem-
ber 8, 1842...Leven Circuit Court.
Another case was tried between the same parties in similar circumstances
before the ordinary court. On the refusal to pay a second toll for the return
loading, the toll-keeper seized and detained the horse and cart. A record
was made up, and the Sheriff-Substitute found that the toll-keeper, under the
special terms of the Fife Road Act, was not entitled to the second toll de-
manded by him, and ordained him to deliver up the horse, &c. The Sheriff
(Mr Monteith) reversed. The case was advocated to the Court of Session,
but not prosecuted to a conclusion...Ireland, April 4, 1843...Fife Sheriff
Court.
The tacksman of Linton toll-bar charged toll upon carts going with oats
to be mealed at a mill, and he exacted a second toll upon their return with
the meal. This second exaction was found illegal, and the toll-keeper de-
cerned to repay...Peeblesshire Small Debt Court, 26th January 1843.
Four cases, at the instance of the St Andrews District Road Trustees
against parties for payment of tolls at the Dairsie check-bar, remitted to the
ordinary roll...Bain, 9th May 1843...Fife Sheriff Court.
A carter was charged with evasion of toll, by passing from the turnpike
road leading through the farm of Hayfield by a private road on the Dunnikier
estate leading to Kirkaldy. The defender admitted by declaration, emitted
before the Justices, that he had used said road, and pled he had a right to do
so, being at the time in the employment of the tenant of Bogie lime-work—
336 APPENDIX (B.)
the proprietor of which was also proprietor of the farm of Hayfield. The
Justices fined him 1s., with expenses. He appealed against this judgment to
the Quarter Sessions; appeal dismissed by a majority of 14 to 3...Justice of
Peace Fiscal, Oct. 31, 1843...Fife Quarter Sessions.
A landlord prosecuted a tenant for the statute labour paid for his farm
during the last two years of his lease, amounting to £13, 12s. 10d., The
tenant resisted the demand, on the ground that by agreement with the land-
lord the latter had accepted a slump sum in full of his rents and of every-
thing that could be demanded from him at his way-going. It was pled in
reply, that the statute labour had never been mentioned, either in course of
the negociation about the agreement or in the agreement itself, and was not in-
tended to be covered by the slump payment made. After a reference to
the tenant's oath, the Sheriff held the agreement sufficiently comprehensive,
and dismissed the case...Malcolm, November 5, 1844...Fife Sheriff Court.
The defender was a servant to the tenant of Bogie, on the estate of Dunni-
kier, and was charged by the Justice of Peace Procurator-Fiscal with evasion
of toll-duty, by passing from the turnpike road along the road by Hayfield, but
afterwards returning upon the turnpike road, for the purpose of evading
Bennochy bar. The case was tried before the Justices at Kirkaldy on 6th
and 27th January, when the defender pled he was acting in the employment
of his master, a tenant on the Dunnikier estate, who was entitled to use the
cross road. The Justices dismissed the case. Appeal taken on the part of
the complainer, which was advised on 4th March by the Quarter Sessions,
who unanimously dismissed the appeal...Adamson, 4th March, 1845...Fife
Quarter Sessions. $.
CUPAR-FIFE :
PRINTED IN TIII. FIFESHIRE JOURNAE, OFFICE BY JAMES TOD,
ERRORS TO BE CORRECTED.
** 118–Expenditure—Clerk, for £35 read £5.
158—In Nos. VIII., IX, and X, omit IX.
122 and 123–Omit Collector's commission of 18s. 10d.
yearly—none charged.
|| ||iſ fift tº # |#### ############
*...* a
2. ºs.
}
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