I do not know that it has been printed.
impatience at the slow, and almost creeping pace,
with which our conductor proceeded along General
Wade's military road, which never or rarely
condescends to turn aside from the steepest ascent,
but proceeds right up and down bill, with the indifference
to height and hollow, steep or level, indicated
by the old Roman engineers. Still, however,
the substantial excellence of these great works
---for such are the military highways in the Highlands---
deserved the compliment of the poet, who,
whether he came from our sister kingdom, and
spoke in his own dialect, or whether he supposed
those whom he addressed might have some national
pretension to the second sight, produced the celebrated
couplet---
Had you but seen these roads _before_ they were made,
You would hold up your hands, and bless General Wade.
Nothing indeed can be more wonderful than to see
these wildernesses penetrated and pervious in every
quarter by broad accesses of the best possible construction,
and so superior to what the country could
have demanded for many centuries for any pacific
purpose of commercial intercourse. Thus the traces
of war are sometimes happily accommodated to
the purposes of peace.
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