450 REVIEWS

(1970) by those who seek a fuller appreciation of the complex of forces which stimulated such industrial development on Scottish landed estates before the nineteenth century.

This study is therefore to be welcomed as a competent evaluation of a key aspect of Scotland's pre-industrial economy which also helps to illuminate broader themes such as the economic and political role of the Scottish landed classes, the growth of the Scottish domestic market and the position of labour in early modern society.

University of Strathclyde T. M. DEVINE

OWEN SILVER, The Roads ofF,re (Edinburgh; John Donald, 1987. Pp. v + 197. s

It is always a pleasure to give an almost unqualified welcome to a new book. The Roads of Fife is an excellent example of how a local study of the history of roads can be written. The area covered is only 500 square miles, and yet the author is able to deal in great detail with the creation, maintenance and improvement of the roads, concentrating on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are particular chapters on the Turnpike Roads, as well as on traffic and management, and the general history is enlivened by continual reference to the individuals concerned in the various changes. Furthermore, the book manages to include substantial descriptions individual roads and a chapter of field notes to aid interested students. The book is well referenced, has a useful appendix listing the turnpikes, and ends with a comprehensive index. Throughout it is well illustrated by photographs and maps, although the larger-scale map lack scales. A number of early maps have been used as evidence for the course of roads, though it would have been interesting to see more of them reproduced, in particular parts of Roy's survey of 1747 55. The book does have some weaknesses, principally the thin treatment of the period before the eighteenth century. No attempt is made to use travellers' itineraries or diaries to plot the routes in use at a particular date, or to use the admittedly scattered references to early roads in wills, bequests and other legal documents. Despite these shortcomings the book is undoubtedly a success, and it can only be hoped that it may serve as a model to other researchers to delve into the neglected history of the roads in their own particular neck of the woods.

University of Salford BRIAN PAUL HINDLE