Well, I said I'd tell you about great uncle Harry's contour road books, but first let me tell you a little about Harry himself. He was the youngest of the three children of Robert and Eliza (Gall) Inglis, born in 1869. (He's the little boy standing in the centre. His elder brother James is the curly haired boy next to him with their mother Eliza, and father Robert standing behind.) His father Robert Inglis had joined his wife's grandfather, James Gall, ( the old man seated in the centre) in partnership as Gall and Inglis, and when the two boys grew up they too joined the family firm. James' interests in the publishing business were the astrononical books, and the ready reckoners that sold extremely well, while Harry developed the range of contour road books. How he did all the surveys necessary for the series which covered not only Scotland but England and Ireland too, I'll never know, but I expect he used the most rudimentary of equipment, an odometer/mileometer and an altimeter probably! Anyway, the idea was to show the gradients in particular, of all the routes in the country; give mileages and descriptions of the said routes, and information about the conditions of them - in the 1920s. Its users were car drivers (of far less sophisticated vehicles than we drive today), motor cycle riders and cyclists - and remember that roads were not as well maintained as they are today - even though we still complain about the state of them. According to Harry, several roads were lumpy and bumpy, very probably untarred (unsealed), narrow, rough and stony, not more than farm tracks in the more rural areas, perhaps with gates to keep livestock from wandering. Even I remember a few gated roads in rural areas right into the 1980s (not on main routes). It was great fun for my sister and I, in the 1950s-ish, to leap out of the car to open a gate for dad to drive through. The gate was closed again and we leapt back into the car for the next stretch. Not so much fun as a lone adult driver - stop the car, jump out, open the gate, jump in the car, drive through the gate, jump out the car, close the gate, jump in the car and drive on! I did that often on my tours in the Yorkshire Dales in the 80s!
So in this one magic little publication measuring just 5 inches by 3 inches, every aspect of your journey is covered! It even tells you where there are inns and hotels on your route (B&Bs weren't in vogue then!) Who could have afforded to be without one? Even today's Sat Nav systems don't do all of that!
The strip diagrams in the book were formed by grids, the horizontal lines indicating divisions of 100 feet in height, and the vertical lines indicating miles. The profile of the route was marked to show at a glance how far and how high you had to travel and how steep that journey might be. 
For example, the main route from Perth to Braemar undulated fairly gently for about 15 miles, between about 100 and 350 feet above sea level to reach Blairgowrie. A couple of miles further on the road began to climb steadily from 350 to 700 ft in the next two miles or so, followed by a mile and a half descent of 100 feet. It then climbed steeply in the next mile to reach about 800 feet where it levelled off (kind of) for the next 3 miles. The climb up to 1500 feet was very gradual over 12 miles, and thereafter a steep climb in the next mile and a half led to the highest point of the route at 2200 feet. 800 feet of descent were achieved in the next four miles, followed by a more gentle descent over 7 miles, to arrive at Braemar situated at 1100 feet a.s.l. 
Of course this profile doesn't indicate the bends and twists of the road, but the more memorable of these are written in a description on the opposite page. Harry mentions 'sharp undulations with quick turns' on the section of road leading to the notorious Devil's Elbow, not far from the highest point of the route - where to accommodate a reasonable gradient over the steep hillside, the road hairpinned on a 'soft surface' through a Z shape and was described as "highly dangerous". In fact the Elbow wasn't "straightened out" till about the 1970s, and I remember it well! Not the best road to travel in winter!!!
For example, the main route from Perth to Braemar undulated fairly gently for about 15 miles, between about 100 and 350 feet above sea level to reach Blairgowrie. A couple of miles further on the road began to climb steadily from 350 to 700 ft in the next two miles or so, followed by a mile and a half descent of 100 feet. It then climbed steeply in the next mile to reach about 800 feet where it levelled off (kind of) for the next 3 miles. The climb up to 1500 feet was very gradual over 12 miles, and thereafter a steep climb in the next mile and a half led to the highest point of the route at 2200 feet. 800 feet of descent were achieved in the next four miles, followed by a more gentle descent over 7 miles, to arrive at Braemar situated at 1100 feet a.s.l. 
Of course this profile doesn't indicate the bends and twists of the road, but the more memorable of these are written in a description on the opposite page. Harry mentions 'sharp undulations with quick turns' on the section of road leading to the notorious Devil's Elbow, not far from the highest point of the route - where to accommodate a reasonable gradient over the steep hillside, the road hairpinned on a 'soft surface' through a Z shape and was described as "highly dangerous". In fact the Elbow wasn't "straightened out" till about the 1970s, and I remember it well! Not the best road to travel in winter!!! From this incedible little book you could also estimate "lighting-up times"/sunset, throughout the country using specially designed calculations for five different zones south to north. For example Peebles falls into zone A, the south of Scotland, so for 2 September, the time is given as 7.46p.m. BUT there are further calculations to be made. I'm told to add 13 minutes to that time (+11 in Selkirk and Galashiels, +14 in Moffat, +16 in Castle Douglas - see my last blog), so that makes lighting up time here 7.59p.m. which is about right! Way up north in Shetland adding 5 minutes to the zone E time gives 7.57 p.m. Oh, there's another bit of calculation that would make sunset about 8.03!!!!! Harry says that the time of sunset varies from year to year so these times are just an average but they will never be more than a few minutes out on any date!!! It may be sunset time but twilight here can last a good while before darkness really falls!
Ferry services and their prices are given. Those prices!!!!! In shillings and pence, old money (I remember that too)! There were a lot more ferry services back then than there are now, bridges having been built in many places, and others discontinued, but for example before the Road bridge was built over the Firth of Forth, the ferry charge for cars was 10 shillings. That was half of a pound - in today's money 50 pence, and today that will maybe just buy you a pint of milk. It won't buy you a loaf of bread or even a half pound of butter, not even a bar of decent chocolate!!!
Ferry services and their prices are given. Those prices!!!!! In shillings and pence, old money (I remember that too)! There were a lot more ferry services back then than there are now, bridges having been built in many places, and others discontinued, but for example before the Road bridge was built over the Firth of Forth, the ferry charge for cars was 10 shillings. That was half of a pound - in today's money 50 pence, and today that will maybe just buy you a pint of milk. It won't buy you a loaf of bread or even a half pound of butter, not even a bar of decent chocolate!!!
Pronunciation of placenames (Avoch is pronounced Auch. Strathavon is Straven, Culross is Cooross..... ), a glossary of Gaelic placenames (Dun means a fort or prehistoric settlement - adds I! e.g Dunbar. Kin means head e.g. Kintail. Kinloch is the head of a loch, e.g.Kinlochard. Inver is the mouth of a river, e.g. Inverness.....), heights of principal mountains (Ben Nevis 4406 feet. Cairngorm 4084 ft. Ben Lomond 3192 ft....), heights of road passes (Beattock 1025 ft. Drumochter 1507 ft.....), notable waterfalls (Falls of Glomach, Linn o' Dee, Grey Mare's tail.....), a suggested tour of the country, all are here! So if you would like a touring route of Scotland, leave me a comment and I'll write out what Harry recommended in the 1920s. I started to do that here, but it's very long - over 1000 miles in Harry's day. It's good though! Road improvements will have shortened that a bit today and road conditions will make it quicker travelling.
There's a page about antiquities you may encounter on your way round the country! Standing stones, curious circular buildings, sometimes found underground, round towers, the great Roman wall of Antoninus (not to be confused with the one further south built by Hadrian, I add!), ruins of abbeys, cathedrals, etc., ruined castles - Scotland abounds in them, says Harry!
I've just found a page that explains GRADIENTS - It's all too scientific in my opinion and I don't understand a lot of it! Apparently you needed (still need?) a clinometer to find exact gradients so I assume that Harry had one of these too. He even explains how to estimate the amount of fuel needed on a journey. You have to work out the amount of adverse gradient.... crumbs it looks complicated! It all depends on which gear you are using and when you change down on a hill!!! Cyclists can calculate the time it will take them to reach their destination, basically they'll travel 7 miles of flat country in less time than 7 miles of hilly country - I understand that alright. I wonder how much petrol cost in 1922? Of course we buy our petrol in litres now, but it's the equivalent of at least £5 a gallon now! That's about $10 U.S. or as near as makes not a lot of difference! And to think that when I started driving you could buy 4 gallons and still have change from £1!!!
So in this one magic little publication measuring just 5 inches by 3 inches, every aspect of your journey is covered! It even tells you where there are inns and hotels on your route (B&Bs weren't in vogue then!) Who could have afforded to be without one? Even today's Sat Nav systems don't do all of that!Talk again soon.
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