he asked a boatman coming; out of it how he liked it? "I only
wish," he replied, "that it reached all the way to Manchester!"

[Image] Cross Section of Harecastle Tunnel.
At the time that Mr. Telford was engaged upon the tunnel at

Harecastle, he was employed to improve and widen the Birmingham
Canal, another of Brindley's works. Though the accommodation

provided by it had been sufficient for the traffic when originally
constructed, the expansion of the trade of Birmingham and the

neighbourhood, accelerated by the formation of the canal itself,
had been such as completely to outgrow its limitedconvenience and

capacity, and its enlargement and improvement now became absolutely
necessary. Brindley's Canal, for the sake of cheapness of

construction--money being much scarcer and more difficult to be
raised in the early days of canals--was also winding and crooked;

and it was considered desirable to shorten and straighten it by
cutting off the bends at different places. At the point at which

the canal entered Birmingham, it had become "little better than a
crooked ditch, with scarcely the appearance of a towing-path, the

horses frequently sliding and staggering in the water, the
hauling-lines sweeping the gravel into the canal, and the

entanglement at the meeting of boats being incessant; whilst at the
locks at each end of the short summit at Smethwick crowds of

boatmen were always quarrelling, or offering premiums for a
preference of passage; and the mine-owners, injured by the delay,

were loud in their just complaints."*[4]
Mr. Telford proposed an effectivemeasure of improvement, which

was taken in hand without loss of time, and carried out, greatly
to the advantage of the trade of the district. The numerous bends

in the canal were cut off, the water-way was greatly widened, the
summit at Smethwick was cut down to the level on either side, and a

straight canal, forty feet wide, without a lock, was thus formed
as far as Bilston and Wolverhampton; while the length of the main

line between Birmingham and Autherley, along the whole extent of
the "Black country," was reduced from twenty-two to fourteen miles.

At the same time the obsolete curvatures in Brindley's old canal
were converted into separate branches or basins, for the

accommodation of the numerous mines and manufactories on either
side of the main line. In consequence of the alterations which had

been made in the canal, it was found necessary to construct
numerous large bridges. One of these--a cast iron bridge,

at Galton, of 150 feet span--has been much admired for its elegance,
lightness, and economy of material. Several others of cast iron

were constructed at different points, and at one place the canal
itself is carried along on an aqueduct of the same material as at

Pont-Cysylltau. The whole of these extensiveimprovements were
carried out in the short space of two years; and the result was

highly satisfactory, "proving," as Mr. Telford himself observes,
"that where business is extensive, liberalexpenditure of this kind

is true economy."
[Image] Galton Bridge, Birmingham Canal.

In 1825 Mr. Telford was called upon to lay out a canal to connect
the Grand Trunk, at the north end of Harecastle Tunnel, with the

rapidly improving towns of Congleton and Macclesfield. The line
was twenty-nine miles in length, ten miles on one level from

Harecastle to beyond Congleton; then, ascending 114 feet by eleven
locks, it proceeded for five miles on a level past Macclesfield,

and onward to join the Peak Forest Canal at Marple. The navigation
was thus conducted upon two levels, each of considerable length;

and it so happened that the trade of each was in a measure
distinct, and required separate accommodation. The traffic of the

whole of the Congleton district had ready access to the Grand Trunk
system, without the labour, expense, and delay involved by passing

the boats through locks; while the coals brought to Macclesfield to
supply the mills there were carried throughout upon the upper

level, also without lockage. The engineer's arrangement proved
highly judicious, and furnishes an illustration of the tact and

judgment which he usually displayed in laying out his works for
practical uses. Mr Telford largely employed cast iron in the

construction of this canal, using it in the locks and gates, as
well as in an extensive aqueduct which it was necessary to

construct over a deep ravine, after the plan pursued by him at,
Pont-Cysylltau and other places.

The last canal constructed by. Mr. Telford was the Birmingham and
Liverpool Junction, extending from the Birmingham Canal, near

Wolverhampton, in nearly a direct line, by Market Drayton,
Nantwich, and through the city of Chester, by the Ellesmere Canal,

to Ellesmere Port on the Mersey. The proprietors of canals were
becoming alarmed at the numerous railways projected through the

districts heretofore served by their water-ways; and among other
projects one was set on foot, as early as 1825, for constructing a

line of railway from London to Liverpool. Mr. Telford was
consulted as to the best means of protecting existing investments,

and his advice was to render the canal system as complete as it
could be made; for he entertained the conviction, which has been

justified by experience, that such navigations possessed peculiar
advantages for the conveyance of heavy goods, and that, if the

interruptions presented by locks could be done away with, or
materially reduced, a large portion of the trade of the country

must continue to be carried by the water roads. The new line
recommended by him was approved and adopted, and the works were

commenced in 1826. A second complete route was thus opened up
between Birmingham and Liverpool, and Manchester, by which the

distance was shortened twelve miles, and the delay occasioned by
320 feet of upward and downward lockage was done away with.

Telford was justly proud of his canals, which were the finest works
of their kind that had yet been executed in England. Capacious,

convenient, and substantial, they embodied his most ingenious
contrivances, and his highest engineering skill. Hence we find him

writing to a friend at Langholm, that, so soon as he could find
"sufficient leisure from his various avocations in his own

unrivalled and beloved island," it was his intention to visit
France and Italy, for the purpose of ascertaining what foreigners

had been able to accomplish, compared with ourselves, in the
construction of canals, bridges, and harbours. "I have no doubt,"

said he, "as to their inferiority. During the war just brought to
a close, England has not only been able to guard her own head and

to carry on a gigantic struggle, but at the same time to construct
canals, roads, harbours, bridges--magnificent works of peace--the

like of which are probably not to be found in the world. Are not
these things worthy of a nation's pride?"

Footnotes for Chapter X.
*[1] Mr. Matthew Davidson, above referred to, was an excellent

officer, but a strange cynical humourist in his way. He was a
Lowlander, and had lived for some time in England, at the Pont

Cysylltau works, where he had acquired a taste for English comforts,
and returned to the North with a considerablecontempt for the

Highland people amongst whom he was stationed. He is said to
have very much resembled Dr. Johnson in person and was so fond

of books, and so well read in them, that he was called
'the Walking Library.' He used to say that if justice were done to

the inhabitants of Inverness, there would be nobody left there in
twenty years but the Provost and the hangman. Seeing an artist one

day making a sketch in the mountains, he said it was the first time
he had known what the hills were good for. And when some one was

complaining of the weather in the Highlands, he looked sarcastically
round, and observed that the rain certainly would not hurt the

heather crop.
*[2] The misfortunes of the Caledonian Canal did not end with the

life of Telford. The first vessel passed through it from sea to
sea in October, 1822, by which time it had cost about a million

sterling, or double the original estimate. Notwithstanding this
large outlay, it appears that the canal was opened before the works

had been properly completed; and the consequence was that they very
shortly fell into decay. It even began to be considered whether

the canal ought not to be abandoned. In 1838, Mr. James Walker,