VERY little had as yet been done to open up the inland navigation of England, beyond dredging and clearing out in a very imperfect manner the channels of some of the larger rivers, so as to admit of the passage of small barges. Several attempts had been made in Lancashire and Cheshire, as we have already shown, to open up the navigation of the Mersey and the Irwell from Liverpool to Manchester. There were similar projects for improving the Weaver from Frodsham, where it joins the Mersey, to Winford Bridge above Northwich; and the Douglas, from the Ribble to Wigan. About the same time like schemes were started in Yorkshire, with the object of opening up the navigation of the Aire and Calder to Leeds and Wakefield, and of the Don from Doncaster to near Sheffield. One of the Acts passed by Parliament in 1737 is worthy of notice, as the forerunner of the Bridgewater Canal enterprise we allude to the Act for making navigable the Worsley Brook to its junction with the river Irwell, near Manchester. A similar Act was obtained in 1755, for making navigable the Sankey Brook from the Mersey, about two miles below Warrington, to St. Helens, Gerrard Bridge, and Penny Bridge. In this case the canal was constructed separate from the brook, but alongside of it; and at several points locks were provided to adapt the canal to the level of the lands passed through. The same year in which application was made to Parliament for powers to construct the Sankey Canal, the Corporation of Liverpool had under their consideration a much larger scheme-no less than a canal to unite the Trent and the Mersey, and thus open a water-communication between the ports of Liverpool and Hull. It was proposed that the line should proceed by Chester, Stafford, Derby, and Nottingham. A survey was made, principally at the instance of Mr. Hardman, a public spirited merchant of Liverpool, and for many years one of its representatives in Parliament. Another survey was shortly after made at the instance of Earl Gower, afterwards Marquis of Stafford, and it was probably in making this survey that Brindley's attention was first directed to the business of canal engineering. We find his first entry relating to the subject made on the 5th of February, 1758-"novocion [navigation] 5 days;" the second, a little better spelt, on the 19th of the same month—“a bout the novogation 3 days;" and afterwards" surveing the novogation from Long brigg to Kinges Milles 12 days." It does not, however, appear that the scheme made much progress, or that steps were taken at that time to bring the measure before Parliament; and Brindley continued to pursue his other employments, more especially the erection of "fire-engines" after his new patent. This continued until the following year, when we find him in close consultation with the Duke of Bridgewater relative to the construction of his proposed canal from Worsley to Manchester. The early career of this distinguished nobleman was of a somewhat remarkable character. He was born in 1736, the fifth and youngest son of Scroop, third Earl and first Duke of Bridgewater, by Lady Rachel Russell. He lost his father when only five years old, and all his brothers died by the time that he had reached his twelfth year, at which early age he succeeded to the title of Duke of Bridgewater. He was a weak and sickly child, and his mental capacity was thought so defective, that steps were even in contemplation to set him aside in favour of the next heir to the title and estates. His mother seems almost entirely to have neglected him. In the first year CHAP. VIII. HIS EARLY LIFE. 155 of her widowhood she married Sir Richard Lyttleton, and from that time forward took the least possible notice of her boy. The young Duke did not give much promise of surviving his consumptive brothers, and his mind was considered so incapable of improvement, that he was left in a great measure without either domestic guidance or intellectual discipline and culture. Horace Walpole writes to Mann in 1761: "You will be happy in Sir Richard Lyttleton and his Duchess; they are the best-humoured people in the world." But the good humour of this handsome couple was mostly displayed in the world of gay life, very little of it being reserved for home use. Possibly, however, it may have been even fortunate for the young Duke that he was left so much to himself, to profit by the wholesome neglect of special nurses and tutors, who are not always the most judicious in their bringing up of delicate children. At seventeen, the young Duke's guardians, the Duke of Bedford and Lord Trentham, finding him still alive and likely to live, determined to send him abroad on his travels -the wisest thing they could have done. They selected for his tutor the celebrated traveller, Robert Wood, author of the well-known work on Troy, Baalbec, and Palmyra; afterwards appointed to the office of Under-Secretary of State by the Earl of Chatham. Wood was an accomplished scholar, a persevering traveller, and withal a man of good business qualities. His habits of intelligent observation could not fail to be of service to his pupil, and it is not unnatural to suppose that the great artificial watercourses and canals which they saw in the course of their travels had some effect in afterwards determining the latter to undertake the important works of a similar character by which his name became so famous. While passing through the south of France, the Duke was especially interested by his inspection of the Grand Canal of Languedoc, a magnificent work executed under great difficulties, and which had promoted in an extraordinary degree the prosperity of that part of the kingdom.* Proceeding into Italy, the Duke and his companion inspected all that was worthy of being seen there, including the picture galleries at Florence, Venice, and Rome. During their visit Mr. Wood sat to Mengs for his portrait, which still forms part of the Bridgewater collection. The Duke also purchased works of sculpture at Rome; but that he himself entertained no great enthusiasm for art is evident from the fact related by the late Earl of Ellesmere, that these works remained in their original packing-cases until after his death.† Returned to England, he seems to have led the usual life of a gay young nobleman of the time, with plenty of money at his command. In 1756, when only twenty years old, he appears from the 'Racing Calendar' to have kept race-horses; occasionally riding them in matches himself. Though in after life a very bulky man, he was so light as a youth, that on one occasion Lord Ellesmere says a bet was jokingly offered that he would be blown off his horse. Dressed in a livery of blue silk and silver, with a jockey cap, he once rode a race against His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, on the long terrace at the back of the wood in Trentham Park, the seat of his relative, Earl Gower. During His Royal Highness's visit, the large old green-house, since taken down, was hastily run up for the playing of skittles; and prison bars and other village games were instituted for the recreation of the guests. Those occupations of the Duke were varied by an occasional visit to his racing-stud at Newmarket, where he had a house for some time, and by the usual round of London gaieties during the season. A young nobleman of tender age, moving freely in * See Appendix, Grand Canal of Languedoc, and its execution by Riquet de Bonrepos. Essays in History, Biography, Geography, Engineering,' &c. By the late Earl of Ellesmere. London, 1858. P. 226. CHAP. VIII. HIS LOVE AFFAIR. 157 circles where were to be seen some of the finest specimens of female beauty in the world, could scarcely be expected to pass heart-whole; and hence the occurrence of the event in his London life which, singularly enough, is said to have driven him in a great measure from society, and induced him to devote himself to the construction of canals! We find various allusions in the letters of the time to the intended marriage of the young Duke of Bridgewater. One rumour pointed to the only daughter and heiress of Mr. Thomas Revell, formerly M.P. for Dover, as the object of his choice. But it appears that the lady to whom he became the most strongly attached was one of the Gunnings the comparatively portionless daughters of an Irish gentleman, who were then the reigning beauties at Court. The object of the Duke's affection was Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, and perhaps the most beautiful of the three. She had been married to the fourth Duke of Hamilton, in Keith's Chapel, Mayfair, in 1752, “with a ring of the bed-curtain, half-an-hour after twelve at night,' but the Duke dying shortly after, she was now a gay and beautiful widow, with many lovers in her train. In the same year in which she had been clandestinely married to the Duke of Hamilton, her eldest sister was married to the sixth Earl of Coventry. The Duke of Bridgewater paid his court to the young widow, proposed, and was accepted. The arrangements for the marriage were in progress, when certain rumours reached his ear reflecting upon the character of Lady Coventry, his intended bride's elder sister, who was certainly more fair than she was wise. Believing the reports, he required the Duchess to desist from further intimacy with her sister, a condition which her high spirit would not brook, and, the Duke remaining firm, the match was broken off. From that time forward he is said never * Walpole to Mann,' Feb. 27th, 1752. |