СНАР. Х.

HIS STEAM-TUG EXPERIMENT.

233

superintending the construction of canals, on which he was afterwards employed in the midland counties.*

The Duke did not forget the idea which Fulton had communicated to him as to the employment of steam as a motive power for boats, instead of horses; and when he afterwards heard that Symington's steam-boat, The Dundas, had been tried successfully on the Forth and Clyde Canal, he arranged to have six canal boats constructed after Symington's model; for he was a man to shrink from no expense in carrying out an enterprise which, to use his own words, had "utility at the heels of it." The Earl of Ellesmere, in his Essay on Aqueducts and Canals,' states that the Duke made actual experiment of a steam-tug, and quotes the following from the communication of one of the Duke's servants, alive in 1844: "I well remember the steam-tug experiment on the canal. It was between 1796 and 1799. Captain Shanks, R.N., from Deptford, was at Worsley many weeks preparing it, by the Duke's own orders and under his own eye. It was set going and tried with coal-boats; but it went slowly, and the paddles made sad work with the bottom of the canal, and also threw the water on the bank. The Worsley people called it Bonaparte." But the Duke dying shortly after, the trustees refused to proceed with the experiment, and the project consequently fell through. Had the Duke lived, canal steam-tugs would doubtless have been fairly tried; and he might thus have initiated the practical introduction of steam-navigation in England, as he unquestionably laid the foundations of the canal system. He lived long enough, however, to witness the introduction of tram-roads, and he

*The treatise which Fulton afterwards published, entitled 'A Treatise on Canal Navigation, exhibiting the numerous advantages to be derived from small Canals, &c., with a description of the machinery for facilitating conveyance by water

through the most mountainous countries, independent of Locks and Aqueducts,' (London, 1796,) is well known amongst engineers.

+ Lord Ellesmere's Essays,' p. 241.

" We

saw considerable grounds for apprehension in them. may do very well," he once observed to Lord Kenyon, “if we can keep clear of these tram-roads."

He was an admirable judge of character, and was rarely deceived as to the men he placed confidence in. John Gilbert was throughout his confidential adviser-a practical out-doors man, full of energy and perseverance. When any proposal was made to the Duke, he would say, “Well, thou must go to Gilbert and tell him all about it; I'll do nothing without I consult him.” From living so much amongst his people, he had contracted their style of speaking, and "thee'd" and "thou'd" those whom he addressed, after the custom of the district. He was rough in his speech, and gruff and emphatic in his manner, like those amidst whom he lived; but with the rough word he meant and did the kindly act. His early want of education debarred him in a measure from the refining influences of letters; for he read little, except perhaps an occasional newspaper, and he avoided writing whenever he could. He also denied himself the graces of female society; and the seclusion which his early disappointment in love had first driven him to, at length grew into a habit. He lived wifeless and died childless. He would not even allow a

woman servant to wait upon him.

In person he was large and corpulent; and the slim youth on whom the bet had been laid that he would be blown off his horse when riding the race in Trentham Park so many years before, had grown into a bulky and unwieldy man. His features strikingly resembled those of George III. and other members of the Royal Family. He dressed carelessly, and usually wore a suit of brown-something of the cut of Dr. Johnson's-with dark drab breeches, fastened at the knee with silver buckles. At dinner he rejected, with a kind of antipathy, all poultry, veal, and such like, calling them "white meats," and wondered that everybody, like himself, did not prefer the brown. He was a great smoker, and

smoked far more than he talked. Smoking was his principal evening's occupation when Brindley and Gilbert were pondering with him over the difficulty of raising funds to complete the navigation, and the Duke continued his solitary enjoyment through life. One of the droll habits to which he was addicted was that of rushing out of the room every five minutes, with the pipe in his mouth, to look at the barometer. Out of doors he snuffed, and he would pull huge pinches out of his right waiscoat pocket and thrust the powder up his nose, accompanying the operation with sundry strong short snorts.

He would have neither conservatory, pinery, flowergarden, nor shrubbery at Worsley; and once, on his return from London, finding some flowers which had been planted in his absence, he whipped their heads off with his cane, and ordered them to be rooted up. The only new things introduced about the place were some Turkey oaks, with which his character seemed to have more sympathy. But he took a sudden fancy for pictures, and with his almost boundless means the formation of a valuable collection of pictures was easy.*

Lord Ellesmere says: "An accident laid the foundation of the Bridgewater collection. Dining one day with his nephew, Lord Gower, afterwards Duke of Sutherland, the Duke saw and admired a picture which the latter had picked up a bargain, for some 107., at a broker's in the morning. You must take me,' he said, 'to that

fellow to-morrow.' Whether this impetuosity produced any immediate result we are not informed, but plenty of such 'fellows' were doubtless not wanting to cater for the taste thus suddenly developed."

CHAP. X.

CHARACTER OF THE DUKE.

237

Fortunately the Duke's investments in paintings appear to have been well directed; and a discerning eye seems to have guided a liberal hand in selecting fine separate works, as well as the gems from Continental collections which were then dispersed and found their way hither, thus enabling him to lay the foundation of the famous Bridgewater Gallery, one of the finest private collections in Europe. At his death, in 1803, its value was estimated at 150,000l.

The Duke very seldom took part in politics, but usually followed the lead of his relative Earl Gower, afterwards Marquis of Stafford, who was a Whig. In 1762, we find his name in a division on a motion to withdraw the British troops from Germany, and on the loss of the motion he joined in a protest on the subject. When the repeal of the American Stamp Act was under discussion His Grace was found in the ranks of the opposition to the measure. He strongly supported Mr. Fox's India Bill, and generally approved the policy of that statesman.

The title of Duke of Bridgewater died with him. The Earldom went to his cousin General Egerton, seventh Earl of Bridgewater, and from him to his brother the crazed Francis Henry, eighth Earl; and on his death at Paris, in February, 1829, that title too became extinct. The Duke bequeathed about 600,000l. in legacies to his relatives, General Egerton, the Countess of Carlisle, Lady Anne Vernon, and Lady Louisa Macdonald. He devised most of his houses, his pictures, and his canals, to his nephew George Granville (son of Earl Gower), second Marquis of Stafford and first Duke of Sutherland, with reversion to his second son, Lord Francis Egerton, first Earl of Ellesmere, who thus succeeded to the principal part of the vast property created by the Duke of Bridgewater. The Duke was buried in the family vault at Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, in the plainest manner, without any state, at his own express request. On his monument was inscribed the simple and appropriate epitaph Impuit ille rates ubi duxit aratra Colonus.