The Duke was a great public benefactor.

The boldness

of his enterprise, and the salutary results which flowed from its execution, entitle him to be regarded as one of the most useful men of his age. A Liverpool letter of 1765 says, "The services the Duke has rendered to the town and neighbourhood of Manchester have endeared him to the country, more especially to the poor, who, with grateful benedictions, repay their noble benefactor."* If he became rich through his enterprise, the public grew rich with him and by him; for his undertaking was no less productive to his neighbours than it was to himself. His memory was long venerated by the people amongst whom he lived, a self-reliant, self-asserting race, proud of their independence, full of persevering energy, and strong in their attachments. The Duke was a man very much after their own hearts, and a good deal after their own manners. In respecting him, they were perhaps but paying homage to those qualities which they most cherished in themselves. Long after the Duke had gone from amongst them, they spoke to each other of his rough words and his kindly acts, his business zeal and his indomitable courage. He was the first great "Manchester man." His example deeply penetrated the Lancashire character, and his presence seems even yet to hover about the district. "The Duke's canal" still carries a large proportion of the merchandise of Manchester and the neighbouring towns; "the Duke's horses "t still draw "the

p. 76.

* ‹ History of Inland Navigation,' | in Manchester is, that the Duke's Acts of Parliament authorising the construction of his canals, forbade the use of horses, in order that men might be employed; and that the Duke consequently dodged the provisions of the Acts by employing mules. But this is not the case, there being no clause in any of them prohibiting the use of horses.

†The Duke at first employed mules in hauling the canal-boats, because of the greater endurance and freedom from disease of those animals, and also because they could eat almost any description of provender. The Duke's breed of mules was for a long time the finest that had been known in England. The popular impression

CH. X. BENEFITS CONFERRED BY THE DUKE'S CANAL. 239

Duke's boats; "the Duke's coals" still issue from "the Duke's levels;" and when any question affecting the traffic of the district is under consideration, the questions are still asked of "What will the Duke say?”

will the Duke do?"*

"What

Manchester men of this day may possibly be surprised to learn that they owe so much to a Duke, or that the old blood has helped the new so materially in the development of England's modern industry. But it is nevertheless true that the Duke of Bridgewater, more than any other single man, contributed to lay the foundations of the prosperity of Manchester, Liverpool, and the surrounding districts. The cutting of the canal from Worsley to Manchester conferred upon that town the immediate benefit of a cheap and abundant supply of coal; and when Watt's steam-engine became the great motive power in manufactures, such supply became absolutely essential to its existence as a manufacturing town. Being the first to secure this great advantage, Manchester thus- got the start forward which she has never since lost.†

But, besides being a waterway for coal, the Duke's canal, when opened out to Liverpool, immediately conferred upon Manchester the immense advantage of direct connection with an excellent seaport. New canals, supported by the Duke and constructed by the Duke's engineer, grew out of the original scheme between Manchester and Runcorn, which had the further effect of placing the former town in direct water-communication with the rich districts of the north-west of England. Then the Duke's

*There is even a tradition surviving at Worsley, that "the Duke" rides through the village once in every year at midnight, drawn by six coal-black horses!

The cotton trade was not of much importance at first, though it rapidly increased when the steamengine and spinning-jenny had become generally adopted. It may

be interesting to know that sixty
years since it was considered satis-
factory if one cotton-flat a day
reached Manchester from Liver-
pool. In the Duke's time the flats
always "cast anchor
on their way,
or at least laid up for the night, at
six o'clock precisely, starting again
at six o'clock on the following
morning.

canal terminus became so important, that most of the new navigations were laid out to join it; those of Leigh, Bolton, Stockport, Rochdale, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, being all connected with the Duke's system, whose centre was at Manchester. And thus the whole industry of these districts was brought, as it were, to the very doors of that town.

But Liverpool was not less directly benefited by the Duke's enterprise. Before his canal was constructed, the small quantity of Manchester woollens and cottons manufactured for exportation was carried on horses' backs to Bewdley and Bridgenorth on the Severn, from whence they were floated down that river to Bristol, then the chief seaport on the west coast. No sooner, however, was the new water-way opened out than the Bridgenorth pack-horses were taken off, and the whole export trade of the district was concentrated at Liverpool. The additional accommodation required for the increased business of the port was promptly provided as occasion required. New harbours and docks were built, and before many years had passed Liverpool had shot far ahead of Bristol, and became the chief port on the west coast, if not in all England. Had Bristol been blessed with a Duke of Bridgewater, the result might have been altogether different; and the valleys of Wilts, the coal and iron fields of Wales, and the estuary of the Severn, might have been what South Lancashire and the Mersey are now. Were statues any proof of merit, the Duke would long since have had the highest statue in Manchester as well as Liverpool erected to his memory, and that of Brindley would have been found standing by his side; for they were both heroes of industry and of peace, though even in commercial towns men of war are sometimes more honoured.

We can only briefly glance at the extraordinary growth of Manchester since the formation of the Duke's canal, as indicated by the annexed plan.

CHAP. X.

GROWTH OF MANCHESTER.

241

Though Manchester was a place of some importance about the middle of last century, it was altogether insignificant in extent, trade, and population, compared with

Plan of Manchester, showing its extent at three periods.
represent Manchester in 1770; those dark-shaded

(The parts printed black

extent in 1804; and the light-shaded parts

show its

Manchester at the present day.)

what it is now. It consisted of a few principal streetsnarrow, dark, and tortuous-one of them leading from the Market Place to St. Ann's ately named "Dark Entry." original street of the town,

J. B.

Square, being very appropri Deansgate was the principal and so called because of its

R

leading to the dean or valley along which it partly extended. From thence a few streets diverged in different directions into the open country. St. Ann's Square, the fashionable centre of modern Manchester, was in 1770 a corn-field surrounded with lofty trees, and known by the name of " Acre's Field." The cattle-fairs of the town were held there, the entrance from Deansgate being by Toll Lane, a narrow, dirty, unpaved way, so called because toll was there levied on the cattle proceeding towards the fair. The ancient seat of the Radcliffe family still stood at Pool Fold, close to the site of the modern Cross Street, and the water in the moat was used as a ducking-pond for scolds. When the pool became filled up, the ducking-pond was removed to Daub Holes, then on the outskirts of the town, where the Infirmary now stands. The site of King Street, now the very heart of Manchester, was as yet comparatively retired, a colony of rooks having established themselves in the tall trees at its upper end, from which they were only finally expelled about forty years ago. Cannon Street was the principal place of business, the merchants and their fimilies living in the comparatively humble tenements fronting the street, the equally humble warehouses in which their business was done standing in the rear. The ground on which the crowded thoroughfares of Oldham Street, London Road, Mosley Street, and their continuations, now exist, was as yet but garden or pasture-land. Salford itself was only a hamlet occupying the bend of the Irwell. It consisted of a double line of mean houses, extending from the Old Bridge (now Victoria Bridge) to about the end of Gravel Lane, then a country road containing only a few detached cottages. The comparatively rural character of Manchester may be inferred from the circumstance that the Medlock and the Irk, the Tib and Shooter's Brook, were favourite fishing streams. Salmon were caught in the Medlock and at the mouth of the Irk; and the others were well stocked with trout.