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progress at the Liverpool end, Earl Gower, encouraged and assisted by the Duke, had applied for and obtained an Act to enable a line of navigation to be formed between the Mersey and the Trent; the Duke agreeing with the promoters of the undertaking to vary the course of his canal and meet theirs about midway between Prestonbrook and Runcorn, from which point it was to be carried northward towards the Mersey, descending into that river by a flight of ten locks, the total fall being not less than 79 feet from the level of the canal to low-water of springtides.

When this deviation was proposed, the bold imagination of Brindley projected a bridge across the tideway of the Mersey itself, which was there some four hundred and sixty yards wide, with the object of carrying the Duke's navigation directly onward to the port of Liverpool on the Lancashire side of the river.* This was an admirable idea, which, if carried out, would probably have redounded more to the fame of Brindley than any other of his works. But the cost of that portion of the canal which had already been executed, had reached so excessive an amount, that the Duke was compelled to stop short at Runcorn, at which place a dock was constructed for the accommodation of the shipping employed in the trade connected with the undertaking.

From Runcorn, it was arranged that the boats should navigate by the open tideway of the Mersey to the harbour of Liverpool, at which place the Duke made arrangements to provide another dock for their accommodation. Brindley

*This bold scheme, so earnestly advocated by Brindley, was thus noticed by a Liverpool paper of the time:"On Monday last, Mr. Brindley waited upon several of the principal gentlemen of this town and others at Runcorn, in order to ascertain the expense that may attend the building of a

bridge over the river Mersey at the latter place, which is estimated at a sum inferior to the advantages that must arise both to the counties of Lancaster and Chester from a communication of this sort."-Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser,' July 19th, 1768.

made frequent visits to Liverpool for the purpose of directing its excavation, and he superintended it until its completion. The Duke's Dock lies between the Salthouse and Albert Docks on the north, and the Wapping and King's Docks on the south. The Salthouse was the only public dock near it at the time that Brindley excavated this basin. There were only three others in Liverpool to the north, and not one to the south; but the Duke's Dock is now the centre of about five miles of docks, extending from it on either side along the Lancashire shore of the Mersey; and it continues to this day to be devoted to the purposes of the navigation.

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CHAPTER X.

THE DUKE'S DIFFICULTIES COMPLETION OF THE CANAL – GROWTH OF MANCHESTER.

LONG before the Runcorn locks were constructed, and the canal from Longford Bridge to the Mersey was available for purposes of traffic, the Duke found himself reduced to the greatest straits for want of money. Numerous unexpected difficulties had occurred, so that the cost of the works considerably exceeded his calculations; and though the engineer carried on the whole operations with the strictest regard to economy, the expense was nevertheless almost more than any single purse could bear. The execution of the original canal from Worsley to Manchester cost about a thousand guineas a mile, besides the outlay upon the terminus at Manchester. There was also the expenditure incurred in building the requisite boats for the canal, in opening out the underground workings of the collieries at Worsley, and in erecting various mills, workshops, and warehouses for carrying on the new business.

The Duke was enabled to do all this without severely taxing his resources, and he even entertained the hope of being able to grapple with the still greater undertaking of cutting the twenty-four miles of new canal from Longford Bridge to the Mersey. But before these works were half finished, and whilst the large amount of capital invested in them was lying entirely unproductive, he found that the difficulties of the undertaking were likely to prove too much for him. Indeed, it seemed an enterprise beyond the means of any private person, and more like that of a monarch with State revenues at his command, than of a young English nobleman with only his private

resources.

But the Duke was possessed by a brave spirit. He had put his hand to the work, and he would not look back. He had become thoroughly inspired by his great idea, and determined to bend his whole energies to the task of carrying it out. He was only thirty years of age-the owner of several fine mansions in different parts of the country, surrounded by noble domains-he had a fortune sufficiently ample to enable him to command the pleasures and luxuries of life, so far as money can secure them; yet he voluntarily denied himself their enjoyment, and chose to devote his time to consultations with an unlettered engineer, and his whole resources to the cutting of a canal to unite Liverpool and Manchester.

Taking up his residence at the Old Hall at Worsleya fine specimen of the old timbered houses so common

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in South Lancashire and the neighbouring counties,-he cut down every unnecessary personal expense; denied himself every superfluity, except perhaps that of a pipe of tobacco; paid off his retinue of servants; put down his carriages and town house; and confined himself and his Ducal establishment to a total expenditure of 400l. a-year. A horse was, however, a necessity, for the

purpose of enabling him to visit the canal works during their progress at distant points; and he accordingly continued to maintain one horse for himself and another for

his groom.

Notwithstanding this rigid economy, the Duke still found his resources inadequate to meet the heavy cost of vigorously carrying on the undertaking, and on Saturday nights he was often put to the greatest shifts to raise the requisite money to pay his large staff of craftsmen and labourers. Sometimes their payment had to be postponed for a week or more, until the cash could be raised by sending round for contributions among the Duke's tenantry. Indeed, his credit fell to the lowest ebb, and at one time he could not get a bill for 5007. cashed in either Liverpool or Manchester.*

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He was under the necessity of postponing all payments that could be avoided, and it went abroad that the Duke was 'drowned in debt." He tried to shirk even the payment of his tithes, and turned a deaf ear to all the applications of the collector. At length the rector himself determined to waylay him. But the Duke no sooner caught sight of him coming across his path than he bolted! The rector was not thus to be baulked. He followed--pursued—and fairly ran his debtor to earth in a saw-pit! The Duke was not a little amused at being hunted in such a style by his parson, and so soon as he found his breath, he promised payment, which shortly followed.

When Mr. George Rennie, the engineer, was engaged, in 1825, in making the revised survey of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, he lunched one day at Worsley Hall with Mr. Bradshaw, manager of the Duke's property,

*There is now to be seen at Worsley, in the hands of a private person, a promissory note given by the Duke, bearing interest, for as low a sum as five pounds. Amongst the persons known to be lenders of

money, to whom the Duke applied at the time, was Mr. C. Smith, a merchant at Rochdale; but he would not lend a farthing, believing the Duke to be engaged in a perfectly ruinous undertaking.

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