then a very old man, He had been a contemporary of the Duke, and knew of the monetary straits to which his Grace had been reduced during the construction of the works. Whilst at table, Mr. Bradshaw pointed to a small whitewashed cottage on the Moss, about a mile and a half distant, and said that in that cottage, formerly a publichouse, the Duke, Brindley, and Gilbert had spent many an evening discussing the prospects of the canal while in progress. One of the principal topics of conversation on those occasions was the means of raising funds against the next pay night. "One evening in particular," said Mr. Bradshaw, "the party was unusually dull and silent. The Duke's ready-money was exhausted; the canal was not nearly finished; his Grace's credit was at the lowest ebb; and he was at a loss what step to take next. There they sat, in the small parlour of the little public-house, smoking their pipes, with a pitcher of ale before them, melancholy and silent. At last the Duke broke the silence by asking in a querulous tone, 'Well, Brindley, what's to be done now? How are we to get at the money for finishing this canal?' Brindley, after a few long puffs, answered through the smoke, 'Well, Duke, I can't tell; I only know that if the money can be got, I can finish the canal, and that it will pay well.' 'Ay,' rejoined the Duke, 'but where are we to get the money?' Brindley could only repeat what he had already said; and thus the little party remained in moody silence for some time longer, when Brindley suddenly started up and said, 'Don't mind, Duke; don't be cast down; we are sure to succeed after all!' The party shortly after separated, the Duke going over to Worsley to bed, to revolve in his mind the best mode of raising money to complete his all-absorbing project."

One of the expedients adopted was to send Gilbert, the agent, upon a round of visits among the Duke's tenants, raising five pounds here and ten pounds there, until he had gathered together enough to pay the week's wages,

Whilst travelling about among the farmers on one of such occasions, Gilbert was joined by a stranger horseman, who entered into conversation with him; and it very shortly turned upon the merits of their respective horses. The stranger offered to swap with Gilbert, who, thinking the other's horse better than his own, agreed to the exchange. On afterwards alighting at a lonely village inn, which he had not before frequented, Gilbert was surprised to be greeted by the landlord with mysterious marks of recognition, and still more so when he was asked if he had got a good booty. It turned out that he had exchanged horses with a highwayman, who had adopted this expedient for securing a nag less notorious than the one which he had exchanged with the Duke's agent.*

At length, when the tenantry could furnish no further advances, and loans were not to be had on any terms in Manchester or Liverpool, and the works must needs come to a complete stand unless money could be raised to pay the workmen, the Duke took the road to London on horseback, attended only by his groom, to try what could be done with his London bankers. The house of Messrs. Child and Co., Temple Bar, was then the principal banking-house in the metropolis, as it is the oldest; and most of the aristocratic families kept their accounts there. The Duke had determined at the outset of his undertaking not to mortgage his landed property, and he had held to this resolution. But the time arrived when he could not avoid borrowing money of his bankers on such other security as he could offer them. He had already created a valuable and lucrative property, which was happily available for the purpose. The canal from Worsley to Manchester had proved remunerative in an extraordinary degree, and was already producing a large inHe had not the same scruples as to the pledging of the revenues of his canal that he had to the mortgaging

come.

* The Earl of Ellesmere's 'Essays on History, Biography,' &c., p. 236.

of his lands; and an arrangement was concluded with the Messrs. Child under which they agreed to advance the Duke sums of money from time to time, by means of which he was eventually enabled to finish the entire canal.

The Messrs. Child and Co. have kindly permitted an examination of their books to be made for the purposes of this memoir; and we are accordingly enabled to state that from them it appears that the Duke obtained his first advance of 3,800l. from the firm about the middle of the year 1765, at which time he was in the greatest difficulty; shortly after a further sum of 15,000l.; then 2,000l., and various other sums, making a total of 25,000l.; which remained owing until the year 1769, when the whole was paid off- doubtless from the profits of the canal traffic as well as the economised rental of the Duke's unburthened estates.

The entire level length of the new canal from Longford Bridge to the upper part of Runcorn, nearly twentyeight miles in extent, was finished and opened for traffic in the year 1767, after the lapse of about five years from the passing of the Act. The formidable flight of locks, from the level part of the canal down to the waters of the Mersey at Runcorn, were not finished for several years later, by which time the receipts derived by the Duke from the sale of his coals and the local traffic of the undertaking enabled him to complete them with comparatively little difficulty. Considerable delay was occasioned by the resistance of an obstinate landowner near Runcorn, Sir Richard Brooke, who interposed every obstacle which it was in his power to offer; but his opposition too was at length overcome, and the new and complete line of water-communication between Manchester and Liverpool was finally opened throughout.

In a letter written from Runcorn, dated the 1st January, 1773, we find it stated that "yesterday the locks were opened, and the Heart of Oak, a vessel of 50 tons burden,

for Liverpool, passed through them. This day, upwards of six hundred of his Grace's workmen were entertained

tertained a very unfavourable opinion of this undertaking, esteeming it too difficult to be accomplished, and fearing their lands would be cut and defaced without producing any real benefit to themselves or the public; but they now see with pleasure that their fears and apprehensions were ill-grounded, and they join with one voice in applauding the work, which cannot fail to produce the most beneficial consequences to the landed property, as well as to the trade and commerce of this part of the kingdom."

Whilst the canal works had been in progress, great changes had taken place at Worsley. The Duke had year by year been extending the workings of the coal; and when the King of Denmark, travelling under the title of Prince Travindahl, visited the Duke in 1768, the tunnels had already been extended for nearly two miles under the hill. When the Duke began the works, he possessed only such of the coal-mines as belonged to the Worsley estate; but he purchased by degrees the adjoining lands containing seams of coal which run under the high ground between Worsley, Bolton, and Bury; and in course of time the underground canals connecting the different workings extended for a distance of nearly forty miles. Both the hereditary and the purchased mines are worked upon two main levels, though in all there are four different levels, the highest being a hundred and twenty yards above the lowest. In opening up the underground workings the Duke is said to have expended about 168,000l.; but the immense revenue derived from the sale of the coals by canal rendered this an exceedingly productive outlay. Besides the extension of the canal along these tunnels, the Duke subsequently carried a branch by the edge of Chat-Moss to Leigh, by which means new supplies of coal were introduced to Manchester from that district, and the traffic was still further increased. It was a saying of the Duke's, that "a navigation should always have coals at the heels of it."