INLAND NAVIGATION.

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ley, with a strength of mind peculiar to himself, and being possessed ofthe confidence of his great patron, contrived such admirable ma-chines, and took such methods to facilitate the progress of the work,that the world began to wonder how it could have been esteemed sodifficult.

When the canal was completed as far as Barton, where the Irvvellis navigable for large vessels, Mr. Brindley proposed to carry it overthat river by an aqueduct thirty-nine feet above the surface of thewater in the river. This, however, being generally considered as awild and extravagant project, he desired, in order to justify his conducttowards his noble employer, that the opinion of another engineer mightbe taken ; believing that he could easily convince an intelligent person ofthe practicability of his design. A gentleman of eminence was accord-ingly called in ; who, being conducted to the place where it was intend-ed that the aqueduct should be made, ridiculed the attempt; and whenthe height and dimensions were communicated to him, he exclaimed:" I have often heard of castles in the air, but never was before shewn" where any of them were to be erected.” This unfavourable verdictdid not deter the duke of Bridgewater from following the opinion ofhis own engineer. The aqueduct was immediately begun ; and it wascarried on with such rapidity and success as astonished all those who buta little before condemned it as a chimerical scheme. Tnis work com-menced in September 1760, and the first boat failed over it on the 17thjuly 1761. The particulars of the completing and finishing this naviga-tion to Runcorn Gap into the Mersey I have before described.

The success of the duke of Bridgewater's undertakings encouraged anumber of gentlemen and manufacturers in Staffordffiire to cherish theidea of a canal navigation through that country, and Mr. Brindley wasengaged to survey it from the Trent to the Mersey ; and upon his re-porting that it was practicable to construct a canal from one of thoserivers to the other, and thereby unite the ports of Liverpool and Hull,

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