HISTORY OF

96

Glastonbury, Taunton, Wellington, Tiverton, and Exeter; and athird from Langport, in the county of Somerset, by way of Ilminster,Chard, and Axminster, to the south channel at Exmouth, in the countyof Devon. In 1770 he surveyed the country for a canal from An-dover, by the way of Stockbridge and Rumfey, to Redbridge nearSouthampton; and in 1771, from Salisbury, by Fordingbridge andRingwood, to Christchurch. He performed also, in 1772, the surveyfor a navigation proposed to be carried from Preston to Lancaster ; andfrom thence to Kendal, in Westmoreland. He surveyed likewise, andplanned out, a canal to join that of the duke of Bridgewater’s, at Run-corn, from Liverpool. If this scheme had been executed, it was Mr.Brindley’s intention to have constructed the work by an aqueduct overthe river Mersey, at a place where the tide flows fourteen feet in height.He also surveyed the county of Chester, for a canal from the GrandTrunk to the city of Chester. The plan for joining the Forth andClyde was reviled by him; and he proposed some considerable altera-tions, particularly with regard to the deepening the Clyde, which havebeen attended to by the managers. He was consulted upon severalimprovements with respect to the draining of the low lands in differentparts of Lincolnshire, and the Ifle of Ely. A canal was also laid out byhim for uniting that of Chesterfield, by the way of Derby, with theGrand Trunk at Swarkstone. To the corporation of Liverpool hegave a plan for cleansing their docks of mud, which hath been carriedinto execution with the desired effect ; and he pointed out also themethod, which has been attended with equal success, of building wallsagainst the sea without mortar. The last of our great mechanic’s in-genious and uncommon contrivances that we shall mention, is his im-provement of the machine for drawing water out of mines by a losingand a gaining bucket. This he afterwards employed to advantage inraising up coals from the mines.

When any extraordinary difficulty occurred to Mr. Brindley in theexecution of his works, having little or no assistance from books, or the

labours