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HISTORY O V

wise be detained there at a great expence. And any injury the pro-prietors of the Weaver navigation "have to apprehend from it, supposingthe navigation should not terminate in that river, must weigh light inthe balance of public utility, as their freight chiefly depends upon faitand ialt-rock from Winsford and Northwich, which at present amountsto about fifty thousand tons annually, and will no doubt be still in-creased. And none of. this is likely to come upon the new canal, butwhen floods or the repairing of the locks obstruct the navigation onthe river Weaver, because the canal will be some miles distant fromWinsford; and though it should come near the works at Northwich,the disadvantage of loading and unloading, as the canal vessels cannotlive in the tide-way, will prevent the salt from being sent by them,except on such occasions as before mentioned.

Having considered the principal advantages which the public mayreasonably expect from the execution of this design, we ought not toforget the pleasures that may arise from it to individuals, especially astaste is so universally cultivated, that our farms are gradually improv-ing into gardens. And here it must be allowed, that to have a lawnterminated by water, with objects passing and repast!ng upon it, is afinishing of all others the most desirable. And if we add the amusementsof a pleasure-boat that may enable us incessantly to change the prospect,imagination can scarcely conceive the charming variety of such alandscape. Verdant lawns, waving fields of grain, pleasant groves,sequestered woods, winding streams, regular canals to different towns,orchards whose trees are bending beneath their fruit, large towns andpleasant villages, will all together present to the eye a grateful intermixtureof objects, and feast the fancy with ideas equal to the most romantic illu-sions. Not to mention the convenience of having a variety of fishbrought alive to our doors in well-boats, and sea and shell fish freshand good for our tables; we shall have articles of luxury, which theinhabitants near this navigation never could have the pleasure of tasting,and which they may wish for at present in vain. So many and so im-

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