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 the heavy cost of vigorously carrying on the works, 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.'

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, 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 public-house, the Duke, Brindley, and Gilbert had spent many an evening discussing the prospects of the canal when in progress. One of the principal topics of conversation on those occasions was the means of raising the necessary funds against the next pay-night. "One evening in particular," said Mr.

1 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.

6

Bradshaw, "the party was unusually dull and silent. The Duke's funds were exhausted; the canal was by no means 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."

Still undaunted by the difficulties that beset them, the Duke and his agents exerted themselves to the utmost to find the requisite means for completing the works. Gilbert was employed to ride round among the tenantry of the neighbouring districts, and raise 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 annual income. He had not the same scruples at pledging the revenues of his canal that he had to mortgage 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 books of the firm show that he obtained his first advance from them of 38007. 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 20007.,

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

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

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

out.

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 throughIn 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 upon the lock banks with an ox roasted whole and plenty of good liquor. The Duke's health and many other toasts were drunk with the loudest acclamations by the multitude, who crowded from all parts of the country to be spectators of these astonishing works. The gentlemen of the country for a long time entertained 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." 1

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

1 Griswell's Account of Runcorn and its Environs,' pp. 63-5.