316 Regent's Canal. 



eighty-six feet to the river by means of twelve double locks, l)e- 

 sides a tide lock. Its average breadth is forty-eiglit feet, and 

 the tow-ins;- patli is twelve feet, which together occupy about eighty^ 

 acres of ground ; independeiitly of the dock of six acres at Lime- 

 house, and the City road basin. The latter is a capital wor'lv, 

 110 feet wide, 1600 feet long, and with its commodious wharfs 

 covers twenty-five acres. The Tunnel, of more than half a mile 

 in length, which carries the canal under a part of the toivn rtf 

 Islington, and also beneath the New River, is seventeen feet and 

 a half in width, and nineteen and a half in height. Of the latter 

 space, seven feet and a half are the depth of the water, and 

 eleven feet aiid a half remain between the surface of the canal 

 and the roof of the tunnel. It is passed, without any aid from 

 towing-lines or poles, in from fifteen to seventeen minutes, and is 

 well worth the notice of those who-^e laudiible curiosity and desire 

 of knowledge have never been gratified bv an opportunity of 

 seeing so striking a proof of the powers with which science has 

 invested the civil engineer. 



The Regerit's Canal is one of the works for which the public 

 are inde'oted to Mr. Nash, by whom it v>'as originally projected, 

 and under whose direction it has been carried on, — through a 

 multitude of difficulties which could have been surmounted only 

 by great ability, activity, and perseverance, — to its final comple- 

 tion. It w-as begun in 1813, and opened on the 1st of August 

 last. The expense, which amounts to about f)GO,COO/., has 

 been exceedinglv swelled by the extravagant price at which the 

 land required has been obliged to be purchased, and bv the many 

 litigious actions which the companv of subscribers were called 

 upon, during the progress of the work, to defend. 



Upon the utilitv of the Canal system in general, it is needless 

 now to expatiate : of the advantages that v.ill flow from this in 

 particular, time alone can enable us to judge with any degree of 

 accuracy. When the enormous expense of carting heavy articles 

 from the wharfs on the banks of the river to the northern side 

 of the town, including the adjacent villages, is considered, it ap- 

 pears quite reasonable to believe that much must be gained by 

 water carriag2 ; for it is known that the power of one horse ap- 

 plied to a floating weight, is ecpial to the strength of thirty 

 drawing the same rn wheels. T!ie average charge, as an ex- 

 ample, for conveying manure by this Canal is tenpence per ton ; 

 gravel, chalk, lime, bricks, and iron, about one shilling ; coals, 

 lead, and copper, sixteen pence. To the inhabitants, therefore, 

 of Hanipstead, Kentish Town, Highgate, Ilornsey, Tottenham, 

 Hackney, &c. and also of the parishes of Marylebone and Pad- 

 dhigton, this mode of communication with the Thames must 

 prove highly beneficial. But the good effects that are likely to 



arise 



