ill!) 



TELEMANN, GEORG PHILIPP. 



TELFORD, THOMAS. 



arrived in Ithaca, and lodged with EUQJSOUB, the swineherd, in the 

 disguise of a beggar. In this condition he was found by Telemachus, 

 who, by the advice of Athena, had also returned to Ithaca. The 

 father made himself known to his son, and the two devised a plan for 

 getting rid of the suitors. They went to the town, and Odysseus was 

 admitted as u beggar to a feast of Telemachus and the suitors. When 

 the suitors began to insult the poor man, a fight ensued, in which 

 Odysseus and Telemachus killed the suitors. Telemachus then ac- 

 companied his father to the aged Laertius. Thus far the story is 

 described in the Odyssey. Later writers mention other incidents con- 

 nected with the story of Telemachus, especially relating to his marriage, 

 which however is told in different ways. According to one tradition, 

 he married Circe or her daughter Cassiphone, and he had a daughter 

 Roma, whom ho gave in marriage to JSneas. Servius (' ad .iEneid.,' 

 x. 167) calls him the founder of the town of Clusium in Etruria. 



In modern times the name of Telemachus has acquired celebrity 

 from the moral romance of Fdndlou, which is based upon the story in 

 the Odyssey. 



TKLKMANN, GEORG PHILIPP, a name of no mean rank in 

 musical history, was the son of the minister of the Lutheran Church at 

 Magdeburg, and there had his birth, in 1681. Though educated with 

 other views, his predilection for music was too strong to be combated, 

 and it became his profession. He successively held many appoint- 

 meuts in Germany, the chief of which was that of composer to the 

 Lyric theatre at Hamburg, for which he produced no less than thirty- 

 five operas. But these were only a small part of his labours : he is 

 said to have exceeded the prolific Alessandro Scarlatti in the number 

 of his works for the church and the chamber; and, in 1740, his 

 overtures on the model of Lulli amounted, Doctor Burney tells us, to 

 six hundred ! Of this almost incredible number of compositions 

 however only two or three fugues are now known, at least in England, 

 and these only to a very few organists of patient and deep research. 

 Telemann was a fellow student of Handel, and attained considerable 

 longevity, having died in 1767, at the age of eighty-six. He was 

 twice married, and by each wife had ten children ; and it is remarkable 

 that not one of them manifested the slightest inclination for the art to 

 which their father owed his fortune and repute. 



TELFORD, THOMAS. In the life of this eminent man, as has 

 been observed in a brief notice of the fathers of that science of which 

 he was so distinguished an ornament, in the preface to the ' Transac- 

 tions ' of the Institution of Civil Engineers, " another striking instance 

 is added to those on record of men who have, by the force of natural 

 talent, unaided save by uprightness and persevering industry, raised 

 themselves from the low estate in which they were born, to take their 

 stand among the master-spirits of their age." Telford's father was a 

 shepherd in the pastoral district of Eskdale in Dumfriesshire, where, 

 in the parish of Westerkirk, his only son was born on the 9th of August 

 1757. His father dying while he was yet an infant, the care of Telford's 

 early years devolved upon his mother, Janet Jackson, for whom he 

 cherished an affectionate regard until her death in 1794 ; he having 

 been in the habit, according to Mr. Rickman, of writing letters to her 

 in ' printed ' characters, that she might be able to read them without 

 assistance. He received the rudiments of education in the parish 

 school of Westerkirk : and while engaged during the summer season 

 as a shepherd-boy in assisting his uncle, he made diligent use of his 

 leisure in studying the books furnished by his village friends. At the 

 age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a stone-mason in the neighbour- 

 ing town of Langholm ; and for several years he was employed, chiefly 

 in his native district, in the various operations usually performed by a 

 country mason in a district where there is little occasion for the higher 

 departments of his art. The construction of plain bridges, of farm 

 buildings, and of simple village churches and manses, afforded however 

 good opportunities for obtaining practical knowledge. Telford himself 

 has expressed his sense of the value of this humble training, observing, 

 that although convenience and usefulness only are studied in such 

 erections, yet peculiar advantages are offered to the young practitioner ; 

 for, to adopt his own words, " as there is not sufficient employment to 

 produce a division of labour in building, he is under the necessity of 

 making himself acquainted with every detail in procuring, preparing, 

 and employing every kind of material, whether it be the produce of 

 the forest, the quarry, or the forge ; and this necessity, although unfa- 

 vourable to the dexterity of the individual workman who earns his 

 livelihood by expertness in one operation, is of singular advantage to 

 the future architect or engineer, whose professional excellence must 

 rest on the adaptation of materials and a confirmed habit of discrimi- 

 nation and judicious superintendence." Chambers states that during 

 this period of his life Telford was remarkable for the neatness with 

 which he cut letters upon gravestones. In 1780, being then about 

 twenty-three, and considering himself master of his art, he visited 

 Edinburgh, apparently with a view to obtaining employment. The 

 splendid improvements then in progress in that city enlarged his field 

 of observation, and enabled him to contemplate architecture as applied 

 to the object of magnificence as well as utility ; and he seems at this 

 time to have devoted much attention both to architecture and drawing. 

 After remaining there about two years, he removed to London, where 

 he obtained employment upon the quadrangle of Somerset House, 

 then erecting by Sir William Chambers an engagement in which, 

 according to his own account, he obtained much practical information. 



About 1784 he was engaged to superintend the erection of a house for 

 the resident commissioner in Portsmouth dockyard, from the design 

 of Mr. 8. Wyat. Telford's good character and promising talent had 

 secured for him the friendship of two families resident in bin native 

 district the Pasleys and the Johnstones; and to th'-ir influence his 

 early employment on important works is in some measure to be 

 attributed. He was engaged upon various buildings at the Portsmouth 

 dockyard for three years, during which time he became well acquainted 

 with the construction of graving-docks, wharf-walls, and similar 

 engineering works ; and in 1787, having completed his engagements 

 there, he was invited by Sir William Pulteney (a member of the John- 

 stone family) to take the superintendence of some alterations at 

 Shrewsbury Castle. He therefore removed to Shrewsbury, where be 

 was also employed to erect a new jail, which was completed in 1793, 

 and was subsequently appointed county surveyor, in which office 

 (retained by him until death) he had to furnish plans for, and oversee 

 the construction of, bridges and similar works. The first bridge which 

 he designed and built was that over the Severn at Montford, about 

 four miles west from Shrewsbury, consisting of three elliptical stone 

 arches, one of fifty-eight, and the others of fifty-five feet span. Hw 

 next was the iron bridge over the Severn at Buildwas, consisting of a 

 very flat iron arch of a hundred and thirty feet span, constructed upon 

 very superior principles to that erected a few years previously at Coal- 

 brook Dale : Telford's object was rather to introduce the trussing 

 principle of a timber construction than that of a stone arch. This 

 bridge was built in the years 1795 and 1796. Forty smaller bridges 

 were erected in Shropshire under Telford's direction. 



The Ellesmere Canal, a series of navigations intended to unite the 

 Severn, the Dee, and the Mersey, and extending altogether to a length 

 of about one hundred and three miles, was the first great work upon 

 which Telford was engaged his satisfactory execution of the county 

 works intrusted to him having led its projectors to select him as their 

 engineer; and from this engagement, which commenced about 1793 

 (in which year the act of parliament was obtained for the scheme), his 

 attention was directed almost solely to civil engineering. The uneven 

 character of the country occasioned many serious difficulties in the 

 construction of this canal, and rendered necessary the execution of 

 some works of astonishing magnitude, especially in crossing the valleys 

 of the Ceriog, or Chirk, and of the Dee. In the former the canal 

 'crosses the river at an elevation of seventy feet by an aqueduct-bridge 

 of ten arche?, each of which is of forty feet span, in the construction 

 of which some important deviations were made from the previous 

 practice of engineers. It had been usual in such structures to form 

 the bed for the canal of puddled clay confined in masonry, a practice 

 which involved great expense, and some danger in time of frost, from 

 the expansion of the moist puddle. The great elevation of the Chirk 

 aqueduct would have increased the difficulty, but Telford abandoned 

 the puddling system, and formed the bed of the canal of flanged cast- 

 iron plates resting upon walls built on the piers, and constructed the 

 sides of masonry. This work was execut. d between 1796 and 1801, 

 at a cost of 20,898. The aqueduct-bridge over the valley of the Dee, 

 called the Pont-y-Cysylte, is still more remarkable : it consists simply 

 of a trough of cast-iron plates, securely flanged together, and supported 

 by eighteen piers or pillars of masonry, the elevation of which is a 

 hundred and twenty-one feet above low-water. These piers are solid 

 to the height of seventy feet, above which they are hollow, with inte- 

 rior walls. The water-way in the cast-iron trough is eleven feet tea 

 inches wide, of which four feet eight inches is covered by the towing- 

 path, supported upon cast-iron pillars, so as to allow the water free 

 play beneath it. The length of the aqueduct is about one thousand 

 feet, and the height of the canal one hundred and twenty-seven feet 

 above the Dee ; and at one end of the aqueduct-bridge is a great 

 embankment, fifteen hundred feet long, rising in parts to a height of 

 seventy-five feet above the natural surface. These gigantic works 

 were executed between 1795 and 1805, at a cost of 47.018/. In the 

 locks of this canal Telford introduced cast-iron framing in lieu of 

 timber ; and iu one instance, where the lock was formed in a quick- 

 sand, he made every part of that material. 



The Caledonian Canal is another of Telford's principal works. In 

 1773 the commissioners of the forfeited estates in Scotland had en- 

 gaged Watt to report on the practicability of a ship-canal along the 

 valley of Glen More in Inverness, to be formed by connecting the 

 lakes which form a series of navigable waters extending a great part 

 of the distance ; but although the report was favourable, it was not 

 acted upon, and the scheme was deferred for some years by the resto- 

 ration, in 1784, of the forfeited estates, through which the line would 

 pass. In 1801 however Telford was deputed by government to make 

 a survey of the coasts and of the interior of Scotland, and to report 

 generally upon desirable public works for the improvement of the 

 country. In consequence of his reports Commissions were former) to 

 carry out the proposed canal, and other improvements classed under 

 the general title of Highland Roads and Bridges ; and the services of 

 Telford were engaged by both boards. The Caledonian Canal was 

 opened throughout in 1823. Its construction was delayed by many 

 untoward circumstances; and unfortunately its utility has not 

 hitherto answered the expectations of its projectors. It forms how- 

 ever a noble monument of the skill of the engineer. The locks are 

 stated by Telford to be the largest ever constructed at that time, 



