A. D. 1760. 2^5, 



to the great emolument of the farmer and landholder, and the general 

 advantage of the comnumity in an augmented fupply of the necelTaries 

 of life and materials of manufadures. Coals, (the importance of which 

 to a manufadaring country, few people, not actually concerned in ma- 

 nufi^dures, are capable of duely appretiating), (tone, lime, iron-ore, and 

 minerals in general, as well as many other articles of great bulk in pro- 

 portion to their value, which had hitherto lain ufelefs to their proprie- 

 tors by realbn of the expenfe, and in many cafes impoffibility, of car- 

 riage, are called into life, and rendered a fund of wealth by the vicinity 

 of a canal, which thus gives birth to a trade, whereby, in return, it is 

 maintained. The cheap, certain, and pleaiant, conveyance of travelers 

 by the trackfkuyts in Holland has been admired by all, who have been 

 in that country : and it muft be owing to the univerfal defire in this 

 country of flving over the ground with the greatefi: pofliblc rapidity, 

 that a mode of traveling, fo exceedingly eafy to the purfe and the per- 

 fon, is fo little ufed here. Neither ought we entirely to forget among 

 the advantages of canals the pleafure afforded to the eye and the mind 

 by a beautiful moving landfcape of boats, men, horfes, &c. bufied in 

 procuring I'ubfiftence to themfelves, and in diftufing opulence and con- 

 venience through the country. And, in a word, we have now the ex- 

 perience of about forty years to eftablini as a certain truth, what was 

 long ago faid by Dodor Adam Smith, that great mafler of political eco- 

 nomy, that navigable canals are among the grcatejl of all improvements *. 



This year a variation was introduced in the mode of river navigation 

 by Mr. Bridge of Tewkfbury in Gloucefter-fliire. Where a ftream had 

 many mills upon it, he availed himfclf of the mill-ponds and water- 

 courfes, as parts of a canal already completed. Having adapted to his 

 boats a fufficienc number of frames, each carrying one tun of goods, 

 and having drawn a navigable cut from the ftream below the mill-dam 

 dole to the under fide of it, he hoifted up his frames with their con- 

 tents from the boat below, by a crane, and placed them in another boat 



* Tliough I am not often guilty of tranfcribing • The traveller with pleafiiig wonder fees 

 poetry, yet I tliink the followiinr lines, written by ' The white fail gleaminp thto' the dufky trees, 

 llie ingenious poetefs, Mifs Aikin (now Mrs. ' And views the altcr'd landfcape with furprifc, 

 Barbauld), fo ilcganlly dcfcriptive of the advan- ' And doubts the magic fctncs wliich round hira 

 tages and beauties of inland navigation, that they ' rife. 



deferve to be laid before the reader. • Now, like a flock of fwans, above his head 



• Their woven wings the \_Jniling\ vefTeb fpread. 



' Here fnioolh canals acrofa th' extended plain ' Now meeting llreams in artful curients glide, 



« Stretch their long aims to join the dillant main: ' Wiiile each unmingl'd pours a feparate tide ; 



' The fonsof toil witli many a weary llrokc • Now through the liidden veins of earth they- 

 ' Scoop the hard bofom of the folid rock ; ' flow, 



' Rclilllefs thro' the lliffoppofrng clay ' And vifit fulph'rous mines and caves below : 



* With Heady patience work their gradual way ; ' Tiie ductile llreams obey the guiding hand, 

 ' Compel the genius of th' unwilling floi)d ' And lucial plenty circks round the l.md.' 



' Thro' the brown horrors of the aged wood ; This piclure, drawn on the banks of the Mcrfea, 13 



' Crofs the lone wafte the filvcr urn they pour, conicd fiom the duke of liridgewater's canals, and 



' And cheer the barren heuth or fuUen moor. it is Brindley's ' guiding hand' which the ductOc 



4 llreams i>bev. 



