5 2 F.TSEN B V PERSE FE RANGE. 



than driving a cart or following a plough ; and we may even 

 venture to conjecture, that the particular bias of his genius 

 towards mechanical invention had already disclosed itself, 

 when, at the age of seventeen, he bound himself apprentice 

 to a person of the name of Bennet, a millwright, residing at 

 Macclesfield, which was but a few miles from his native place. 

 At all events, it is certain that he almost immediately dis- 

 played a wonderful natural aptitude for the profession he had 

 chosen. ' In the early part of his apprenticeship,' says the 

 writer of his life in the Biographia Britannica^ who was 

 supplied with the materials of his article by Mr. Henshall, 

 Brindley's brother-in-law, 'he was frequently left by himself 

 for whole weeks together to execute works concerning which 

 his master had given him no previous instructions. These 

 works, therefore, he finished in his own way ; and Mr, Bennet 

 was often astonished at the improvements his apprentice from 

 time to time introduced into the millwright business, and 

 earnestly questioned him from whom he had gained his 

 knowledge. He had not been long at the trade before the 

 millers, wherever he had been employed, always chose him 

 again in preference to the master or any other workman ; and 

 before the expiration of his servitude, at which time Mr. 

 Bennet, who was advanced in years, grev/ unable to work, 

 Mr. Brindley, by his ingenuity and application, kept up the 

 business with credit, and even supported the old man and 

 his family in a comfortable manner.' 



His master, indeed, does not appear to have been very 

 capable of teaching him much of anything; and Brindley 

 seems to have been left to pick up his knowledge of the 

 business in the best way he could by his own observation 

 and sagacity. Bennet having been employed on one occasion, 



