JAMES BRINDLE V. 65 



During the time that these operations, so new in this 

 country, were in progress, the curious crowded to witness them 

 from all quarters, and the grandeur of many of Brindley's plans 

 seems to have made a deep impression upon even his un- 

 scientific visitors. A letter which appeared in the newspapers 

 while he was engaged with the Trent and Mersey Canal, gives 

 us a lively picture of the astonishment with which the multitude 

 viewed what he was about. The writer, it will be observed, 

 alludes particularly to the Harecastle tunnel, the chief difficulty 

 in excavating which arose from the nature of the soil it had to 

 be cut through : — ' Gentlemen come to view our eighth wonder 

 of the world, the subterranean navigation which is cutting by 

 the great Mr. Brindley, who handles rocks as easily as you 

 would plum-pies, and makes the four elements subservient to 

 his will. He is as plain a looking man as one of the boors of 

 the Peak, or one of his own carters ; but when he speaks all 

 ears listen, and every mind is filled with wonder at the things 

 he pronounces to be practicable. He has cut a mile through 

 bogs, which he binds up, embanking them with stones, which 

 he gets out of other parts of the navigation, besides about a 

 quarter of a mile into the hill Yelden, on the side of which he 

 has a pump, which is worked by water, and a stove, the fire of 

 which sucks through a pipe the damps that would annoy the 

 men who are cutting towards the centre of the hill. The clay 

 he cuts out serves for brick to arch the subterraneous part, 

 which we heartily wish to see finished to Wilden Ferry, when 

 we shall be able to send coals and pots to London, and to 

 different parts of the globe.' 



It would occupy too much of our space to detail, however 

 rapidly, the history of the other undertakings of this description 

 to which the remainder of Mr. Brindley's life was devoted. 



