6 8 mSEN B V PERSE VE RANGE. 



it without any difficulty merely from the idea of which he 

 had thus possessed himself. When much perplexed with 

 any problem he had to solve, his practice was to take to bed 

 in order to study it, and he would sometimes remain, we 

 are told, for two or three days thus fixed to his pillow in 

 meditation. 



We shall the more clearly appreciate the impulse given to 

 inland navigation in this country by the achievements of 

 Brindley, and the extent of the new accommodation which 

 cur commerce has hence obtained within the last sixty or 

 seventy years, if we cast our eye for a moment over the map 

 of Great Britain, and note a few of the principal canals by 

 which the island is now intersected in all directions. First, 

 there is the Trent and Mersey Canal, which we have already 

 mentioned, and which was denominated by Brindley the 

 Grand Trunk Navigation, as, in fact, uniting one side of the 

 kingdom to the other, and therefore specially adapted to 

 serve, as it has since actually done, by way of stem from 

 which other similar lines might proceed as branches to 

 different points. By this canal, a complete water communi- 

 cation was established, though by a somewhat circuitous 

 sweep, between the great ports of Liverpool on the west 

 coast and Hull on the east A branch from it, the Stafford- 

 shire and Worcestershire Canal, was afterwards carried to the 

 river Severn ; and thus a union was effected between the 

 port of Bristol and the two already mentioned. This branch, 

 being about forty-six miles long, was also executed by 

 Brindley, and was completed in 1772. Similar communica- 

 tions were subsequently formed from other points on the 

 south coast to the central counties. But the most important 

 line of English canals is that which extends from the centre 



