The Canal Era 181 



found a difficulty in raising the means with which to com- 

 plete his canal to Runcorn, public confidence in canals must 

 have been reassured, and ample money must have been 

 forthcoming, to allow of these further costly and important 

 schemes being undertaken. This conclusion is abundantly 

 warranted. The position following the construction of the 

 Bridgewater canals was thus described, in 1796, in " A Treatise 

 on the Improvement of Canal Navigation," by R. Fulton : 



" So unacquainted were the people with the use of canals, 

 and so prejudiced in favour of the old custom of river navi- 

 gations, that the undertaking was deemed chimerical, and 

 ruin was predicted as the inevitable result of his Grace's 

 labour. . . . Yet it was not long finished when the eyes of 

 the people began to open ; the Duke could work on his canal 

 when floods, or dry seasons, interrupted the navigation of 

 the Mersey ; this gave a certainty and punctuality, in the 

 carriage of merchandize, and ensured a preference to the 

 canal ; the emoluments arising to the Duke were too evident 

 to be mistaken ; and perseverance having vanquished pre- 

 judice, the fire of speculation was lighted, and canals became 

 the subject of general conversation." 



The farming community, more especially, had looked with 

 suspicion upon this new-fangled idea of sending boats across 

 fields and up and down the hill-sides. The author of " A 

 Cursory View of the Advantages of an Intended Canal from 

 Chesterfield to Gainsborough " (1769) finds, however, a 

 sufficient excuse for them in the conditions of locomotion and 

 transport with which alone they had hitherto been familiar. 

 He says : 



" Though this useful set of Men, the Farmers, will un- 

 doubtedly reap a Proportion of Advantages from the Execu- 

 tion of this beneficial Scheme, they are far from being satisfied, 

 and seem to reflect upon it with many Doubts and Fears. 

 Custom, indeed, and Occupation in Life, cast a wonderful 

 Influence on the Opinions of all Mankind ; it is therefore by 

 no means surprizing that men, whose Forefathers, for Ages, 

 have been inured to rugged and deep Roads, to wade after 

 their Beasts of Burden up to the Knees in Mire, to see their 

 loaded Waggons stick fast in Dirt ; Men, who from their 

 interior, inland Situation, are almost totally unacquainted 

 with all Objects of Navigation ; it is by no means strange, 



