18+9.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



215 



locks are 74 feet lona: by 20 wide; they are 39 in number. On its 

 course are 33 drawbridges, 10 large aqueducts, and 33 smaller 

 ones. Among its many reservoirs is one that covers 70 acres, 

 with a de])th of 22 feet at the sluice. The first idea of this under- 

 taking dates as far back as the time of Cliarles II. — that monarch 

 having taken preparatory measures for cutting a channel in the 

 same direction for tlie passage of shij)S of war. The design was 

 calculated to cost 500,000/., but was far too magnificent for the 

 inipovcrislied e.xchequer of the Stuarts. In 1723 a fresh survey 

 and estimate was made hy a good engineer, Mr. Gordon, but 

 nothing more was done until 1704, when Lord Napier employed 

 Mr. Maskell to make a report, the result of which was, that the 

 celebrated Smeaton was engaged to undertake tlie work according 

 to the present plan. Sundry difficulties, as usual, arose — the chief 

 being the enormous enhancement of the cost. Tlie estimates fixed 

 this at 147,337/, but when this had been expended, and between 

 70,000/. and 80,000/. additional borrowed, the projectors found tliat 

 only about lialf the length had been, though with much rapidity, 

 completed. Disputes then occurred with the engineer, amidst 

 which the works stood still, but being presently recommenced, the 

 canal was brought to within 6 miles of the Clyde, wlien its further 

 progress was again stayed by the want of funds. An act passed in 

 1784, alleviated this difficulty, by enabling the proprietors to bor- 

 row money from the Scotch ISarons of Exchequer, out of the for- 

 feited estates, and with this assistance the work was completed in 

 1790. The whole stock amounted at last to 519,840/. — considerably 

 beyond the sum estimated by Charles II. for his ship canal, and 

 which, if mentioned at the beginning, would have stilled the pro- 

 ject in its birth. 



As a collateral assistance to the navigation of the Forth, the 

 Borrou'stoneu Canal was commenced in the same year witli the 

 Forth and Clyde. It is a level canal, about 7 miles long, and cost 

 21,000/., the original estimate having been 5,000/. In the same 

 year Brindley commenced the Coventry Canal, running from the 

 Trent and Mersey to Coventry. The project appeared a failure 

 for some time, as the requisite capital was not forthcoming. But 

 the Trent and Mersey Company took the matter up in 1782, and 

 the works were begun in earnest; it was finished in 1790, and forms, 

 with the Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Oxford Canals, which communi- 

 cate with it, the longest canal line in England, being upwards of 

 70 miles, exclusive of branches. TUe length of the Coventry 

 Canal is somewhat short of 38 miles, with \ery few locks, and a 

 level at the highest of 81 feet. The expense was about 90,000/. 

 Brindley's great object was to connect, by canal navigation, the 

 ports of London, Liverpool, and Hull. The last link in this 

 great chain was that grand undertaking, for the time, the Oxford 

 Canal. This work was commenced in 1769, beginning from the 

 Coventry C'anal at Longford, and extending to the Thames at 

 Oxford. The whole capital authorised to be raised for this pur- 

 pose was upwards of 300,000/. — the original estimate being 

 178,648/. The length is 80 miles, carried at the summit level at 

 the height of 387^ feet above the level of the sea. It has three 

 aqueducts, the one at Briuklow nearly 300 feet long, and two tun- 

 nels, the longest, at Fenny Compton, being 3,564 feet. The level, 

 at its commencement at the Coventry Canal, is no less than 74 

 feet above the surface water of that cliannel, and rises from thence 

 to the summit level about 75 feet. On the whole, this is one of 

 the most important canals in the kingdom, as forming the connect- 

 ing link between the inland navigation of the northern and south- 

 ern districts. 



In the 20 years that followed, up to 1790, the number of canals 

 executed in the country was 17 — few of them of equal importance 

 with the preceding. Brindley projected the Che.stei^eld Canal in 

 1769; it was carried on under his direction and that of his brother- 

 in-law, Mr. Henshall, till its completion in 1776, at a cost of 

 150,000/. Its length is 46 miles, with 65 locks, and one very ex- 

 tensive tunnel, 2,850 yards long, near Ilarthill. Mr. Grundy had 

 proposed another plan, which would have saved 5 miles, and between 

 20,000/. and 30,000/., but Brindley's experience was preferred. 

 The undertaking was a very successful one; but the most impor- 

 tant of Brindley s later suggestions was the E/lesnwre and Chester 

 Canal. The famous aqueduct over the Dee is on this canal car- 

 ried at a height of 125 feet above its bed, on 19 pairs of stone 

 pillars, 52 feet apart. Several others of the great specimens of 

 canal works in the kingdom were of his undertaking. It runs 

 from Ellesmere Port to the Montg^'mery Canal, a distance of 

 61 miles, with numberless collateral branches. During the pro- 

 gress of this canal the greatest possible difficulty was experienced 

 in raising the money. The shares at one time were sold at 1 per 

 cent, of their original value. The whole cost was nearly 400,000/. 



The Thames and Sererii Canal, another of Brindley's projects, 



was commenced in 1783. The longest of the tunnels — the Tiirle- 

 ton Tunnel — is on this canal; it is 2|-miles liuig. It runs from 

 Stroud to Cirencester, with a length sonicwljat above 30 miles. 

 The original estimate for this work was 190,000/., the actual cost 

 above 500,000/.; one of tlie largest excesses in canal history — and 

 the more strange, as there are no branches. It has 42 locks. A 

 union between the Thames and Severn, by means of the Avon, was 

 another of Charles II.'s projects. 



The other canals executed during the period alluded to were the 

 Baniiiff.stoUp, about 40 miles long, cost about 186,000/.; the Ercwask, 

 running from the Trent to Langley-bridge, about 12 miles, cost 

 23,000/^; the Cromford, from the Erewash to Cnuuford, 18 miles, 

 on which are one or tv.o of our finest aqueducts, cost 86,000/.; the 

 Bradford, 3 miles long, cost 9,000/.; tlie Dudley, of which the 

 original plan was a length of 13 miles, at a cost of 12,000/., but 

 the expense of cuts and connecting branches amounted to some- 

 where about 150,000/. additional; the Market Wehjhfon, 11 miles 

 long; the ^nrfot'er, 22^ miles long, cost 65,000/.; the St. Columb, 

 6 miles long; the Shropshire, a canal of 7 miles from the furnaces 

 at Coalbrook Dale to the Severn; the Stourliridge, and three 

 private canals — one executed by Sir J. Ramsdcn, near Hudders- 

 field, another bv Sir N. Gresley, near Newcastle-under-Lyne, and 

 the third by Lord Tlianet, a short affair, near Skipton Caslle. 



After 1790 a violent impetus was given to canal speculations. 

 Between that date and 1795 no less than 43 canals were planned, 

 and acts relative to 15 new undertakings were passed in 179,3 — the 

 largest numlier of any year in history. The dates of the first 

 acts, relative to two of the most important undertakings in the 

 kingdom, the Grand Junethn and the Kennet and Avon, belong 

 to this period, being passed, the one in 1793, and the other in 1794. 

 The first of these, one of the most spirited enterprises of the kind, 

 begins at the Oxford Canal, near Braunston, to the Thames, at 

 Brentford — a course of 90 miles. The undertaking was the last 

 step in Brindlev's grand plan of inland communication throughout 

 the country. We liad attained already a comjilete %vater connec- 

 tion between Liverpool, Hull, and Loudon; but the old river com- 

 munication, with its tortuous course and manifold disadvantages, 

 still existed in a most important part, that between Oxford and 

 London; and it was to make the canal communication complete 

 that Lord Rockingham, in 1792, employed Mr. Baines to make the 

 survey for the present canal. The first estimate was 600,000/.; 

 hut, as usual, cuts and extensions required the raising of a further 

 sum of 550,000/., making this one of the most expensive under- 

 takings in the kingdom. The length is above 90 miles. There 

 are 98 locks and two tunnels, with several deep cuttings; one near 

 Bulbourne 3 miles long and 30 feet deep for the greater part of 

 tlie way. There are, besides, several embankments — in fact, this, 

 on the whole, came nearer to modern railway enterprise than any 

 work previous to the commencement of the iron age. From the 

 summit level at Tring to Harefield-park, a distance of about 21 

 miles, tliere is a fall of 300 feet — the height of the summit part 

 being 380 feet above the Thames at Limehouse. The Paddington 

 branch, which is a continuation of the Grand Junction, is for 

 34 miles quite level; the water-course for 20 miles, from Padding- 

 to Uxbridge, requiring but a single lock. The greater part of this 

 canal was completed in about 10 years. 



Tlie Kennet and Avon Canal. — The most important water link 

 between the west and east of the southern counties in England, 

 was commenced in 1794. It runs from the Avon, at Bath, to the 

 Kennet, at Newborn; and, as the former river runs on to Bristol, 

 andfthe latter to the Thames, a communication is effected between 

 Bristol and London; in fact, between the Irish Channel and Ger- 

 man Ocean. It completes moreover the water circuit from the 

 northern districts round the island, and passes througli or near 

 several of the most important towns in the south. The original 

 estimate 570,000/.: but a further sum of 702,000/. was required to 

 be raised under four successive acts, to complete the undertaking. 

 The engineering difficulties were in some parts very great. In 

 Somerset and Wiltshire, the country through which it passes is 

 very rugged. At one place, near Devizes, a fall occurs of 239 feet 

 in 2^ miles, requiring 29 locks. The length is 57 miles, and the 

 whole rise 210 feet, with 31 locks, and the fall 404^ feet, with 48 

 locks. The expense per mile (22,315/.) makes this one of the most 

 costly canals in the kingdom. As a property tliis undertaking has 

 been most injured by the Great Western Railway. The company 

 were only enabled to compete with the railroad for the carriage of 

 heavy goods, by charging half their prices when they enjoyed the 

 monopoly. The railway at first only professed to carry liglit 

 goods, and thus disarmed the opposition of the canal, but it has 

 ended, as might have been anticipated, in carrying everything. 

 One or two of the aqueducts on the canal are of beautiful struc- 



