118 TELFORD. 



on which he was engaged was the erection of a structure over the 

 Esk at Langholm to connect the old with the new town. Mr. Smiles, 

 in his ' Lives of the Engineers,' tells a good story in connection 

 with this bridge. Telford's master, one Thompson, was bound by 

 contract to maintain it for a period of seven years. Not long after 

 the completion of the structure an unusually high flood swept along 

 the valley, and Thompson's wife, Tibby, knowing the terms of her 

 husband's contract, was in a state of great alarm lest the fabric 

 should be carried away by the torrent. In her distress she thought 

 of Telford, and calling out, " Oh, we'll be ruined we'll be ruined ! 

 where's Tammy Telfer where's Tammy ? send in search of him." 

 When he came running up, Tibby exclaimed, " Oh, Tammy, 

 they're been on the brig and they say it's shaking ! It'll be doon." 

 " Never you heed them, Tibby," said Telford, clapping her on the 

 shoulder, " there's nae fear o' the brig I like it a' the better that it 

 shakes ; it proves it's weel put thegither." Tibby's fears were not, 

 however, so easily allayed, and asserting that she heard the brig 

 " rumlin," she ran up and set her back against it to keep it from 

 falling. Whether Tibby's zealous support to the bridge in this 

 instance was of any avail or no, Telford's opinion of the soundness 

 of the structure has been proved by its withstanding the storms of 

 nearly a century. 



At this early period of his life, Telford was remarkable for his 

 elastic spirits and good humour, and in his native district of Eskdale 

 was long remembered as ' laughing Tarn.' His favourite pursuits 

 were not as yet scientific but literary, and he acquired some dis- 

 tinction as a poet. He wrote in the homely style of Ramsay and 

 Ferguson, and used to contribute small pieces to Ruddiman's 

 * Weekly Magazine,' under the signature of ' Eskdale Tarn.' One 

 of his compositions, entitled ' Eskdale,' a short poem descriptive of 

 the scenes of his early years, appeared in a provincial miscellany, 

 and was subsequently reprinted at Shrewsbury, at the request of 

 his friends, and ultimately inserted in the appendix to his life. 

 Another pleasing fragment of his composition is given at the end of 

 the first volume of Dr. Currie's ' Life and Works of Burns,' pub- 

 lished at Liverpool in 1800 ; it is an extract from a poetical epistle 

 sent by Telford, when at Shrewsbury, to the Ayreshire poet, recom- 

 mending him to take up other subjects of a serious nature, similar 

 to the < Cottar's Saturday Night.' 



At the age of twenty-three Telford at length quitted Eskdale, 

 and visited Edinburgh with a view to obtain better employment. 

 The splendid improvements then in progress in that city enlarged 

 his field of observation, and enabled him to contemplate architecture 

 as applied to the object of magnificence as well as utility ; and he 

 seems at this time to have devoted much attention both to the 

 scientific study of architecture and to drawing. 



After remaining in Edinburgh two years, he removed to London, 



