120 TELFORD. 



in place of the usual puddled clay confined in masonry, a practice 

 which involved great expense, and some danger in times of frost, 

 from the expansion of the moist clay. In the locks of this canal 

 Telford also introduced cast iron framing in place of timber ; and in 

 one instance, where the lock was formed in a quicksand, he made 

 every part of the above material. 



The Caledonial Canal, of which Mr. Jessop was consulting en- 

 gineer, was another of Mr. Telford's principal works. This canal 

 was opened throughout its course in the year 1823, and it forms a 

 noble monument of the skill of the engineer. The locks are stated 

 by Telford to be the largest ever constructed at that time, being 

 40 feet wide, and from 170 to 180 feet long. Of other canals con- 

 structed wholly or partially under his superintendance, it is suffi- 

 cient to mention the Glasgow, Paisley, and Androssan ; the Maccles- 

 field ; the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction ; the Gloucester and 

 Berkeley; the Birmingham, which was completely remodelled by 

 him and adapted to the conduct of a very extensive traffic, and the 

 Weaver navigation in Cheshire. On the Continent he likewise 

 superintended the construction of the Gotha Canal in Sweden, a 

 navigation of about 125 English miles, of which 55 are artificial 

 canal. From the Lake Wener at one extremity, this navigation 

 rises 162 feet to the summit level, and falls 370 feet to the Baltic at 

 the other ; the rise and fall are effected by fifty-six locks, and the 

 canal is 42 feet wide at the bottom and 10 feet deep. Upon its 

 completion Telford received a Swedish order of knighthood, and as 

 a farther mark of the royal approbation, received the King of 

 Sweden's portrait set in diamonds. 



The works executed by Telford under the Commissioners "of 

 Highland Roads and Bridges are of great importance. The practical 

 operations under this commission, appointed in 1803, embraced 

 about a thousand miles of new road, with nearly 1,200 new bridges, 

 which caused the whole of Scotland, from its southern boundary 

 near Carlisle, to the northern extremity of Caithness, and from 

 Aberdeenshire on the east, to the Argyleshire islands on the west, 

 to be intersected by roads ; and its largest rivers and even inferior 

 streams to be crossed by bridges. The execution of this under- 

 taking occupied a period of twenty-five years, and all was done 

 under the sole direction of Telford. The great road from London to 

 Holyhead remains, perhaps, one of the most perfect specimens of 

 his skill as an engineer ; the improvements in it were executed by 

 him, under another Parliamentary Commission appointed in 1815, 

 and Telford himself appears to have regarded this work with pecu- 

 liar satisfaction. 



The Menai suspension bridge is, however, unquestionably one of 

 the noblest monuments of Mr. Telford's fame, and it may be said to 

 have inaugurated the era of the extensive introduction of wrought 



