( 'MAT. 



Till- \K\V HIVKK WORKS HMGUN. 



119 



account of the Xc\v River works amount to 8609. 14s. (>//. 

 As the books of the New River Company were acci- 

 dentally destroyed by a fire many years ago, we are 

 unable to test the accuracy of these figures by comparison 

 witli the financial records of the Company ; but, taken 

 in conjunction with other circumstances hereafter to be 

 mentioned, the amount stated represents, with as near 

 an approach to accuracy as can now be reached, the half 

 of tlu' original cost of constructing the New River 

 works. 1 



1 It appears from the "pageant" 

 which took place on the day of open- 

 iiiLT, that as many as 600 labourers 

 were employed upon the works at 

 one time. As the pay of labourers 

 was not then more than Gd. a day, 

 and of artificers Is. a day, the amount 

 expended on labour during the period 

 the works were under construction 

 allowing for their suspension for a 

 time through local opposition and 

 bad weather and on land, mate- 

 rials, inspection, &c., could not have 

 amounted to more than about seven- 

 teen thousand pounds. The statements 

 heretofore printed as to the original 

 cost of constructing the New River 

 are, for the most part, gross exaggera- 

 tions. The assertion that 500,000?. 

 of the money of the period, or equal 

 to about two millions of our present 

 money, was expended on the works, 

 has !)een repeated by various writers, 

 but without any data, excepting the 

 loose statement made by Pennant in 

 his ' Tour in Wales,' to the effect that 

 "2000?. a month, which Sir Hugh 

 gamed from the Cardiganshire mines, 

 were swallowed up in this river." 

 Whereas the fact was, that Myddelton 

 lost heavily by his first mining en- 

 terprise near Denbigh, which proved 

 a complete i'ailuiv, and he did not 



enter upon his mining operations 

 in Cardigan until long after the New 

 River had been completed. The fact 

 that so large a sum as 17,000?. 

 was expended in the construction 

 of a public work at the beginning 

 of the 17th century is quite strong 

 enough, and stands in no need of ex- 

 aggeration. It was a very large sum 

 to be expended at that time, when 

 London was comparatively small, and 

 England comparatively poor. It was 

 a larger sum to raise at that period 

 taking trade, commerce, and public 

 wealth into account than as many 

 millions would be at this day. It must 

 also be added that Stowe, Maitland, 

 Fuller, Pennant, Morant (who have 

 been generally followed by subsequent 

 encyclopedists and biographic com- 

 pilers), evidently drew largely upon 

 their imaginations when describing the 

 achievements of Sir Hugh. They all 

 repeat the same story of the " silver- 

 mine in Wales," of his having died in 

 obscurity and poverty, and other like 

 groundless fables. Maitland even mag- 

 nifies the few and unimportant bridges 

 over the New River to the number of 

 eight hundred, and the fiction is copied 

 by most subsequent writers on the 

 subject. 



