TIIK WHEELWRIGHT'S APPRENTICE. 



311 



them in thr formation of good habits by her own 

 steady industry. 1 



The different members of the family, of whom James 

 was the eldest, were thus under the necessity of going 

 out to work at a very early age to provide for the family 

 wants. James worked at any ordinary labourer's em- 

 ployment which offered until he was about seventeen 

 years old. His mechanical bias had, however, early 

 displayed itself, and lie was especially clever with his 

 knife, making models of mills, which he set to work in 

 little mill-streams of his contrivance. It is said that one 

 <>f the tilings in which he took most delight when aboy, 

 was to visit a neighbouring grist-mill and examine the 

 water-wheels, cog-wheels, drum- wheels, and other at- 

 tached machinery, until he could carry away the details 

 in his head ; afterwards imitating the arrangements by 

 means of his knife and such little bits of wood as he 

 could obtain for the purpose. We can thus readily un- 

 derstand how he should have turned his thoughts in the 

 direction in which we afterwards find him employed, 

 and that, encouraged by his mother, he should have 

 determined to bind himself, on the first opportunity that 

 offered, to the business of a millwright. 



The demands of trade were so small at the time, that 

 Brindley had no great choice of masters; but at the 

 village of Sutton, near Macclesfield, there lived one 

 Abraham Bennett, a wheelwright and millwright, to 

 whom young Brindley offered himself as apprentice ; 

 and in the year 1733, after a few weeks' trial, he became 

 bound to that master for the term of seven years. 

 A It li< muli tlir employment of millwrights was then of a 

 very limited character, a great deal of valuable practical 



1 Brind ley's lather seems afterwards 

 to have somewhat recovered himself; 

 tor we tind him, in 1729, purchasing 

 an undivided share of a small e>t;iic 

 at Lowe Hill, within a mile of Leek, 

 in Staffordshire, where he had before 



gone to settle; and he contrived to 

 realise the remaining portion before 

 his death, and to leave it to his son 

 .lames. None of the Brindley family 

 remained at Wormhill, and the name 

 has disappeared in the district. 



