Till-; WHEELWRIGHT'S Al'l'KKNTiri:. 313 



of new hands, and those who were in any lucrative 

 employment usually put their shoulders together to 

 exclude those who were out. Brindley had thus to find 

 out nearly everything for himself, and he only worked 

 his way to dexterity through a succession of hlunders. 

 He was frequently left in sole charge of the wheelwrights' 

 shop the men being ahsent at jobs in the country, and 

 the master at the public-house, from which he could not 

 easily be drawn. Hence, when customers called at the 

 shop to get any urgent repairs done, the apprentice was 

 under the necessity of doing them in the best way he 

 could, and that often very badly. When the men came 

 home and found tools blunted and timber spoiled, they 

 abused Brindley and complained to the master of his 

 bungling apprentice's handiwork, declaring him to be a 

 mere " spoiler of wood." On one occasion, when Ben- 

 net t and the journeymen were absent, he had to fit in 

 the spokes of a cart-wheel, and was so intent on com- 

 pleting his job that he did not find out that he had fitted 

 them all in the wrong way until he had applied the 

 -aiige-stick. Not long after this occurrence, Brindley 

 was left by himself in the shop for an entire week, 

 working at a piece of common enough wheelwright's 

 work, without any directions; and he made such a 

 kb mess " of it, that on the master's return he was so 

 enraged that he threatened, there and then, to cancel 

 the indentures and send the young man back to farm- 

 la 1 tourer's work, which Bennett declared was the only 

 tiling for which he was fit. 



Brindley had now been two years at the business, 

 and in his master's opinion had learnt next to nothing; 

 though it shortly turned out that, notwithstanding the 

 apprentice's many blunders, he had really groped his 

 way to much valuable practical information on matters 

 relating to his trade. Bennett's shop would have been 

 a bad school for an ordinary youth, but it proved a pro- 

 lific one for Brindley, who was anxious to learn, and 



