314 LIFE OF IWINDLKY. PARTY. 



determined to make a way for himself if lie could not 

 find one. He must have had a hrave spirit to withstand 

 the many difficulties he had to contend against, to learn 

 dexterity through blunders, and success through defeats. 

 But this is necessarily the case with all self-taught work- 

 men ; and Briridley was mainly self-taught, as we have 

 seen, even in the details of the business to which he had 

 hound himself apprentice. 



In the autumn of 1735 a small silk-mill at Ma cries- 

 field, the property of Mr. Michael Daintrv, sustained 

 considerable injury from a fire at one of the gudgeons 

 inside the mill, and Bennett was called upon to execute 

 the necessary repairs. Whilst the men were employed 

 at the shop in executing the new work, Brindlev was 

 sent to the mill to remove the damaged machinery, 

 under the directions of Mr. James Milner, the superin- 

 tendent of the factory. Milner had thus frequent occa- 

 sion to enter into conversation with the young man, and 

 was struck with the pertinence of his remarks as to the 

 causes of the recent fire and the best means of avoiding 

 similar accidents in future. He even applied to Bennett, 

 his master, to permit the apprentice to assist in executing 

 the repairs of certain parts of the work, which was 

 reluctantly assented to. Bennett closely watched his 

 " bungling apprentice," as he called him ; but Brindley, 

 encouraged by the superintendent of the mill, succeeded 

 in satisfactorily executing his allotted portion of the 

 repairs, not less to the surprise of his master than to the 

 mortification of his men. Many years after, Brindley, 

 in describing this first successful piece of mill-work which 

 he had executed, observed, " I can yet remember the 

 delight which I felt when my work was fixed and fitted 

 complete ; and I could not understand why my master 

 and the other workmen, instead of being pleased, seemed 

 to be dissatisfied with the insertion of every fresh part 

 in its proper place." 



The completion of the job was followed by tlie usual 



