CHAP. II AND MILL\Vi:i<;iIT. 323 



occupied, Mr. John Kdensor Heathcote, owner of the 

 riii'ton estate near Manchester, was married to one of 

 the daughters of Sir Nigel Gresley, of Knypersley, in 

 the neighbourhood of Burslem, and that the marriage 

 festivities were in progress, when the remarkable inge- 

 nuity of the young millwright of Leek was accidentally 

 mentioned in the hearing of Mr. Heathcote one day at 

 dinner. The Manchester man, in the midst of pleasure, 

 did not forget business ; and it occurred to him that 

 this ingenious mechanic might be of use to him in con- 

 triving some method for clearing his Clifton coal-mines 

 of the water by which they had so long been drowned. 

 The old methods of the gin-wheel and tub, and the chain- 

 pump, had been tried, but entirely failed to keep the 

 water under : if this Brindley could but do anything to 

 help him in his difficulty, he would employ him at once ; 

 at all events, he would like to see the man. 



Brindley was accordingly sent for, and the whole 

 case was laid before him. Mr. Heathcote described 

 as minutely as possible the nature of the locality, the 

 direction in which the strata lay, and exhibited a plan 

 <t' the working of the mines. Brindley was perfectly 

 silent for a long time, seemingly absorbed in a considera- 

 tion of the difficulties to be overcome ; but at length his 

 countenance brightened, his eyes sparkled, and he briefly 

 pointed out a method by which he thought he should be 

 enabled, at no great expense, effectually to remedy the 

 evil. His explanations were considered so satisfactory, 

 that lie was at once directed to proceed to Clifton, with 

 full powers to carry out his proposed plan of operations. 

 This was, to call to his aid the fall of the river Irwell, 

 which formed one boundary of the estate, and pump out 

 the water from the pits by means of the greater power 

 of the water in the river. With this object Brindley 

 contrived and executed his first tunnel, which he drove 

 through the solid rock for a distance of six hundred 

 yards, and in this tunnel he led the river on to the breast 



Y 2 



