392 BRINDLEY CONSTRUCTS THE PART V. 



with stone in a month, and finished in about ten days 



more." l 



By these vigorous measures the works proceeded 

 rapidly towards completion. Before, however, they had 

 made any progress at the Liverpool end, Earl Gower, 

 encouraged and assisted by the Duke, had applied for 

 ami obtained an Act to enable a line of navigation to 

 be formed between the Mersey and the Trent ; the Duke 

 agreeing with the promoters of the undertaking to vary 

 the course of his canal and meet theirs about midway 

 between Preston-brook and Runcorn, from which point 

 it was to be carried northward towards the Mersey, de- 

 scending into that river by a flight of ten locks, the 

 total fall being not less than 79 feet from the level of 

 the canal to low- water of spring-tides. When this 

 deviation was proposed, the bold imagination of Briiidley 

 projected an aqueduct across the tideway of the Mersey 

 itself, which was there some four hundred and sixty yards 

 wide, with the object of carrying the Duke's navigation 

 directly onward to the port of Liverpool on the Lanca- 

 shire side of the river. 2 This was an admirable idea, 

 which, if carried out, would probably have redounded 

 more to the fame of Brindley than any other of his 

 works. But the cost of that portion of the canal 

 which had already been executed, had reached so exces- 

 sive an amount, that the Duke was compelled to stop 

 short at Runcorn, at which place a dock was constructed 

 for the accommodation of the shipping employed in the 

 trade connected with the undertaking. 



1 ' A History of Inland Naviga- 

 tions. Particularly those of the Duke 

 of Bridgewater in Lancashire and 

 Cheshire.' 2nd Ed., p. 39. 



2 This "bold scheme, which seems 

 to have been earnestly proposed at 

 the time, though never executed, was 

 thus noticed in a Liverpool paper : 

 " On Monday last Mr. Brindley 

 waited upon several of the principal 

 gentlemen of this town and others at 



Runcorn, in order to ascertain the 

 expense that may attend the build- 

 ing of a bridge over the river Mer- 

 sey at that place, which is estimated 

 at a sum inferior to the advantages 

 that must arise, both to the counties 

 of Lancaster and Chester, from a com- 

 munication of this sort." William- 

 son's ' Liverpool Advertiser,' July 19, 

 1708. 



