396 THE DUKE'S DIFFICULTIES PART V. 



a-year. A horse was, however, a necessity, for the pur- 

 pose of enahling him to visit the canal works during 

 their progress at distant points ; and he accordingly con- 

 tinued to maintain one horse for himself and another for 

 his groom. 



Notwithstanding this rigid economy, the Duke still 

 found his resources inadequate to the heavy cost of 

 vigorously carrying on the works, and on Saturday 

 nights he was often put to the greatest si lifts to raise 

 the requisite money to pay his large staff of era Its- 

 men and labourers. Sometimes their payment had to 

 be postponed for a week or more, until the cash could 

 be raised by sending round for contributions among the 

 Duke's tenantry. Indeed, his credit fell to the lowest 

 ebb, and at one time he could not get a bill for 500/. 

 cashed in either Liverpool or Manchester. 1 



When Mr. George Rennie, the engineer, was engaged, 

 in 1825, in making the revised survey of the Liverpool 

 and Manchester Railway, he lunched one day at Worsley 

 Hall with Mr. Bradshaw, manager of the Duke's pro- 

 perty, then a very old man. He had been a contem- 

 porary of the Duke, and knew of the monetary straits to 

 which his Grace had been reduced during the construc- 

 tion of the works. Whilst at table, Mr. Bradshaw 

 pointed to a small whitewashed cottage on the Moss, 

 about a mile and a half distant, and said that in that 

 cottage, formerly a public-house, the Duke, Brindley, 

 and Gilbert had spent many an evening discussing the 

 prospects of the canal when in progress. One of the 

 principal topics of conversation on those occasions was 

 the means of raising the necessary funds against the 

 next pay-night. " One evening in particular," said Mr. 



1 There is now to be seen at Wors- 

 ley, in the hands of a private person, 

 a promissory note given by the Duke, 

 I >rariii^ interest, for as low a sum as 

 five j. omuls. Amongst the persons 



known to be lenders of money, to taking. 



whom the Duke applied at tin- time, 

 was Mr. C. Smith, a. merchant, at 

 Rochdale; but he would not lend a. 

 I'a rlhing, believing the I hike to lie 

 engaged in a jierfectly ruinous under- 



