414 THE DUKK'S DIFFICULTIES 



crazed Francis Henry, eighth Earl ; and 011 his death at 

 Paris, some thirty years since, that title too became 

 extinct. The Duke bequeathed about G00,000. in 

 legacies to his relatives, General Egerton, the Countess 

 of Carlisle, Lady Anne Yernon, and Lady Louisa Mar- 

 donald. He devised most of his houses, his pictures, 

 and his canals, to his nephew George Qranville (son of 

 Earl Gower), second Marquis of Stafford and first Duke 

 of Sutherland, with reversion to his second son, Lord 

 Francis Egerton, first Earl of Ellesmere, who thus suc- 

 ceeded to the principal part of the vast property created 

 by the Duke of Bridgewater. The Duke was buried in 

 the family vault at Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, in 

 the plainest manner, without any state, at his own express 

 request. 



The Duke was a great public benefactor. The bold- 

 ness of his enterprise, and the salutary results which 

 flowed from its execution, entitle him to be regarded as 

 one of the most useful men of his age. A Liverpool 

 letter of 1765 says, " The services the Duke has rendered 

 to the town and neighbourhood of Manchester have en- 

 deared him to the country, more especially to the poor, 

 who, with grateful benedictions, repay their noble bene- 

 factor." l If he became rich through his enterprise, the 

 public grew rich with him and by him ; for his undertak- 

 ing was no less productive to his neighbours than it was 

 to himself. His memory was long venerated by the peo] >le 

 amongst whom he lived, a self-reliant, self-asserting 

 race, proud of their independence, full of persevering 

 energy, and strong in their attachments. The Duke 

 was a man very much after their own hearts, and a good 

 deal after their own manners. In respecting him, they 

 were perhaps but paying homage to those qualities which 

 they most cherished in themselves. Long after the Duke 

 had gone from amongst them, they spoke to each oilier 



