TIII-; (iiiAXD TiirxK CANAL. 431 



many thousand families throughout England. His trade 

 li;iving begun t<> ex lend, a demand for his articles 

 sprang up not only in London but in foreign countries. 

 lint there was this great difficulty in his way, that 

 tin 1 roads in his neighbourhood were so bad that he was 

 at tlic same time prevented from obtaining a sufficient 

 supply of the best kinds of clay and also from disposing 

 of his wares in distant markets. This great evil weighed 

 heavily upon the whole industry of the district, and 

 Wedgwood accordingly appears to have bestirred him- 

 self at an early period in his career to improve the local 

 communications. In conjunction with several of the 

 leading potters he promoted an application to Parlia- 

 ment for powers to repair and widen the road from 

 the Red Bull at Lawton, in Cheshire, to Cliff Bank, in 

 Staffordshire. This line, if formed, would run right 

 throuuli the centre of the Potteries, open them to traffic, 

 and tall at either end into a turnpike road. The mea- 

 sure was, however, violently opposed by the people of 

 Newcastle-under-Lyme, on the ground that the proposed 

 new road would enable waggons and packhorses to travel 

 north and south from the Potteries without passing 

 through their town. The Newcastle innkeepers acted as 

 if they had a vested interest in the bad roads ; but the bill 

 passed, and the new line was made, stopping short at 

 Burslem. This was, no doubt, a great advantage, hut- 

 it was not enough. The heavy carriage of clay, coal, 

 and earthenware needed some more convenient means of 

 transport than waggons and roads; and, when the sub- 

 ject of water communication came to be discussed, Josiah 

 Wedgwood at once saw that a canal was the very thing 

 for the Potteries. Hence he immediately entered with 

 Lireat spirit into the movement again set on foot for the 

 construction of Brindley's Grand Trunk Canal. 



The field was not, however, so clear now as it had been 

 before. The success of the Duke's canal led to the 

 projection < >f a host of competing schemes in the county of 



