440 THE GUAM) TIM'XK CANAL. 



He knew and felt how mticli his trade had been hin- 

 dered by the defective communications of the neigh- 

 bourhood, and to what extent it might be increased 

 provided a ready means of transit to Liverpool, Hull, 

 and Bristol could be secured ; and, confident in the 

 accuracy of his anticipations, he proceeded to make 

 the purchase of a considerable estate in Shelton, in- 

 tersected by the canal, on the banks of which he built 

 the celebrated Etruria the finest manufactory of the 

 kind up to that time erected in England, alongside 

 of which he built a mansion for himself and cottages 

 for his workpeople. He removed his works thither 

 from Burslem, partially in 1769, and wholly in 1771, 

 shortly before the works of the canal had been com- 

 pleted. 



The Grand Trunk was the most formidable under- 

 taking of the kind that had yet been attempted in Eng- 

 land. Its whole length, including the junctions with 

 the Birmingham Canal and the river Severn, was 

 139^ miles. In conformity with Brindley's practice, he 

 laid out as much of the navigation as possible upon a 

 level, concentrating the locks in this case at the summit, 

 near Harecastle, from which point the waters fell in 

 both directions, north and south. Brindley's liking for 

 long flat reaches of dead water made him keep clear of 

 rivers as much as possible. He likened water in a river 

 flowing down a declivity, to a furious giant running 

 along and overturning everything ; whereas (said he) 

 " if you lay the giant flat upon his back, he loses all his 

 force, and becomes completely passive, whatever his 

 size may be." Hence he contrived that from Middle- 

 wich, a distance of seventeen miles, to the Duke's canal 

 at Preston Brook, there should not be a lock ; but goods 

 might be conveyed from the centre of Cheshire to Man- 

 chester, for a distance of about seventy miles, along tlie 

 same uniform water level. lie carried out the same 

 practice, in like manner, on the Trent side of Harecastle, 



