CHAP. VIII. THK ;i?AM> TIM'NK CANAL, 441 



where IK- hiid out the canal in as many long lengths of 

 dead water as possible. 



The whole rise >!' the canal from the level of the 

 Mer.M-\ , including the Duke's locks at Runcorn, to the 

 summit at Ilarecastle, is 395 feet; and the fall from 

 thence to the Trent at Wilden is 288 feet 8 inches. 

 The locks on the Grand Trunk proper, on the northern 

 side of Harecastle, are thirty-five, and on the southern 

 side forty. The dimensions of the canal, as originally 

 constructed, were twenty-eight feet in breadth at the top, 

 sixteen at the bottom, and four and a-half feet in depth ; 

 but from Wilden to Burton, and from Middlewich to 

 Preston-on-the-Hill, it was thirty-one feet broad at the 

 top, eighteen at the bottom, and five and a-half feet deep, 

 so as to be navigable by large barges ; and the locks at 

 those parts of the canal were of correspondingly large 

 dimensions. The width was afterwards made uniform 

 throughout. The canal was carried over the river 

 Dove on an aqueduct of twenty-three arches, ap- 

 proached by an embankment on either side in all a 

 mile and two furlongs in length. There were also 

 aqueducts over the Trent, which it crosses at four dif- 

 ferent points one of these being of six arches of twenty- 

 one feet span each and over the Dane and other 

 smaller streams. The number of minor aqueducts was 

 about 160, and of road-bridges 109. 



But the most formidable works on the canal were the 

 tunnels, of which there were five the Harecastle, 2880 

 yards long; the Hermitage, 130 yards; the Barnton, 

 560 yards ; the Saltenford, 350 yards ; and the Preston- 

 on-the-Hill, 1241 yards. The Harecastle tunnel (subse- 

 quently duplicated by Telford) was constructed only 

 nine feet wide and twelve feet high ; * but the others 



1 Brindley's tunnel had only si ace to IK- worked in the same way, while 

 I'm- a narrow canal-l>oat to pass horses haul the boats through the 

 through, and it was propelled l>y the whole length of Telford's wider tun- 

 tedious and hilarious |.nvss of what i nel. The men who " leg " the Uiat, 

 is ealled ki Irving." It still continues literally kick it al<>n^ from one end to 



