( 'HA ]. X. 



WJINIM.KVS DI'.ATH CHARACTERISTICS. 



475 



of life cimir t<> a sudden stop, when he could work no 

 longer. It is related of him that, when dying, some 

 cairn' canal undertakers insisted on having an inter- 

 view with him. They had encountered a serious diffi- 

 culty in the course of constructing their canal, and 

 they must have the advice of Mr. Brindley on the sub- 

 ject. They were introduced to the apartment where he 

 lay scarce able to gasp, yet his mind was clear. They 

 explained their difficulty they could not make their 

 canal hold water. " Then puddle it," said the engineer. 

 They explained that they had already done so. " Then 

 puddle it again and again." This was all he could 

 say, and it was enough. 



It remains to be added that, in his private character, 

 Brindley commanded general respect and admiration. 

 His integrity was inflexible ; his manner, though rough 

 and homely, was kind ; and his conduct unimpeachable. 1 

 He was altogether unassuming and unostentatious, and 

 dressed and lived with great plainness. He was the 

 furthest possible from a narrow or jealous temper, and 

 nothing gave him greater pleasure than to assist others 

 with their inventions, and to train up a generation of 

 engineers, in the persons of his pupils, able to carry out 

 the works he had designed, when 110 longer able to con- 

 duct them. The principal undertakings in which he 

 was engaged up to the time of his death were carried 

 on by his brother-in-law, Mr. Henshall, formerly his 



1 It has, indeed, been stated in 

 the crazy publication of the last Earl 

 of Bridgewater, to which we have 

 already alluded, that when in the 

 service of the Duke, Brindley was 

 " drunken.'' But this is completely 

 contradicted by the testimony of 

 !>rind ley's own friends; by the evi- 

 dence of Brindley*a note-book, from 

 repeated entries in which it appears 

 that his " atinu; and drink '" at dinner 

 cost no more than 8</. ; by the con- 

 fidence generally re | u.M-d in him, and 



the friendship entertained for him, by 

 men such as Josiah Wedgwood; and 

 by the fact of the vast amount of 

 work that he subsequently contrived 

 to get through. No man of " drunken " 

 habits could possibly have done this. 

 We should not have referred to this 

 topic but for the circumstance that the 

 late Mr. Baines, of Leeds, lias quoted 

 the Karl's statement, without contra- 

 diction, in his excellent * History of 

 Lancashire.' 



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