144 RENNET AND AVON CANAL. PART VII. 



him as the Kennet and Avon Canal. On this, his first 

 work of civil engineering in England, he bestowed great 

 pains, on the survey, the designs for the viaducts and 

 bridges, as well as on the execution of the works them- 

 selves. 



The Kennet and Avon Canal commences at Newbury, 

 at the head of the River Kennet Navigation, passes up 

 the vale of the Kennet for 16i miles, by Hungerford to 

 Crofton, where the summit level begins, which is reached 

 by 31 locks, rising in all 210 feet. It then proceeds by 

 Burnslade, Wootton Rivers, and the valley of the Pewsey, 

 to Devizes ; and from Devizes by Foxhanger, Seming- 

 ton, Bradford, and the vale of the Avon to Bath, joining 

 that river just above the Old Bath Bridge, where the 

 navigation from Bristol terminates. The total length of 

 the canal is 57 miles, the total descent on the west side 

 of the summit being 404 feet 6 inches, divided into 

 48 locks. The Kennet is crossed several times, at 

 Hungerford by a brick aqueduct of three arches. At 

 the summit a tunnel 500 yards in extent was neces- 

 sary, approached by deep cuttings. The strata between 

 Wootton Rivers and Devizes being mostly open chalk 

 and sand, great difficulty was experienced in forming a 

 water-tight bed for the canal, as well as in preventing 

 slips of the adjacent ground. At that part of the line 

 which lies between the river Biss and Trowbridge, the 

 works were carried along the face of a steep slippery hill. 

 Then near Bradford the cutting is mostly through open 

 rock, and beyond that through beds of tough clay in- 

 terspersed with strata of fuller's earth. The water at 

 these points worked serious mischief, for after a heavy 

 fall of rain it would filter through the earth, and the 

 weight of the mass pressing down from above, tended 

 to force out the soft clay, causing extensive slips. On 

 one occasion not less than seven acres of land slid 

 into the canal, forcing the whole down into the river in 

 the valley below. To remedy this source of mischief, 



