CHAP. II. 



TELFORD A JOURNEYMAN MASON. 



303 



that the bridge was sufficiently strong ; for the flood sub- 

 sided without doing it any harm, and it has stood the 

 furious spates of nearly a century uninjured. 



Telford acquired considerable general experience 

 about the same time as a house-builder, though the 

 structures on which he was engaged were of a humble 

 order, being chiefly small farm-houses on the Duke 

 of Buccleugh's estate, with the usual out-buildings. 

 Perhaps the most important of the jobs on which 

 he was employed was the manse of Westerkirk, where 







VALLEY OF ESKDJU.E. WESTERKTRT TN THE DISTANCE. 

 [By Percival Skelton, c.fter his original Drawing.] 



lie was comparatively at home. The hamlet stands 

 on a green hill-side at the entrance to the valley of 

 the Meggat. It consists of the kirk, the minister's 

 manse, the parish-school, and a few cottages, every 

 occupant of which was known to Telford. It is backed 

 by the purple moors, up which he loved to wander 

 in his leisure hours and read the poems of Fergusson 

 and Burns. The river Esk gurgles along its rocky 

 bed in the bottom of the dale, separated from the 

 kirkyard by a steep green field ; whilst near at hand, 



