318 



TELFORD'S LIFE AT SHREWSBURY. 



PART VIII. 



he assures me that he hates travelling, and was born to 

 be a domestic man. He never sees his country-house 



t/ 



but he says within himself, ' Oh ! might I but rest here, 

 and never more travel three miles from home ; then 

 should I be happy indeed ! ' But he has become so 

 committed, and so pledged himself to his own conscience 

 to carry out his great work, that he says he is doubtful 

 whether he will ever be able to attain the desire of his 

 heart life at home. He never dines out, and scarcely 

 takes time to dine at all : he says he is growing old, and 

 has no time to lose. His manner is simplicity itself. 

 Indeed, I have never yet met so noble a being. He is 

 going abroad again shortly on one of his long tours of 

 mercy." 1 The journey to which Telford here refers was 

 Howard's last. In the following year he left England 

 to return no more ; and the great and good man died 

 at Cherson, on the shores of the Black Sea, less than 

 two years after his interview with the young engineer 

 at Shrewsbury. 



Telford writes to his Langholm friend at the same time, 

 that he is working very hard, and studying to improve 

 himself in branches of knowledge in which he feels him- 

 self deficient. He is practising very temperate habits : 

 for half a year past he has taken to drinking water only, 

 avoiding all sweets, and eating no " nick-nacks." He 

 has " so wens and milk " (oatmeal flummery) every night 

 for his supper. His friend having asked his opinion ol 

 politics, he says he really knows nothing about them ; 

 he had been so completely engrossed by his own busi- 

 ness that he has not had time to read even a newspaper. 

 But, though an ignoramus in politics, he has been 

 studying liine, which is more to his purpose. If his 

 friend can give him any information about that, he will 

 promise to read a newspaper now and then in the en- 

 suing session of Parliament, for the purpose of forming 



1 Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated Shrewsbury Castlo, 21st 

 Feb., 1788. 



