CHAP. V. ENGINEER TO THE ELLESMERE CANAL. 335 



The conscientious carefulness with which Telford had 

 performed the duties entrusted to him, and the skill with 

 which he directed the works placed under his charge, 

 secured the cordial approbation of the gentlemen of the 

 county. His straightforward and outspoken manner 

 had further obtained for him the friendship of many 

 of them. At the meetings of quarter-sessions his plans 

 had often to encounter considerable opposition, and, 

 when called upon to defend them, he did so with such 

 firmness, persuasiveness, and good temper, that he 

 usually carried his point. " Some of the magistrates 

 are ignorant," he wrote in 1789, " and some are obsti- 

 nate ; though I must say that on the whole there is a 

 very respectable bench, and with the sensible part I 

 believe I am on good terms." This was amply proved 

 some four years later, when it became necessary to 

 appoint an engineer to the Ellesmere Canal, on which 

 occasion the magistrates, who were mainly the promoters 

 of that undertaking, almost unanimously solicited their 

 Surveyor to accept the office. 



Indeed, Telford had become a general favourite in the 

 county. He was cheerful and cordial in his manner, 

 though somewhat brusque. Though now thirty-five 

 years old, he had not lost the humorousness which had 

 procured for him the sobriquet of " Laughing Tarn." 

 He laughed at his own jokes as well as at others. He 

 was spoken of as jolly a word then much more rarely 

 as well as more choicely used than it is now. Yet he 

 had a manly spirit, and was very jealous of his inde- 

 pendence. All this made him none the less liked by 

 free-minded men. Speaking of the friendly support 

 which he had throughout received from Mr. Pulteney, 

 he said, " His good opinion has always been a great 

 satisfaction to me ; and the more so, as it has neither 

 been obtained nor preserved by deceit, cringing, nor 

 flattery. On the contrary, I believe I am almost the 



