362 



TELFORD'S PROJECTED BRIDGE 



PABT VIII. 



rebuild or remove it, he proposed the daring plan of a 

 cast iron bridge of a single arch of not less than 600 feet 

 span, the segment of a circle 1450 feet in diameter. In 

 preparing this design we find that he was associated with 

 a Mr. Douglas, to whom many allusions are made in his 

 private letters. 1 The design of this bridge seems to have 

 arisen out of a larger subject the improvement of the 



1 Douglas was first mentioned to 

 Telford, in a letter from Mr. Pasley, 

 as a young man, a native of Big- 

 holmes, Eskdale, who had, after serv- 

 ing his time there as a mechanic, 

 emigrated to America, where he 

 showed such proofs of mechanical 

 genius that he attracted the notice 

 of Mr. Listen, the British Minister, 

 who paid his expenses home to 

 England, that his services might not 

 be lost to his country, and at the 

 same time gave him a letter of intro- 

 duction to the Society of Arts in 

 London. Telford, in a letter to An- 

 drew Little, dated 4th December, 

 1797, expresses a desire "to know 

 more of this Eskdale Archimedes." 

 Shortly after, we find Douglas men- 

 tioned as having invented a brick- 

 machine, a shearing-machine, and a 

 ball for destroying the rigging of 

 ships ; for the two former of which he 

 secured patents. Telford having by 

 this time got rid of his revolutionary 

 sympathies, expressed the hope that 

 Douglas's destructive ball might prove 

 of service against the French war- 

 ships. In a subsequent letter, dated 

 Salop, 6th March, 1798, he says : 

 " We are subscribing most liberally 

 here to oppose these terrible French- 

 men, w r ho seem to want more worlds 

 to subdue,, not considering how diffi- 

 cult it is to govern what they already 

 possess. I have already disapproved 

 of our meddling with them at all 

 with regard to their own affairs ; but 

 I am equally averse to their settling 

 ours. They prove rather troublesome 

 neighbours, and very much assume 

 the attitude of our old sturdy beggars. 

 Upon the whole, I should feel well 

 satisfied if Douglas would destroy 

 their floating camps and flat-bottomed 



boats." In 1799 Telford says he is 

 employing Douglas to do some work 

 for him in connection with the water- 

 work's. In 1802 Douglas seems to 

 have suddenly absconded, and Telford 

 writes his friend at Langholm : 

 " James Douglas has played us a 

 pliskey. However, by good manage- 

 ment, I think there will not be any 

 great loss but no thanks to him. 

 Where he is gone, I know not." 

 Telford heard nothing more of his 

 coadjutor who had thus left him 

 in the lurch until the year 1815, 

 when he thus writes to Mr. William 

 Little, postmaster at Langholm : 

 " At Inverness," says he, " 1 was sur- 

 prised at receiving a letter from James 

 Douglas, announcing his successful 

 career in France. I am not surprised 

 at it : he was peculiarly fitted for that 

 country. I had never heard of him 

 since he left Mr. Pasley and myself 

 in the lurch, which action, with good 

 reason, soured the mind of that most 

 excellent of men even to me ; although 

 it was through him I was forced into 

 the connection, and my injury was 

 far greater than his. But of this no 

 more. I wish Douglas may deserve 

 the success which his natural talents 

 merit, although they might have been 

 exercised in a more respectable man- 

 ner. But he was always too impa- 

 tient for distinction and wealth; in 

 the race for which, in this country, 

 he found too many able competitors." 

 It appears that Douglas introduced 

 in France machinery for the improved 

 manufacture of woollen cloth, and, 

 being patronised by the Government, 

 he succeeded in realising considerable 

 wealth, which, however, he did not 

 live to enjoy. 



