CHAP. YIT. TELFOWS FRIENDSHIPS, 371 



friend of mine, and at this moment a pupil, as it were, 

 anxious for information. This is a noble object : the 

 field is wide, the ground new and capable of vast im- 

 provement. To take up and manage the water of a fine 

 island is like a fairy tale, and, if properly conducted, it 

 would render Ireland truly a jewel among the nations." T 

 It does not, however, appear that Telford was ever 

 employed by the board to carry out the grand scheme 

 which thus fired his engineering imagination. 



Mixing freely with men of all classes, our engineer 

 seems to have made many new friends and acquaint- 

 ances about this time. Whilst on his journeys north 

 and south, he frequently took the opportunity of look- 

 ing in upon the venerable James Watt, at his house 

 at Heathfield, near Birmingham, " the steam-engine 

 man from Glasgow, a great and good man," he terms 

 him. At London, he says, he is " often with old Brodie 

 and Black, each the first in his profession, though they 

 walked up together to the great city on foot, 2 more than 

 half a century ago Gloria ! " About the same time 

 we find Telford taking interest in the projects of a 

 deserving person, named Holwell, a coal-master in 

 Staffordshire, and assisting him to take out a patent for 

 boring wooden pipes ; " he being a person," says Telford, 

 " little known, and not having capital, interest, or con- 

 nections, to bring the matter forward. I have had the 

 machine at work for about a year, and it answers the 

 purpose well." 



He also kept up his literary friendships and preserved 

 his love for poetical reading. At Shrewsbury, one of 



1 Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, 

 Langholm, dated Liverpool, 9th Sep- 

 tember, 1800. 



2 Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, 

 Langholm, dated Salopian Coffee 

 House, Charing Cross, London, 26th 

 February, 1799. Mr. Brodie was 

 originally a blacksmith. He was a 



and introduced many improvements 

 in iron work. He invented stoves for 

 chimneys, ships' hearths, &c. He 

 had above a hundred men working in 

 his London shop, besides carrying on 

 an iron work at Coalbrookdale. He 

 afterwards established a woollen manu- 

 factory near Peebles. 



man of great ingenuity and industry, 



2 15 2 



