CHAP. XIV. MR. TELFORD'S DECLINING YEARS. 479 



partly because of his advanced age, but also out of a 

 feeling of duty to his employers, the Canal Companies, 

 stating that he could not lend his name to a scheme 

 which, if carried out, must so materially affect their 

 interests. 



Towards the close of his life he was afflicted by deaf- 

 ness, which made him feel exceedingly uncomfortable in 

 mixed society. Thanks to a healthy constitution, unim- 

 paired by excess and invigorated by active occupation, 

 his working powers had lasted longer than those of most 

 men. He was still cheerful, clear-headed, and skilful in 

 the arts of his profession, and felt the same pleasure in 

 useful work that he had ever done. It was, therefore, 

 with difficulty that he could reconcile himself to the idea 

 of retiring from the field of honourable labour, which he 

 had so long occupied, into a state of comparative inac- 

 tivity. But he was not a man who could be idle, and 

 he determined, like his great predecessor Smeaton, to 

 occupy the remaining years of his life in arranging his 

 engineering papers for publication. Vigorous though 

 he had been, he felt that the time was shortly approach- 

 ing when the wheels of life must stand still altogether. 

 Writing to a friend at Langholm, he said, " Having now 

 been occupied for about seventy-five years in incessant 

 exertion, I have for some time past arranged to decline 

 the contest ; but the numerous works in which I am 

 engaged have hitherto prevented my succeeding. In the 

 mean time I occasionally amuse myself with setting down 

 in what manner a long life has been laboriously, and I hope 

 usefully, employed." And again, a little later, he writes : 

 " During the last twelve months I have had several rubs ; 

 at seventy-seven they tell more seriously than formerly, 

 and call for less exertion and require greater precau- 

 tions. I fancy that few of my age belonging to the 

 valley of the Esk remain in the land of the living." l 



One of the last works on which Mr. Telford was pro- 



1 Letter to Mrs. Little, Post Office, Langholm, 28th August, 1833. 



