B R I 



553 



B R I 



The canal or gut is designed to extend in a strait line 

 ' seven hundred yards ; and, if the plan were accom- 

 plished, a harbour will be formed, completely land- 

 locked, capable of containing a whole navy, and of 

 admitting vessels of the greatest burden. But ap- 

 prehensions are entertained, whether the work can be 

 properly secured against accidents, and kept in a 

 sufficient state of repair, without a considerable an- 

 nual expence ; and great difficulty has been experi- 

 enced in rendering the piers strong enough to resist 

 the violence of the sea, and preventing the reaccu- 

 mutation of the sand by the tides. By these opera- 

 tions, however, a return of health, and a prospect of 

 commercial prosperity, have been already opened to 

 the citizens of Briudisi ; who have resolved, in gra- 

 titude for so great blessings, to erect a statue to the 

 king, with inscriptions upon its pedestal to the mi- 

 nister and his agents. 



Since this town was visited by Mr Swinburne, 

 these improvements have been carrying on under the 

 direction of Don Carlo Pollio, aa able engineer. In 

 removing the earth from one of the banks, for 

 the purpose of covering the marshy grounds, tin- 

 workmen discovered the foundation of a house, which 

 appeared to have been inhabited by a Roman. The 

 distribution of the apartments, level with the ground, 

 the canal for the bath, and the bed-chamber, with 

 mosaic work, and the motto of bene dormio, I sleep 

 well, were distinctly seen. Among the rubbish there 

 were also found the statue of a woman, and two 

 heads of ancient philosophers. 



Beside the causes which we have already assigned 

 for the ruin of Brindisi, there is another which is 

 deserving of notice. During the long war which the 

 Venetians waged against the Turks, a fleet of the 

 republic was always stationed in the port of this 

 city. The Venetians admired the wines which were 

 made in the adjacent country, and paid a high price 

 for them. The avarice of the inhabitants, however, 

 was greater than their prudence ; they tore up all 

 their olive trees, and replaced them with vines, in or- 

 der to supply a demand which they never seem to 

 have regarded as temporary. But when the Vene- 

 tians left Brindisi, the produce of the vineyards could 

 not find a market, while oil was not to be. had. Po- 

 pulation 2042.* East Long. 17 4O', North Lat. 

 40 48'. See Swinburne's Travels in the i*>o Sici- 

 lies, vol. i. p. 383. ; Stolberg's Travels in Germany, 

 Switzerland, Italy, and Sicily, 1791, 1792; And An- 

 iialcs des Voyages, &c. par Malthe Brun, torn. iii. 

 p. 209. (q) 



BRINDLEY, JAMES, was one of the small num- 

 ber of unlettered and uneducated men, who, sustain- 

 ed solely by the powers of their own minds, have- 

 used them with such wisdom and success, as to ac- 

 quire not merely parochial or provincial celebrity, 

 but to attract the admiration of the age and nation 

 in which they lived, and leave to posterity, in their 

 productions, a lasting monument of their intellectual 

 resources. It was, indeed, fortunate for the subject 

 of this memoir, as well as for his country, that be 

 was cotemporary with a nobleman, the Duke of 

 Bridgewater, whose liberality and science conferred 



distinction on his rank. Without such a concnrrcnr 

 an opportunity might have been wanting to thi in- v - 

 genious projector, of convincing the world, that hit 

 projects, though bold and surprising, were not im- 

 practicable, .lank',, Brindley at T misted, 

 in the parish of \Vormhill in Derbyshire, in the year 

 1716. The total ncgk-ct oi his education is attribu- 

 ted to domestic difficulties, incurred, in a great mea- 

 sure, by his father's imprudent devntion to lii-ld- 

 sports, though he possessed but -a very small free- 

 hold. Young Brindley, in consequence of hit fa- 

 ther's indiscretion, was obliged to lend his childhood 

 to such labour as it was equal to, instead of cmplov - 

 ing it in acquiring the elements of future improve- 

 ment in letters, or in science. Having reached hi 

 seventeenth year, he bound himself apprentice to Mr 

 Bennett, a millwright, near Maccleslield in Cheshire \ 

 in which employment he soon taught his master to 

 confide in his judgment, and stood much above him 

 in the opinion ot tiie millers. Before the expiration 

 of his apprenticeship, he had the satisfaction of see- 

 ing that his master, who was now grown old, derived 

 a comfortable subsistence for his family from his in- 

 dustry and reputation. Some opinion may be formed 

 of his devotion to his favourite occupations from the 

 following fact : Mr Bennett having inspected an en- 

 gine paper-mill, had undertaken to erect one ; but, 

 before its completion, a millwright, who happened 

 to see it, did not scruple to say, that it would never 

 work as was proposed. Brindley, who appears to 

 have doubted the correctness of his master'* repre- 

 sentation, took the pains to visit it at the distance of 

 fifty miles, which he performed in the only interval 

 that could be spared him, betwixt the Saturday oven- 

 ing and Monday morning following. His sugges- 

 tions are said to have enabled his master not merely 

 to execute his promise, but to improve upon the ori- 

 ginal design. 



As soon as he was free to act for himself, he 

 professed the occupation of millwright on his own 

 account ; and, before he had reached his fortieth 

 year, his name was in the highest repute in all the 

 counties in his vicinity. Some of the principal works 

 to which he owed his reputation in those parts, were 

 a water-engine, which he erected in the year 1752, 

 at Clifton in Lancashire, for the purpose of draining 

 some coal-mines ; a bilk-mill, which he was employed 

 to construct at Congleton in Cheshire ; and a steam- 

 engine, the boiler of which was of brick and stone, 

 and the cylinders of wood hooped together, which 

 he erected near Newcastle-under-line. From this 

 time his whole strength was directed to the improve- 

 ment of inland navigation ; in which important de- 

 sign he co-operated with the Duke of Bridgewater. 

 His Grace, having calculated the gains that might 

 accrue from a canal which should connect his estate 

 at Woreley, containing valuable coal-mines, with the 

 populous and manufacturing town of Manchester, 

 called in the advice and practical ability of Mr Brind- 

 ley. After a careful survey, he pronounced the 

 work, though difficult, not impracticable. The plan 

 finally proposed, and for the execution of which an 

 act of parliament was obtained in 1 759, wa, to car- 



Stolbcrg, who visited Brindisi in 1792, makes the population of Brindisi 6000. but we have followed a Uter writer M' 

 Aiifie Masci, who has written a learned memoir on the origin, moaners, and actual state of the Albaneso. 

 VOL. IV. PART II. * A 



