The most important point in the execution of the details of the
bridge, where the engineer had no past experience to guide him, was
in the designing and fixing of the wrought iron work.  Mr. Telford
had continued his experiments as to the tenacity of bar iron, until
he had obtained several hundred distinct tests; and at length,
after the most mature delilberation, the patterns and dimensions
were finally arranged by him, and the contract for the manufacture
of the whole was let to Mr. Hazeldean, of Shrewsbury, in the year
1820.  The iron was to be of the best Shropshire, drawn at Upton
forge, and finished and proved at the works, under the inspection
of a person appointed by the engineer.

[Image] Cut showing fixing of the chains in the rock

The mode by which the land ends of these enormous suspension chains
were rooted to the solid ground on either side of the Strait, was
remarkably ingenious and effective.  Three oblique tunnels were made
by blasting the rock on the Anglesea side; they were each about six
feet in diameter, the excavations being carried down an inclined
plane to the depth of about twenty yards.  A considerable width of
rock lay between each tunnel, but at the bottom they were all
united by a connecting horizontal avenue or cavern, sufficiently
capacious to enable the workmen to fix the strong iron frames,
composed principally of thick flat cast iron plates, which were
engrafted deeply into the rock, and strongly bound together by the
iron work passing along the horizontal avenue; so that, if the iron
held, the chains could only yield by tearing up the whole mass of
solid rock under which they were thus firmly bound.

A similar method of anchoring the main chains was adopted on the
Caernarvonshire side.  A thick bank of earth had there to be cut
through, and a solid mass of masonry built in its place, the rock
being situated at a greater distance from the main pier; involving
a greater length of suspending chain, and a disproportion in the
catenary or chord line on that side of the bridge.  The excavation
and masonry thereby rendered necessary proved a work of vast
labour, and its execution occupied a considerable time; but by the
beginning of the year 1825 the suspension pyramids, the land piers
and arches, and the rock tunnels, had all been completed, and the
main chains were firmly secured in them; the work being
sufficiently advanced to enable the suspending of the chains to be
proceeded with.  This was by far the most difficult and anxious part
of the undertaking.

With the same careful forethought and provision for every
contingency which had distinguished the engineer's procedure in the
course of the work, he had made frequent experiments to ascertain
the actual power which would be required to raise the main chains
to their proper curvature.  A valley lay convenient for the purpose,
a little to the west of the bridge on the Anglesea side.
Fifty-seven of the intended vertical suspending rods, each nearly
ten feet long and an inch square, having been fastened together, a
piece of chain was attached to one end to make the chord line 570
feet in length; and experiments having been made and comparisons
drawn, Mr. Telford ascertained that the absolute weight of one of
the main chains of the bridge between the points of suspension was
23 1/2 tons, requiring a strain of 39 1/2 tons to raise it to its
proper curvature.  On this calculation the necessary apparatus
required for the hoisting was prepared.  The mode of action finally
determined on for lifting the main chains, and fixing them into
their places, was to build the central portion of each upon a raft
450 feet long and 6 feet wide, then to float it to the site of the
bridge, and lift it into its place by capstans and proper tackle.

At length all was ready for hoisting the first great chain, and
about the middle of April, 1825, Mr. Telford left London for Bangor
to superintend the operations.  An immense assemblage collected to
witness the sight; greater in number than any that had been
collected in the same place since the men of Anglesea, in their
war-paint, rushing down to the beach, had shrieked defiance across
the Straits at their Roman invaders on the Caernarvon shore.
Numerous boats arrayed in gay colours glided along the waters; the
day--the 26th of April--being bright, calm, and in every way
propitious.

At half-past two, about an hour before high water, the raft bearing
the main chain was cast off from near Treborth Mill, on the
Caernarvon side.  Towed by four boats, it began gradually to move
from the shore, and with the assistance of the tide, which caught
it at its further end, it swung slowly and majestically round to
its position between the main piers, where it was moored.  One end
of the chain was then bolted to that which hung down the face of
the Caernarvon pier; whilst the other was attached to ropes
connected with strong capstans fixed on the Anglesea side, the
ropes passing by means of blocks over the top of the pyramid of the
Anglesea pier.  The capstans for hauling in the ropes bearing the
main chain, were two in number, manned by about 150 labourers.  When
all was ready, the signal was given to "Go along!"  A Band of fifers
struck up a lively tune; the capstans were instantly in motion, and
the men stepped round in a steady trot.  All went well.  The ropes
gradually coiled in.  As the strain increased, the pace slackened a
little; but "Heave away, now she comes!" was sung out.  Round went
the men, and steadily and safely rose the ponderous chain.

[Image] Cut of Bridge, showing state of Suspension Chain

The tide had by this time turned, and bearing upon the side of the
raft, now getting freer of its load, the current floated it away
from under the middle of the chain still resting on it, and it
swung easily off into the water.  Until this moment a breath less
silence pervaded the watching multitude; and nothing was heard
among the working party on the Anglesea side but the steady tramp
of the men at the capstans, the shrill music of the fife, and the
occasional order to "Hold on!" or "Go along!"  But no sooner was the
raft seen floating away, and the great chain safely swinging in the
air, than a tremendous cheer burst forth along both sides of the
Straits.

The rest of the work was only a matter of time.  The most anxious
moment had passed.  In an hour and thirty-five minutes after the
commencement of the hoisting, the chain was raised to its proper
curvature, and fastened to the land portion of it which had been
previously placed over the top of the Anglesea pyramid.  Mr. Telford
ascended to the point of fastening, and satisfied himself that a
continuous and safe connection had been formed from the Caernarvon
fastening on the rock to that on Anglesea.  The announcement of the
fact was followed by loud and prolonged cheering from the workmen,
echoed by the spectators, and extending along the Straits on both
sides, until it seemed to die away along the shores in the distance.
Three foolhardy workmen, excited by the day's proceedings, had the
temerity to scramble along the upper surface of the chain--which
was only nine inches wide and formed a curvature of 590 feet--from
one side of the Strait to the other!*[2]  Far different were the
feelings of the engineer who had planned this magnificent work.
Its failure had been predicted; and, like Brindley's Barton Viaduct,
it had been freely spoken of as a "castle in the air."  Telford had,
it is true, most carefully tested every part by repeated experiment,
and so conclusively proved the sufficiency of the iron chains to
bear the immense weight they would have to support, that he was
thoroughly convinced as to the soundness of his principles of
construction, and satisfied that, if rightly manufactured and
properly put together, the chains would hold, and that the piers
would sustain them.  Still there was necessarily an element of
uncertainty in the undertaking.  It was the largest structure of
the kind that had ever been attempted.  There was the contingency
of a flaw in the iron; some possible scamping in the manufacture;
some little point which, in the multiplicity of details to be
attended to, he might have overlooked, or which his subordinates
might have neglected.  It was, indeed, impossible but that he
should feel intensely anxious as to the result of the day's
operations.  Mr. Telford afterwards stated to a friend, only a few
months before his death, that for some time previous to the opening
of the bridge, his anxiety was so great that he could scarcely
sleep; and that a continuance of that condition must have very soon
completely undermined his health.  We are not, therefore, surprised
to learn that when his friends rushed to congratulate him on the
result of the first day's experiment, which decisively proved the
strength and solidity of the bridge, they should have found the
engineer on his knees engaged in prayer.  A vast load had been
taken off his mind; the perilous enterprise of the day had been
accomplished without loss of life; and his spontaneous act was
thankfulness and gratitude.

[Image] Menai Bridge

The suspension of the remaining fifteen chains was accomplished
without difficulty.  The last was raised and fixed on the 9th of
July, 1825, when the entire line was completed.  On fixing the final
bolt, a band of music descended from the top of the suspension pier
on the Anglesea side to a scaffolding erected over the centre of
the curved part of the chains, and played the National Anthem
amidst the cheering of many thousand persons assembled along the
shores of the Strait: while the workmen marched in procession along
the bridge, on which a temporary platform had been laid, and the
St. David steam-packet of Chester passed under the chains towards
the Smithy Rocks and back again, thus re-opening the navigation of
the Strait.

In August the road platform was commenced, and in September the
trussed bearing bars were all suspended.  The road was constructed
of timber in a substantial manner, the planking being spiked
together, with layers of patent felt between the planks, and the
carriage way being protected by oak guards placed seven feet and a
half apart.  Side railings were added; the toll-houses and
approach-roads were completed by the end of the year; and the
bridge was opened for public traffic on Monday, the 30th of January,
1826, when the London and Holyhead mailcoach passed over it for the
first time, followed by the Commissioners of the Holyhead roads,
the engineer, several stage-coaches, and a multitude of private
persons too numerous to mention.

We may briefly add a few facts as to the quantities of materials
used, and the dimensions of this remarkable structure.  The total
weight of iron was 2187 tons, in 33,265 pieces.  The total length of
the bridge is 1710 feet, or nearly a third of a mile; the distance
between the points of suspension of the main bridge being 579 feet.
The total sum expended by Government in its erection, including the
embankment and about half a mile of new line of road on the
Caernarvon side, together with the toll-houses, was 120,000L.

Notwithstanding the wonders of the Britannia Bridge subsequently
erected by Robert Stephenson for the passage across the same strait
of the Chester and Holyhead Railway, the Menai Bridge of Telford is
by far the most picturesque object.  "Seen as I approached it," says
Mr. Roscoe, "in the clear light of an autumnal sunset, which threw
an autumnal splendour on the wide range of hills beyond, and the
sweep of richly variegated groves and plantations which covered
their base--the bright sun, the rocky picturesque foreground,
villas, spires, and towers here and there enlivening the prospect--
the Menai Bridge appeared more like the work of some great magician
than the mere result of man's skill and industry."

[Image] Conway Suspension Bridge

Shortly after the Menai Bridge was begun, it was determined by the
Commissioners of the Holyhead road that a bridge of similar design
should be built over the estuary of the Conway, immediately
opposite the old castle at that place, and which had formerly been
crossed by an open ferry boat.  The first stone was laid on the
3rd of April, 1822, and the works having proceeded satisfactorily,
the bridge and embankment approaching it were completed by the summer
of 1826.  But the operations being of the same kind as those
connected with the larger structure above described, though of a
much less difficult character, it is unnecessary to enter into any
details as to the several stages of its construction.  In this
bridge the width between the centres of the supporting towers is
327 feet, and the height of the under side of the roadway above
high water of spring tides only 15 feet.  The heaviest work was an
embankment as its eastern approach, 2015 feet in length and about
300 feet in width at its highest part.

It will be seen, from the view of the bridge given on the opposite
page, that it is a highly picturesque structure, and combines,
with the estuary which it crosses, and the ancient castle of Conway,
in forming a landscape that is rarely equalled.

Footnotes for Chapter XII.

*[1] In an article in the 'Edinburgh Review,' No. exli., from the
pen of Sir David Brewster, the writer observes:--"Mr. Telford's
principle of suspending and laying down from above the centering of
stone and iron bridges is, we think, a much more fertile one than
even he himself supposed.  With modifications, by no means
considerable, and certainly practicable, it appears to us that the
voussoirs or archstones might themselves be laid down from above,
and suspended by an appropriate mechanism till the keystone was
inserted.  If we suppose the centering in Mr. Telford's plan to be
of iron, this centering itself becomes an iron bridge, each rib of
which is composed of ten pieces of fifty feet each; and by
increasing the number of suspending chains, these separate pieces
or voussoirs having been previously joined together, either
temporarily or permanently, by cement or by clamps, might be laid
into their place, and kept there by a single chain till the road
was completed.  The voussoirs, when united, might be suspended from
a general chain across the archway, and a platform could be added
to facilitate the operations."  This is as nearly as possible the
plan afterwards revived by Mr. Brunel, and for the originality of
which, we believe, he has generally the credit, though it clearly
belongs to Telford.

*[2] A correspondent informs us of a still more foolhardy exploit
performed on the occasion.  He says, "Having been present, as a boy
from Bangor grammar school, on the 26th of April, when the first
chain was carried across, an incident occurred which made no small
impression on my mind at the time.  After the chain had reached its
position, a cobbler of the neighbourhood crawled to the centre of
the curve, and there finished a pair of shoes; when, having
completed his task, he returned in safety to the Caernarvon side!
I need not say that we schoolboys appreciated his feat of
foolhardiness far more than Telford's master work."


CHAPTER XIII.

DOCKS, DRAINAGE, AND BRIDGES.

It will have been observed, from the preceding narrative, how much
had already been accomplished by skill and industry towards opening
up the material resources of the kingdom.  The stages of improvement
which we have recorded indeed exhibit a measure of the vital energy
which has from time to time existed in the nation.  In the earlier
periods of engineering history, the war of man was with nature.
The sea was held back by embankments.  The Thames, instead of being
allowed to overspread the wide marshes on either bank, was confined
within limited bounds, by which the navigable depth of its channel
was increased, at the same time that a wide extent of land was
rendered available for agriculture.

In those early days, the great object was to render the land more
habitable, comfortable, and productive.  Marshes were reclaimed, and
wastes subdued.  But so long as the country remained comparatively
closed against communication, and intercourse was restricted by the
want of bridges and roads, improvement was extremely slow.
For, while roads are the consequence of civilisation, they are also
among its most influential causes.  We have seen even the blind
Metcalf acting as an effective instrument of progress in the
northern counties by the formation of long lines of road.  Brindley
and the Duke of Bridgewater carried on the work in the same
districts, and conferred upon the north and north-west of England
the blessings of cheap and effective water communication.  Smeaton
followed and carried out similar undertakings in still remoter
places, joining the east and west coasts of Scotland by the Forth
and Clyde Canal, and building bridges in the far north.  Rennie made
harbours, built bridges, and hewed out docks for shipping, the
increase in which had kept pace with the growth of our home and
foreign trade.  He was followed by Telford, whose long and busy
life, as we have seen, was occupied in building bridges and making
roads in all directions, in districts of the country formerly
inaccessible, and therefore comparatively barbarous.  At length the
wildest districts of the Highlands and the most rugged mountain
valleys of North Wales were rendered as easy of access as the
comparatively level counties in the immediate neighbourhood of the
metropolis.

During all this while, the wealth and industry of the country had
been advancing with rapid strides.  London had grown in population
and importance.  Many improvements had been effected in the river,
But the dock accommodation was still found insufficient; and, as
the recognised head of his profession, Mr. Telford, though now
grown old and fast becoming infirm, was called upon to supply the
requisite plans.  He had been engaged upon great works for upwards
of thirty years, previous to which he had led the life of a working
mason.  But he had been a steady, temperate man all his life; and
though nearly seventy, when consulted as to the proposed new docks,
his mind was as able to deal with the subject in all its bearings
as it had ever been; and he undertook the work.

In 1824 a new Company was formed to provide a dock nearer to the
heart of the City than any of the existing ones.  The site selected
was the space between the Tower and the London Docks, which
included the property of St. Katherine's Hospital.  The whole extent
of land available was only twenty-seven acres of a very irregular
figure, so that when the quays and warehouses were laid out, it was
found that only about ten acres remained for the docks; but these,
from the nature of the ground, presented an unusual amount of quay
room.  The necessary Act was obtained in 1825; the works were begun
in the following year; and on the 25th of October, 1828, the new
docks were completed and opened for business.

The St. Katherine Docks communicate with the river by means of an
entrance tide-lock, 180 feet long and 45 feet wide, with three
pairs of gates, admitting either one very large or two small
vessels at a time.  The lock-entrance and the sills under the two
middle lock-gates were fixed at the depth of ten feet under the
level of low water of ordinary spring tides.  The formation of these
dock-entrances was a work of much difficulty, demanding great skill
on the part of the engineer.  It was necessary to excavate the
ground to a great depth below low water for the purpose of getting
in the foundations, and the cofferdams were therefore of great
strength, to enable them, when pumped out by the steam-engine, to
resist the lateral pressure of forty feet of water at high tide.
The difficulty was, however, effectually overcome, and the wharf
walls, locks, sills and bridges of the St. Katherine Docks are
generally regarded as a master-piece of harbour construction.
Alluding to the rapidity with which the works were completed,
Mr. Telford says: "Seldom, indeed never within my knowledge, has there
been an instance of an undertaking; of this magnitude, in a very
confined situation, having been perfected in so short a time;....
but, as a practical engineer, responsible for the success of
difficult operations, I must be allowed to protest against such
haste, pregnant as it was, and ever will be, with risks, which, in
more instances than one, severely taxed all my experience and
skill, and dangerously involved the reputation of the directors as
well as of their engineer."

Among the remaining bridges executed by Mr. Telford, towards the
close of his professional career, may be mentioned those of
Tewkesbury and Gloucester.  The former town is situated on the
Severn at its confluence with the river Avon, about eleven miles
above Gloucester.  The surrounding district was rich and populous;
but being intersected by a large river, without a bridge, the
inhabitants applied to Parliament for powers to provide so
necessary a convenience.  The design first proposed by a local
architect was a bridge of three arches; but Mr. Telford, when
called upon to advise the trustees, recommended that, in order to
interrupt the navigation as little as possible, the river should be
spanned by a single arch; and he submitted a design of such a
character, which was approved and subsequently erected.  It was
finished and opened in April, 1826.

This is one of the largest as well as most graceful of Mr. Telford's
numerous cast iron bridges.  It has a single span of 170 feet, with
a rise of only 17 feet, consisting of six ribs of about three feet
three inches deep, the spandrels being filled in with light
diagonal work.  The narrow Gothic arches in the masonry of the
abutments give the bridge a very light and graceful appearance,
at the same time that they afford an enlarged passage for the high
river floods.

The bridge at Gloucester consists of one large stone arch of 150
feet span.  It replaced a structure of great antiquity, of eight
arches, which had stood for about 600 years.  The roadway over it
was very narrow, and the number of piers in the river and the small
dimensions of the arches offered considerable obstruction to the
navigation.  To give the largest amount of waterway, and at the same
time reduce the gradient of the road over the bridge to the
greatest extent, Mr. Telford adopted the following expedient.
He made the general body of the arch an ellipse, 150 feet on the
chord-line and 35 feet rise, while the voussoirs, or external
archstones, being in the form of a segment, have the same chord,
with only 13 feet rise.  "This complex form," says Mr. Telford,
"converts each side of the vault of the arch into the shape of the
entrance of a pipe, to suit the contracted passage of a fluid, thus
lessening the flat surface opposed to the current of the river
whenever the tide or upland flood rises above the springing of the
middle of the ellipse, that being at four feet above low water;
whereas the flood of 1770 rose twenty feet above low water of an
ordinary spring-tide, which, when there is no upland flood, rises
only eight or nine feet."*[1]  The bridge was finished and opened in
1828.

[Image] Dean Bridge, Edinburgh.

The last structures erected after our engineer's designs were at
Edinburgh and Glasgow: his Dean Bridge at the former place, and his
Jamaica Street Bridge at the latter, being regarded as among his
most successful works.  Since his employment as a journeyman mason
at the building of the houses in Princes Street, Edinburgh, the New
Town had spread in all directions.  At each visit to it on his way
to or from the Caledonian Canal or the northern harbours, he had
been no less surprised than delighted at the architectural
improvements which he found going forward.  A new quarter had risen
up during his lifetime, and had extended northward and westward in
long lines of magnificent buildings of freestone, until in 1829 its
further progress was checked by the deep ravine running along the
back of the New Town, in the bottom of which runs the little Water
of Leith.  It was determined to throw a stone bridge across this
stream, and Telford was called upon to supply the design.  The point
of crossing the valley was immediately behind Moray Place, which
stands almost upon its verge, the sides being bold, rocky, and
finely wooded.  The situation was well adapted for a picturesque
structure, such as Telford was well able to supply.  The depth of
the ravine to be spanned involved great height in the piers, the
roadway being 106 feet above the level of the stream.  The bridge
was of four arches of 90 feet span each, and its total length 447
feet; the breadth between the parapets for the purposes of the
roadway and footpaths being 39 feet.*[2]  It was completed and
opened in December, 1831.

But the most important, as it was the last, of Mr. Telford's stone
bridges was that erected across the Clyde at the Broomielaw,
Glasgow.  Little more than fifty years since, the banks of the river
at that place were literally covered with broom--and hence its
name--while the stream was scarcely deep enough to float a
herring-buss.  Now, the Broomielaw is a quay frequented by ships of
the largest burden, and bustling with trade and commerce.  Skill and
enterprise have deepened the Clyde, dredged away its shoals, built
quays and wharves along its banks, and rendered it one of the
busiest streams in the world,

It has become a great river thoroughfare, worked by steam.  On its
waters the first steamboat ever constructed for purposes of traffic
in Europe was launched by Henry Bell in 1812; and the Clyde boats
to this day enjoy the highest prestige.

The deepening of the river at the Broomielaw had led to a gradual
undermining of the foundations of the old bridge, which was
situated close to the principal landing-place.  A little above it,
was an ancient overfall weir, which had also contributed to scour
away the foundations of the piers.  Besides, the bridge was felt to
be narrow, inconvenient, and ill-adapted for accommodating the
immense traffic passing across the Clyde at that point.  It was,
therefore, determined to take down the old structure, and Build a
new one; and Mr. Telford was called upon to supply the design.
The foundation was laid with great ceremony on the 18th of March, 1833,
and the new bridge was completed and opened on the 1st of January,
1836, rather more than a year after the engineer's death.  It is a
very fine work, consisting of seven arches, segments of circles,
the central arch being 58 feet 6 inches; the span of the adjoining
arches diminishing to 57 feet 9 inches, 55 feet 6 inches, and 52
feet respectively.  It is 560 feet in length, with an open waterway
of 389 feet, and its total width of carriageway and footpath is 60
feet, or wider, at the time it was built, than any river bridge in
the kingdom.

[Image] Glasgow Bridge

Like most previous engineers of eminence--like Perry, Brindley,
Smeaton, and Rennie--Mr. Telford was in the course of his life
extensively employed in the drainage of the Fen districts.  He had
been jointly concerned with Mr. Rennie in carrying out the
important works of the Eau Brink Cut, and at Mr. Rennie's death he
succeeded to much of his practice as consulting engineer.

It was principally in designing and carrying out the drainage of
the North Level that Mr. Telford distinguished himself in Fen
drainage.  The North Level includes all that part of the Great
Bedford Level situated between Morton's Leam and the river Welland,
comprising about 48,000 acres of land.  The river Nene, which brings
down from the interior the rainfall of almost the entire county of
Northampton, flows through nearly the centre of the district.
In some places the stream is confined by embankments, in others it
flows along artificial outs, until it enters the great estuary of
the Wash, about five miles below Wisbeach.  This town is situated on
another river which flows through the Level, called the Old Nene.
Below the point of junction of these rivers with the Wash, and
still more to seaward, was South Holland Sluice, through which the
waters of the South Holland Drain entered the estuary.  At that
point a great mass of silt had accumulated, which tended to choke
up the mouths of the rivers further inland, rendering their
navigation difficult and precarious, and seriously interrupting the
drainage of the whole lowland district traversed by both the Old
and New Nene.  Indeed the sands were accumulating at such a rate,
that the outfall of the Wisbeach River threatened to become
completely destroyed.

Such being the state of things, it was determined to take the
opinion of some eminent engineer, and Mr. Rennie was employed to
survey the district and recommend a measure for the remedy of these
great evils.  He performed this service in his usually careful and
masterly manner; but as the method which he proposed, complete
though it was, would have seriously interfered with the trade of
Wisbeach, by leaving it out of the line of navigation and drainage
which he proposed to open up, the corporation of that town
determined to employ another engineer; and Mr Telford was selected
to examine and report upon the whole subject, keeping in view the
improvement of the river immediately adjacent to the town of
Wisbeach.

Mr. Telford confirmed Mr. Rennie's views to a large extent, more
especially with reference to the construction of an entirely new
outfall, by making an artificial channel from Kindersleys Cut to
Crab-Hole Eye anchorage, by which a level lower by nearly twelve
feet would be secured for the outfall waters; but he preferred
leaving the river open to the tide as high as Wisbeach, rather than
place a lock with draw-doors at Lutton Leam Sluice, as had been
proposed by Mr. Rennie.  He also suggested that the acute angle at
the Horseshoe be cut off and the river deepened up to the bridge at
Wisbeach, making a new cut along the bank on the south side of the
town, which should join the river again immediately above it,
thereby converting the intermediate space, by draw-doors and the
usual contrivances, into a floating dock.  Though this plan was
approved by the parties interested in the drainage, to Telford's
great mortification it was opposed by the corporation of Wisbeach,
and like so many other excellent schemes for the improvement of the
Fen districts, it eventually fell to the ground.

The cutting of a new outfall for the river Nene, however, could not
much longer be delayed without great danger to the reclaimed lands
of the North Level, which, but for some relief of the kind, must
shortly have become submerged and reduced to their original waste
condition.  The subject was revived in 1822, and Mr. Telford was
again called upon, in conjunction with Sir John Rennie, whose
father had died in the preceding year, to submit a plan of a new
Nene Outfall; but it was not until the year 1827 that the necessary
Act was obtained, and then only with great difficulty and cost, in
consequence of the opposition of the town of Wisbeach.  The works
consisted principally of a deep cut or canal, about six miles in
length, penetrating far through the sand banks into the deep waters
of the Wash.  They were begun in 1828, and brought to completion in
1830, with the most satisfactory results.  A greatly improved
outfall was secured by thus carrying.  the mouths of the rivers out
to sea, and the drainage of the important agricultural districts
through which the Nene flows was greatly benefited; while at the
same time nearly 6000 acres of valuable corn-growing land were
added to the county of Lincoln.

But the opening of the Nene Outfall was only the first of a series
of improvements which eventually included the whole of the valuable
lands of the North Level, in the district situated between the Nene
and the Welland.  The opening at Gunthorpe Sluice, which was the
outfall for the waters of the Holland Drain, was not less than
eleven feet three inches above low water at Crab-Hole; and it was
therefore obvious that by lowering this opening a vastly improved
drainage of the whole of the level district, extending from twenty
to thirty miles inland, for which that sluice was the artificial
outlet, would immediately be secured.  Urged by Mr. Telford, an Act
for the purpose of carrying out the requisite improvement was
obtained in 1830, and the excavations having been begun shortly
after, were completed in 1834.

A new cut was made from Clow's Cross to Gunthorpe Sluice, in place
of the winding course of the old Shire Drain; besides which, a
bridge was erected at Cross Keys, or Sutton Wash, and an embankment
was made across the Salt Marshes, forming a high road, which, with
the bridges previously erected at Fossdyke and Lynn, effectually
connected the counties of Norfolk and Lincoln.  The result of the
improved outfall was what the engineer had predicted.  A thorough
natural drainage was secured for an extensive district, embracing
nearly a hundred thousand acres of fertile land, which had before
been very ineffectually though expensively cleared of the surplus
water by means of windmills and steam-engines.  The productiveness
of the soil was greatly increased, and the health and comfort of
the inhabitants promoted to an extent that surpassed all previous
expectation.

The whole of the new cuts were easily navigable, being from 140 to
200 feet wide at bottom, whereas the old outlets had been variable
and were often choked with shifting sand.  The district was thus
effectually opened up for navigation, and a convenient transit
afforded for coals and other articles of consumption.  Wisbeach
became accessible to vessels of much larger burden, and in the
course of a few years after the construction of the Nene Outfall,
the trade of the port had more than doubled.  Mr. Telford himself,
towards the close of his life, spoke with natural pride of the
improvements which he had thus been in so great a measure
instrumental in carrying out, and which had so materially promoted
the comfort, prosperity, and welfare of a very extensive
district.*[3]

We may mention, as a remarkable effect of the opening of the new
outfall, that in a few hours the lowering of the waters was felt
throughout the whole of the Fen level.  The sluggish and stagnant
drains, cuts, and leams in far distant places, began actually to
flow; and the sensation created was such, that at Thorney, near
Peterborough, some fifteen miles from the sea, the intelligence
penetrated even to the congregation then sitting in church--for it
was Sunday morning--that "the waters were running!" when
immediately the whole flocked out, parson and all, to see the great
sight, and acknowledge the blessings of science.  A humble Fen poet
of the last century thus quaintly predicted the moral results
likely to arise from the improved drainage of his native district:-

   "With a change of elements suddenly
    There shall a change of men and manners be;
    Hearts thick and tough as hides shall feel remorse,
    And souls of sedge shall understand discourse;
    New hands shall learn to work, forget to steal,
    New legs shall go to church, new knees to kneel."

The prophecy has indeed been fulfilled.  The barbarous race of
Fen-men has disappeared before the skill of the engineer.  As the
land has been drained, the half-starved fowlers and fen-roamers
have subsided into the ranks of steady industry--become farmers,
traders, and labourers.  The plough has passed over the bed of
Holland Fen, and the agriculturist reaps his increase more than a
hundred fold..  Wide watery wastes, formerly abounding in fish,
are now covered with waving crops of corn every summer.  Sheep graze
on the dry bottom of Whittlesea Mere, and kine low where not many
years since the silence of the waste was only disturbed by the
croaking of frogs and the screaming of wild fowl.  All this has been
the result of the science of the engineer, the enterprise of the
landowner, and the industry of our peaceful army of skilled
labourers.*[4]

Footnotes for Chapter XIII.

*[1] Telford's Life, p261

*[2] The piers are built internally with hollow compartments, as at
the Menai Bridge, the side walls being 3 feet thick and the cross
walls 2 feet.  Projecting from the piers and abutments are pilasters
of solid masonry.  The main arches have their springing 70 feet from
the foundations and rise 30 feet; and at 20 feet higher, other
arches, of 96 feet span and 10 feet rise, are constructed; the face
of these, projecting before the main arches and spandrels,
producing a distinct external soffit of 5 feet in breadth.
This, with the peculiar piers, constitutes the principal distinctive
feature in the, bridge.

*[3] "The Nene Outfall channel," says Mr. Tycho Wing,
"was projected by the late Mr. Rennie in 1814, and executed jointly
by Mr. Telford and the present Sir John Rennie.  But the scheme of
the North Level Drainage was eminently the work of Mr. Telford,
and was undertaken upon his advice and responsibility, when only a
few persons engaged in the Nene Outfall believed that the latter
could be made, or if made, that it could be maintained.  Mr. Telford
distinguished himself by his foresight and judicious counsels at
the most critical periods of that great measure, by his unfailing
confidence in its success, and by the boldness and sagacity which
prompted him to advise the making of the North Level drainage, in
full expectation of the results for the sake of which the Nene
Outfall was undertaken, and which are now realised to the extent of
the most sanguine hopes."

*[4] Now that the land actually won has been made so richly
productive, the engineer is at work with magnificent schemes of
reclamation of lands at present submerged by the sea.  The Norfolk
Estuary Company have a scheme for reclaiming 50,000 acres; the
Lincolnshire Estuary Company, 30,000 acres; and the Victoria Level
Company, 150,000 acres--all from the estuary of the Wash.  By the
process called warping, the land is steadily advancing upon the
ocean, and before many years have passed, thousands of acres of the
Victoria Level will have been reclaimed for purposes of
agriculture.


CHAPTER XIV.

SOUTHEY'S TOUR IN THE HIGHLANDS.

While Telford's Highland works were in full progress, he persuaded
his friend Southey, the Poet Laureate, to accompany him on one of
his visits of inspection, as far north as the county of Sutherland,
in the autumn of 1819.  Mr. Southey, as was his custom, made careful
notes of the tour, which have been preserved,*[1] and consist in a
great measure of an interesting resume of the engineer's operations
in harbour-making, road-making, and canal-making north of the Tweed.

Southey reached Edinburgh by the Carlisle mail about the middle of
August, and was there joined by Mr. Telford, and Mr. and Mrs.
Rickman,*[2] who were to accompany him on the journey.  They first
proceeded to Linlithgow, Bannockburn,*[3] Stirling, Callendar, the
Trosachs, and round by the head of Loch Earn to Killin, Kenmore,
and by Aberfeldy to Dunkeld.  At the latter place, the poet admired
Telford's beautiful bridge, which forms a fine feature in the
foreground of the incomparable picture which the scenery of Dunkeld
always presents in whatever aspect it is viewed.

From Dunkeld the party proceeded to Dundee, along the left bank of
the Firth of Tay.  The works connected with the new harbour were in
active progress, and the engineer lost no time in taking his friend
to see them.  Southey's account is as follows:--

"Before breakfast I went with Mr. Telford to the harbour, to look
at his works, which are of great magnitude and importance: a huge
floating dock, and the finest graving dock I ever saw.  The town
expends 70,000L. on these improvements, which will be completed in
another year.  What they take from the excavations serves to raise
ground which was formerly covered by the tide, but will now be of
the greatest value for wharfs, yards, &c. The local authorities
originally proposed to build fifteen piers, but Telford assured
them that three would be sufficient; and, in telling me this, he
said the creation of fifteen new Scotch peers was too strong a
measure....

"Telford's is a happy life; everywhere making roads, building
bridges, forming canals, and creating harbours--works of sure,
solid, permanent utility; everywhere employing a great number of
persons, selecting the most meritorious, and putting them forward
in the world in his own way."

After the inspection at Dundee was over, the party proceeded on
their journey northward, along the east coast:--

"Near Gourdon or Bervie harbour, which is about a mile and a half
on this side the town, we met Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Gibbs, two of
Mr. Telford's aides-de-camp, who had come thus far to meet him.  The
former he calls his 'Tartar,' from his cast of countenance, which
is very much like a Tartar's, as well as from his Tartar-like mode
of life; for, in his office of overseer of the roads, which are
under the management of the Commissioners, he travels on horseback
not less than 6000 miles a year.  Mr. Telford found him in the
situation of a working mason, who could scarcely read or write; but
noticing him for his good conduct, his activity, and his firm
steady character, he, has brought him forward; and Mitchell now
holds a post of respectability and importance, and performs his
business with excellent ability."

After inspecting the little harbour of Bervie, one of the first
works of the kind executed by Telford for the Commissioners, the
party proceeded by Stonehaven, and from thence along the coast to
Aberdeen.  Here the harbour works were visited and admired:--

"The quay," says Southey, "is very fine; and Telford has carried
out his pier 900 feet beyond the point where Smeaton's terminated.
This great work, which has cost 100,000L., protects the entrance
of the harbour from the whole force of the North Sea.  A ship was
entering it at the time of our visit, the Prince of Waterloo.
She had been to America; had discharged her cargo at London; and we
now saw her reach her own port in safety--a joyous and delightful
sight."

The next point reached was Banff, along the Don and the line of the
Inverury Canal:--

"The approach to Banff is very fine,"*[4] says Southey, "by the
Earl of Fife's grounds, where the trees are surprisingly grown,
considering how near they are to the North Sea; Duff House--
a square, odd, and not unhandsome pile, built by Adams (one of the
Adelphi brothers), some forty years ago; a good bridge of seven
arches by Smeaton; the open sea, not as we had hitherto seen it,
grey under a leaden sky, but bright and blue in the sunshine; Banff
on the left of the bay; the River Doveran almost lost amid banks of
shingle, where it enters the sea; a white and tolerably high shore
extending eastwards; a kirk, with a high spire which serves as a
sea-mark; and, on the point, about a mile to the east, the town of
Macduff.  At Banff, we at once went to the pier, about half finished,
on which 15,000L. will be expended, to the great benefit of this
clean, cheerful, and active little town.  The pier was a busy
scene; hand-carts going to and fro over the railroads, cranes at
work charging and discharging, plenty of workmen, and fine masses
of red granite from the Peterhead quarries.  The quay was almost
covered with barrels of herrings, which women were busily employed
in salting and packing."

The next visit was paid to the harbour works at Cullen, which were
sufficiently advanced to afford improved shelter for the fishing
vessels of the little port:--

"When I stood upon the pier at low water," says Southey, "seeing
the tremendous rocks with which the whole shore is bristled, and
the open sea to which the place is exposed, it was with a proud
feeling that I saw the first talents in the world employed by the
British Government in works of such unostentatious, but great,
immediate, palpable, and permanent utility.  Already their excellent
effects are felt.  The fishing vessels were just coming in, having
caught about 300 barrels of herrings during the night....

"However the Forfeited Estates Fund may have been misapplied in
past times, the remainder could not be better invested than in
these great improvements.  Wherever a pier is needed, if the people
or the proprietors of the place will raise one-half the necessary
funds, Government supplies the other half.  On these terms,
20,000L. are expending at Peterhead, and 14,000L. at Frazerburgh;
and the works which we visited at Bervie and Banff, and many other
such along this coast, would never have been undertaken without
such aid; public liberality thus inducing private persons to tax
themselves heavily, and expend with a good will much larger sums
than could have been drawn from them by taxation."

From Cullen, the travellers proceeded in gigs to Fochabers, thence
by Craigellachie Bridge, which Southey greatly admired, along
Speyside, to Ballindalloch and Inverallen, where Telford's new road
was in course of construction across the moors towards Forres.
The country for the greater part of the way was a wild waste, nothing
but mountains and heather to be seen; yet the road was as perfectly
made and maintained as if it had lain through a very Goschen.
The next stages were to Nairn and Inverness, from whence then
proceeded to view the important works constructed at the crossing
of the River Beauly:--

"At Lovat Bridge," says Southey, "we turned aside and went four
miles up the river, along the Strathglass road--one of the new
works, and one of the most remarkable, because of the difficulty of
constructing it, and also because of the fine scenery which it
commands.....

"Lovat Bridge, by which we returned, is a plain, handsome structure
of five arches, two of 40 feet span, two of 50, and the centre one
of 60.  The curve is as little as possible.  I learnt in Spain to
admire straight bridges; But Mr. Telford thinks there always ought
to be some curve to enable the rain water to run off, and because
he would have the outline look like the segment of a large circle,
resting on the abutments.  A double line over the arches gives a
finish to the bridge, and perhaps looks as well, or almost as well,
as balustrades, for not a sixpence has been allowed for ornament on
these works.  The sides are protected by water-wings, which are
embankments of stone, to prevent the floods from extending on
either side, and attacking the flanks of the bridge."

Nine miles further north, they arrived at Dingwall, near which a
bridge similar to that at Beauly, though wider, had been constructed
over the Conan.  From thence they proceeded to Invergordon, to
Ballintraed (where another pier for fishing boats was in progress),
to Tain, and thence to Bonar Bridge, over the Sheir, twenty-four
miles above the entrance to the Dornoch Frith, where an iron
bridge, after the same model as that of Craigellachie, had been
erected.  This bridge is of great importance, connecting as it does
the whole of the road traffic of the northern counties with the
south.  Southey speaks of it as

"A work of such paramount utility that it is not possible to look
at it without delight.  A remarkable anecdote," he continues,
"was told me concerning it.  An inhabitant of Sutherland, whose
father was drowned at the Mickle Ferry (some miles below the bridge)
in 1809, could never bear to set foot in a ferry-boat after the
catastrophe, and was consequently cut off from communication with
the south until this bridge was built.  He then set out on a journey.
'As I went along the road by the side of the water,' said he,
'I could see no bridge.  At last I came in sight of something
like a spider's web in the air.  If this be it, thought I, it will
never do! But, presently, I came upon it; and oh! it is the finest
thing that ever was made by God or man!'"

Sixteen miles north-east of Bonar Bridge, Southey crossed Fleet
Mound, another ingenious work of his friend Telford, but of an
altogether different character.  It was thrown across the River
Fleet, at the point at which it ran into the estuary or little
land-locked bay outside, known as Loch Fleet.  At this point there
had formerly been a ford; but as the tide ran far inland, it could
only be crossed at low water, and travellers had often to wait for
hours before they could proceed on their journey.  The embouchure
being too wide for a bridge, Telford formed an embankment across
it, 990 yards in length, providing four flood-gates, each 12 feet
wide, at its north end, for the egress of the inland waters.
These gates opened outwards, and they were so hung as to shut with
the rising of the tide.  The holding back of the sea from the land
inside the mound by this means, had the effect of reclaiming a
considerable extent of fertile carse land, which, at the time of
Southey's visit,--though the work had only been completed the year
before,--was already under profitable cultivation.  The principal
use of the mound, however, was in giving support to the fine broad
road which ran along its summit, and thus completed the
communication with the country to the north.  Southey speaks in
terms of high admiration of "the simplicity, the beauty, and
utility of this great work."

This was the furthest limit of their journey, and the travellers
retraced their steps southward, halting at Clashmore Inn:
"At breakfast," says Southey, "was a handsome set of Worcester china.
Upon noticing it to Mr. Telford, he told me that before these roads
were made, he fell in with some people from Worcestershire near the
Ord of Caithness, on their way northward with a cart load of
crockery, which they got over the mountains as best they could;
and, when they had sold all their ware, they laid out the money in
black cattle, which they then drove to the south."

The rest of Southey's journal is mainly occupied with a description
of the scenery of the Caledonian Canal, and the principal
difficulties encountered in the execution of the works, which were
still in active progress.  He was greatly struck with the flight of
locks at the south end of the Canal, where it enters Loch Eil near
Corpach:--