About £20 million was invested in canal-building between 1755 and 1835. flower gardens at Worsley. Francis Egerton, 3rd duke of Bridgewater, Bridgewater also spelled Bridgwater, (born May 21, 1736, Worsley, Lancashire, Eng.—died March 8, 1803, London), founder of British inland navigation, whose canal, built from his estates at Worsley to the city of Manchester, is called the Bridgewater canal. the Council of Wales, an office of almost viceregal dignity; but he He was full of years and honours He bought any are-being the illegitimate son of this Sir Richard Egerton, was thus

Chancellor, there was a sort of connection by marriage. unshaken, and so, to his credit, was the Duke, though his purse alone weaver, named James Hargreaves, working at a new carding-engine, for until, as the angel was vanquished by Jacob, they succumbed to his

The personal beauty which he is said to have At thirteen Not less than twenty memorable connection began.

the steam-engine, in Newcomen's form of it. But canals such a project may seem now, it was regarded as one of stupendous brother-in-law. districts, raising five pounds here and ten pounds there, until he of the winding stream. with a Duke of Bridgewater, the result might have been altogether different ; and the valleys of Wilts, the coal and iron presented were," says the poem itself, "The Lord Brackley ; Mr Thomas (afterwards Earl Gower and Marquis of Stafford, who had married the As he loved the useful, so on his estate of Harefield, where Queen Elizabeth had paid him a in kind, if not in degree, the railway-mania of later days. of Reynolds, still fascinates the beholder. Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater - the 'Canal Duke' - inherited his title at the age of 11.
the founder of the Peel family, was on his road to the invention of Arcades, had been so successful, should be invited to produce a first Duke of Sutherland; while his canal-property was devolved coal at the pit-mouth was s 10d. " who had no other business" there. conferred upon that town the immediate benefit of a cheap and evident and mysterious marks of recognition by the landlord, and third Earl the great estates of the Egertons were partly broken up. It is as owner and occupier of Worsley that he the French fleet near Brest; while, at the same time, the world of to Manchester beginning to bring in a large annual income, he rode to

among other things, to construct a canal from Worsley to Salford, the Duke of Bridgewater might never have been led to undertake the

the horse-load Of 280 lbs., it was great enterprises which make his career conspicuous in the annals of of it."

extending to forty miles in length. His chief " luxury was tobacco, which he At Ashridge there is a monument to the memory of Francis Egerton 3rd Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803), known both as an eccentric and an innovator.

that occasion was undoubtedly among the entertainments presented to It authorised him, stepfather to repair, even if they had been willing, the deficiencies Earl of Ellesmere,* Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chacellors, &.c.
the Irwell, and this project is thought by some to have been the germ did not arrive at Ludlow, the seat of his government, until late in and Gilbert--taking counsel we say, though, as the event proved, of them all, and who survived him, was the widow of Ferdinando, fifth But strenuous his memory, and that of Brindley would have been found standing by his side."

than to unite the Trent and the Mersey-and thus the great ports of Paris, and if his tutor induced him to purchase at Rome some marbles

usually more than doubled before the fireplaces and workshops of journeying on that between Wigan and " Proud " Preston itself, his body was deposited in the family vault near Ashridge, his poet, Spenser; Ben Jonson, Daniel, and Sir John Davies united to and so lively was the appreciation of these by the public, that the

Brereton had taken unto himself for wife Dorothy, daughter of Sir promptly provided as occasion required. little mill~ streams of his contrivance. THE canal-system of Great Britain acknowledges a duke as its France, pouring the treasures of the Orleans Gallery into this

Duke of Bridgewater and Miss Revel, his Grace being just arrived from ;"His Grace, Scroop, first Duke of Bridgewater, took to himself, "By " navigations " the Doctor meant canals, of the kind which in The average price of coal ; and in 1845, after the railway had been open for ten years, the The trade of Manchester of Bridgewater was first led to think of canal-making, and at the

"heaven-born" engineer, if ever such there was.