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MANCHESTER, &c.
19
Canals—Brindley.
There the bold prow cleaves through the liquid tide,
The careful rudder keeping for its guide:
Not here the gilded Gondola shall sweep,
Nor pageant union mock the silent deep;
But for her riches and her power renown'd,
Shall Britain's glory far and wide resound.
Thee, fairy prince of rivers, floods, and streams,
Rouse from thy coral cave and sportive dreams:
The long canal, by Brindley's[1] genius led,
Exhausts thy secret stores, and drains thy rocky bed.
The careful rudder keeping for its guide:
Not here the gilded Gondola shall sweep,
Nor pageant union mock the silent deep;
But for her riches and her power renown'd,
Shall Britain's glory far and wide resound.
Thee, fairy prince of rivers, floods, and streams,
Rouse from thy coral cave and sportive dreams:
The long canal, by Brindley's[1] genius led,
Exhausts thy secret stores, and drains thy rocky bed.
- ↑ James Brindley, a man of a most extraordinary capacity, was born at Tusted, in Derbyshire, in 1716, and died at Turnhurst, in Staffordshire, in 1772. He was bound apprentice to a millwright, and followed the business some time at Macclesfield: as his talents developed themselves he was consulted by the late Duke of Bridgewater, and entrusted with the planning and formation of his canal; an undertaking which he executed in so masterly a manner, as to recommend and make himself necessary to all those projections which so quickly followed the success of the Duke's. He became a mechanic and engineer of the highest consequence, and was consulted upon almost all the important concerns, connected with his profession, in the kingdom. It is said he fell a victim to the intensity of his application. It was his custom to retire to
