Robert Telford

“ His next engagement was one which raised him for the first time in his life above the rank of a mere journeyman mason. The honest workman had attracted the attention of competent judges. He obtained employment as foreman of works of some important buildings in Portsmouth Dockyard. A proud man indeed was Thomas Telford at this change of fortune, and very proudly he wrote to his old friends in Eskdale, with almost boyish delight, about the trust reposed in him by the commissioners and officers, and the pains he was taking with the task entrusted to him. ”

“ Metcalf was upwards of seventy years old before he left off road-making. He was still hale and hearty, wonderfully active for so old a man, and always full of enterprise. Occupation was absolutely necessary for his comfort, and even to the last day of his life he could not bear to be idle. While engaged on road-making in Cheshire, he brought his wife to Stockport for a time, and there she died, after thirty-nine years of happy married life. ”

“ Cottage at the Crooks.
Young Telford grew up a healthy boy, and he was so full of fun and humour that he became known in the valley by the name of "Laughing Tam." When he was old enough to herd sheep he went to live with a relative, a shepherd like his father, and he spent most of his time with him in summer on the hill-side amidst the silence of nature. In winter he lived with one or other of the neighbouring farmers. ”

“ He never dines out, and scarcely takes time to dine at all: he says he is growing old, and has no time to lose. His manner is simplicity itself. Indeed, I have never yet met so noble a being. He is going abroad again shortly on one of his long tours of mercy."* [1] The journey to which Telford here refers was Howard's last. In the following year he left England to return no more; and the great and good man died at Cherson, on the shores of the Black Sea, less than two years after his interview with the young engineer at Shrewsbury. ”

“ He says it has been, and will continue to be, his aim to endeavour to unite those "two frequently jarring pursuits, literature and business;" and he does not see why a man should be less efficient in the latter capacity because he has well informed, stored, and humanized his mind by the cultivation of letters. There was both good sense and sound practical wisdom in this view of Telford.
While the gaol was in course of erection, after the improved plans suggested by Howard, a variety of important matters occupied the county surveyor's attention. ”

“ Telford profited by the experience which this increase in the building operations of the neighbourhood gave him; being employed in raising rough walls and farm enclosures, as well as in erecting bridges across rivers wherever regular roads for wheel carriages were substituted for the horse-tracks formerly in use.
During the greater part of his apprenticeship Telford lived in the little town of Langholm, taking frequent opportunities of visiting his mother at The Crooks on Saturday evenings, and accompanying her to the parish church of Westerkirk on Sundays. ”

“ Thus, while employed by the Government in the improvement of the Highland roads, he persuaded himself that he ought at the same time to promote the similar patriotic objects of the British Fisheries Society, which were carried out by voluntary subscription; and for many years he acted as their engineer, refusing to accept any remuneration whatever for his trouble.* [10]
Telford held the sordid money-grubber in perfect detestation. He was of opinion that the adulation paid to mere money was one of the greatest dangers with which modern society was threatened. ”

“ All else was dark about him save where on the hill the lights of the Tempe hotel showed, and a man and woman, his arm round her, could be seen pacing among the trees. Telford turned away from this, ground his heel into the turf and said: "I wish I could see who she is. Her voice? It's impossible." He edged close to the window, where a light showed at the edge of the curtains. ”

“ I have never been anxious overmuch, nor ever taken more thought for the morrow than it is the duty of every one to take who has to earn his livelihood; but to be thus provided for at this time I feel to be an especial blessing.'"* [14] Among the most valuable results of Telford's bequests in his own district, was the establishment of the popular libraries at Langholm and Westerkirk, each of which now contains about 4000 volumes. ”

“ Have you seen his plan of London Bridge? or his scheme for a new canal in the North Highlands, which will unite, if put in effect, our Eastern and Atlantic commerce, and render Scotland the very emporium of navigation? Telford is a most useful cicerone in London. He is so universally acquainted, and so popular in his manners, that he can introduce one to all kinds of novelty, and all descriptions of interesting society." Shortly after, Campbell named his first son after Telford, who stood godfather for the boy. ”

“ Telford was affectionately respectful to my father’s steady industry and infallible commercial instinct. Mr. Telford’s actual part in the conduct of the business was limited to attendance in the counting-house during two months at Midsummer, when my father took his holiday, and sometimes for a month at the beginning of the year, when he travelled for orders. At these times Mr. Telford rode into London daily from Widmore, signed what letters and bills needed signature, read the papers, and rode home again: any matters needing deliberation were referred to my father, [223] or awaited his return. ”

“ Telford, on the other hand, looked upon the week as only one of the storeys of a building; and upon the succession of weeks, running on through years, he thought that the complete life structure should be built up. He thus describes one of the best of his fellow-workmen at that time—the only individual he had formed an intimacy with: "He has been six years at Somerset House, and is esteemed the finest workman in London, and consequently in England. He works equally in stone and marble. ”

“ However, plenty of employment is what every professional man is seeking after, and my various occupations now require of me great exertions, which they certainly shall have so long as life and health are spared to me."* [16] Amidst all his engagements, Telford found time to make particular inquiry about many poor families formerly known to him in Eskdale, for some of whom he paid house-rent, while he transmitted the means of supplying others with coals, meal, and necessaries, during the severe winter months,—a practice which he continued to the close of his life. ”

“ He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and few of the men who sleep within that great national temple more richly deserve the honour than the Westerkirk shepherd-boy. For Thomas Telford's life was not merely one of worldly success; it was still more pre-eminently one of noble ends and public usefulness. Many working men have raised themselves by their own exertions to a position of wealth and dignity far surpassing his; few indeed have conferred so many benefits upon untold thousands of their fellow-men. ”

“ Things will go wrong now and then, even with the greatest care; well-planned undertakings will not always pay, and the best engineering does not necessarily succeed in earning a dividend; but whenever such mishaps occurred to his employers, Telford felt the disappointment much too keenly, as though he himself had been to blame for their miscalculations or over-sanguine hopes. Still, it is a good thing to put one’s heart in one’s work, and so much Thomas Telford certainly did. ”

“ On his return to Shrewsbury, Telford proposed to proceed with his favourite study of architecture; but this, said he, "will probably be very slowly, as I must attend to my every day employment," namely, the superintendence of the county road and bridge repairs, and the direction of the convicts' labour. "If I keep my health, however," he added, "and have no unforeseen hindrance, it shall not be forgotten, but will be creeping on by degrees." ”

“ He was the warm friend of Thomas Campbell and of Southey. He formed a strong attachment to Campbell after the appearance of the ‘Pleasures of Hope,’ and acted to him as his helpful mentor. Writing to Dr. Currie in 1802, Campbell says: ‘I have become acquainted with Telford the engineer; a fellow of infinite humour and of strong enterprising mind. He has almost made me a bridge-builder already; at least he has inspired me with new sensations of interest in the improvement and ornament of our country. ... Telford is a most useful cicerone in London. ”

“ The spectacle of habits of industry and its rewards had raised the moral standard of the population. According to Telford, ‘about 200,000l. had been granted in fifteen years,’ and the country had been advanced ‘at least a century.’
The execution of Telford's plans for the improvement of Scottish harbours and fishing stations followed on the successful inception of his road-making and bridge-building. Of the more important of his harbour works, that at the great fishery station Wick, begun in 1808, was the earliest, while about the latest which he designed was that at Dundee in 1814. ”

“ Alpheus Richmond.
“I never miss a Punch and Judy if I’m near it,” said Telford. “I enjoy the sardonic humour with which Punch hustles off his victims. His lightheartedness when doing bloody deeds is the true temper.”
“That is, if it must be done, to do it with a grin is—”
“Is the most absolute tragedy.”
Hagar was astonished, for even the trader’s information that Telford spoke excellent French, and had certainly been a deal on red carpet in his time, did not prepare him for the sharply-incisive words just uttered. ”

“ If he detected a man who gave evidences of unsteadiness, inaccuracy, or carelessness, he would reprimand the overseer for employing such a person, and order him to be removed to some other part of the undertaking where his negligence could do no harm. And thus it was that Telford put his own character, through those whom he employed, into the various buildings which he was employed to construct. ”

“ Four of the arches were to be on the Anglesea, and three on the Caernarvonshire side, each of them of 52 feet 6 inches span. The roadway was to be divided, as in the Runcorn design with a carriage way 12 feet wide on each side, and a footpath of 4 feet in the middle. Mr. Telford's plan was supported by Mr. Rennie and other engineers of eminence; and the Select Committee of the House of Commons, being satisfied as to its practicability, recommended Parliament to pass a Bill and to make a grant of money to enable the work to be carried into effect. ”

“ Telford acquired considerable general experience about the same time as a house-builder, though the structures on which he was engaged were of a humble order, being chiefly small farm-houses on the Duke of Buccleugh's estate, with the usual out-buildings. Perhaps the most important of the jobs on which he was employed was the manse of Westerkirk, where he was comparatively at home. The hamlet stands on a green hill-side, a little below the entrance to the valley of the Meggat. ”

“ But besides being a great bridge-builder, Telford was also a great road-maker. With the progress of industry and trade, the easy and rapid transit of persons and goods had come to be regarded as an increasing object of public interest. Fast coaches now ran regularly between all the principal towns of England; every effort being made, by straightening and shortening the roads, cutting down hills, and carrying embankments across valleys and viaducts over rivers, to render travelling by the main routes as easy and expeditious as possible. ”

“ Without a word Hagar went to work, and sketched into the second sketch Telford’s face as it now was in the candle light—worn, strong, and with those watchful eyes sunk deep under the powerful brows. The artist in him became greater than the man ”

“ CHAPTER IV. BECOMES SURVEYOR FOR THE COUNTY OF SALOP. Mr. Pulteney, member for Shrewsbury, was the owner of extensive estates in that neighbourhood by virtue of his marriage with the niece of the last Earl of Bath. Having resolved to fit up the Castle there as a residence, he bethought him of the young Eskdale mason, who had, some years before, advised him as to the repairs of the Johnstone mansion at Wester Hall. Telford was soon found, and engaged to go down to Shrewsbury to superintend the necessary alterations. ”

“ At the door Hagar said to him: “Shall I see you again?”
“Probably—in the morning. Good-night.”
Telford went back to the hotel and found the horse he had ordered at the door. He got up at once. People looked at him curiously, it was peculiar to see a man riding at night—for pleasure—and, of course, it could be for no other purpose. “When will you be back, sir?” said the groom.
“I do not know.” He slipped a coin into the groom’s hand. “Sit up for me. The beast is a good one?”
“The best we have. Been a hunter, sir.”
Telford nodded, stroked the horse’s neck, and started. ”

“ Telford flashed a dark inquiring look at his companion, and then said, “Excuse me, I did not say that, though it was said. However, it is no matter. We meet at dinner, I suppose, this evening. Till then!”
He raised his hat with a slight, sweeping motion,—a little mocking excess in the courtesy—and walked away.
As he went, Hagar said after him between his teeth, “By Heaven, you are that man!”
These two hated each other at this moment, and they were men of might after their kind. The hatred of the better man was the greater. ”

“ Raising his hat he said conventionally enough: “Old friends should have much to say to each other. Will you excuse me?”
Mrs. Detlor instantly replied in as conventional a tone: “But you will not desert me? I shall be hereabouts, and you will take me back to the coach?”
The assurance was given, and the men bowed to each other. Hagar saw a smile play ironically on Telford’s face—saw it followed by a steel-like fierceness in the eye. He replied to both in like fashion; but one would have said the advantage was with Telford—he had the more remarkable personality. ”