Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/36

 then relinquished by the projectors, under the idea of its being a scheme, that, if persisted in, could turn to no profitable account. Fifteen years of neglect elapsed, when the attention of the undertakers being again roused by the prodigious success and advantage which attended the canal speculations in Lancashire, Staffordshire, and the northern counties of the kingdom, they determined to compleat their work; and proceeded seriously to its execution in the year 1775, under the sanction of an aft of parliament obtained for that purpose. In four years the cut was finished and opened, having been led to the point of its termination in so direct a line, part of the way, (from Walbridge to Framilode, about ten miles) as to be nearer by two miles than the turnpike-road. The result has answered the most sanguine expectations of the proprietors, as well as produced incalculable convenience to the clothing country through which it ramifies by different branches. At the point where it reaches the Glocester turnpike, Mr. Purnel, of Dursley, has established a large mill for the manufacture of iron wire.

But unqualified success is by no means the necessary consequence of canal speculations; various circumstances must combine to render them advantageous to the projectors, and many instances occur