Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/166

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necessity of keeping them himself, and forced to receive the advantages they at present produce; 1400I. per annum each boat, or 4000I. per annum clear of all expences. Indeed, it was not till with- in very late years that the profits likely to arise from this canal speculation from Manchester to Runcorn were at all understood. In the year 1 774 the shares were scarcely bought for 20I. each, and caution dictated that no individual should mul- tiply even these small concerns. They have arisen, however, to 1 1 5 guineas per share, and a gentle- man lately bought five for the sum of 570 guineas! From Barton-Bridge we passed on to a still more extraordinary scene Worsley-Bridge, or Mills, as the place is called. Here, on the left, are seen the large warehouses belonging to the Duke of Bridgwater, (whose residence is in the neighbourhood) where the goods conveyed in his barges from Manchester are brought and deposited till such time as they are carried away by their dif- ferent proprietors. On the right, a vast front of rock, rises perpendicularly over the canal, sprinkled with shrubs and crowned with a mass of trees, in the bottom of which we remarked two arched pas- sages, penetrating into the body of the rock; one accompanied with machinery, that added much to the singularity of the picture. The left hand arch-

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