Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/124

102 extremes, was only twenty-eight miles. The canal was to be 21 feet wide at top and 12 feet at bottom, and of depth sufficient for boats of ten tons. The estimated expense was £81,000, but as there was a provision in the act that the powers should cease in ten years from the passing of it, and as this period was suffered to elapse without any further steps being taken, it was accordingly abandoned; though in 1785 Mr. Leach endeavoured to revive the project, and to shorten the course to forty miles and three quarters, by cutting down the summit level 18 feet, and making a tunnel of one hundred yards in length, with other works, the estimated cost of which was £53,200; but as no act was obtained for this purpose, his project fell to the ground.

In the year 1819, however, a new company, consisting of three hundred and thirty persons, amongst whom were the Right Honourable P. H. Earl Stanhope, Countess Stanhope, Sir Arscott Ourry Molesworth, Sir William P. Call, and Sir Thomas Dyke Ackland, Baronets, obtained an act, entitled,  'An Act for improving the Harbour of Rude, in the county of Cornwall, and for making and maintaining a navigable Canal from the said Harbour of Bude, to or near the village of Thornbury, in the county of Devon, and divers Branches therefrom, all in the said counties of Cornwall and Devon.'  The subscribers are incorporated by the name of "The Bude Harbour and Canal Company," and have power to raise among themselves the sum of £95,000, in nineteen hundred shares of £50 each, with power to raise an additional sum of £20,000 if necessary, either among themselves or by the admission of new subscribers, or on mortgage of the undertaking and the rates and duties herein granted.

The main line of this canal commences in Bude Haven, within the port of Padstow, and pursues a southerly course along the western bank of the little River Bude, to Hele Bridge, where it turns suddenly eastward to near Marhamchurch. Here is an inclined plane, and hence it takes a circuitous course by Camorchard, little beyond which is another inclined plane, to Red Post, in the parish of Launcells, where the Launceston Branch commences. From Red Post, the canal takes a northerly direction on the western bank of the Tamar, which it crosses near Burmsdon. Thence, ascending an inclined plane, and proceeding to Veala, where the