Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/151

Rh Jessop, according to these dimensions, amounted to £497,531, including the land required, and the necessary mooring chains. It was afterwards directed that the locks should be 172 feet by 38 to 40 feet; and, with the view of giving greater facility to the passage of small vessels, it was in contemplation to construct side locks for vessels of two hundred tons, but as this appendage was estimated to cost £75,200, and the advantage appearing very uncertain, the idea was abandoned.

The whole of the works on this line of canal are of the first order, and exhibit the combined skill of the excellent engineers, who were entrusted with its execution, in the most favourable point of view; and whoever views the celebrated chain of eight locks, called "Neptune's Staircase," situate at the eastern end of this navigation, which alone cost upwards of £50,000, and the sea lock at Clacknacarry, extending upwards of four hundred yards lnto the sea, will not hesitate to confirm the opinion we have thus expressed.

CAM OR GRANT RIVER.
1 Anne, Cap. II, Royal Assent 27th February, 1702.

53 George III. Cap. 214, Royal Assent 21st July, 1813.

THIS river rises on the confines of Hertfordshire, between Biggleswade and Royston, from whence it pursues a north-easterly course, on the south side of Orwell Hill, to the Queen's Mill, at Cambridge, to which place it is navigable. From hence its course is by Fen Ditton to Clayhithe Ferry, the place where the London and Cambridge Junction Canal was intended to communicate with this river, and where the navigation, as comprehended under the foregoing acts, terminate. The remaining portion of the Cam River being in Bedford Level, and consequently under the jurisdiction of the Bedford Level Corporation, will be described under the head of Ouze River, as all the legislative enactments relating to the lower end of the Cam are introduced into acts of parliament, obtained by the above body, the titles of some of which terminate in the following manner, viz:–  ' and for improving the Navigation of the River Ouze, in the county of Norfolk, and of the several Rivers communicating therewith.'  The first act, therefore,