Page:Rivers, Canals, Railways of Great Britain.djvu/523

 sums of money on mortgage of the rates and taxes; and when these sums are repaid, the rates and taxes to be reduced; so that the annual amount of receipts be not more than the actual expenditure.

The chief object of the work is to effect a better drainage of these extensive levels; that of the navigation being of minor importance, although it will doubtless materially tend to improve the estates through which it passes, by facilitating the introduction of lime, and by affording a cheaper mode of quitting the surplus agricultural produce of that fertile district.

These rivers, cuts and drainages are so connected together that their advantages are felt in every part of the country through which they pass.

OXFORD CANAL.
9 Geo. III. C. 70, R. A. 21st April, 1769.

15 Geo. III. C. 9, R. A. 30th Mar. 1775.

26 Geo, III. C. 20, R. A. 11th April, 1786.

34 Geo. III. C. 103, R, A. 23rd May, 1794.

39 Geo. III. C. 5, R. A. 21st Mar, 1799.

47 Geo. III. C. 9, R. A. 25th July, 1807.

48 Geo. III. C. 3, R. A. 11th Mar. 1808.

10 Geo. 1V. C. 48, R. A. 14th May, 1829.

THIS is a very extensive and important line of navigation. Commencing in the Coventry Canal at Longford, 315½ feet above the level of the sea, it pursues an easterly course as far as Ansty Hall, which lies on its northern bank; it continues this direction till it crosses a small branch of the Sow River, when it makes a detour and runs southward for some miles; it then turns abruptly to the north, pursuing that track to Casford, and crossing the Swift near Churchover, returns down the valley by Cotton House and Stamford Park, to Clifton. From Clifton the canal follows a southerly course to Hill Morton, leaving Rugby on the west, from Hill Morton to Wolfhampcote, near which place it communicates with the Grand Junction Canal at Braunston Tunnel; here it verges to the west till it opens into the Warwick and Napton Canal, not far from Napton and 332½ feet above tile level of the sea. From the junction its direction is to the south; at Marston Wharf it rises to 387½ feet above the level of the sea, and not far from this place is its summit level; passing a tunnel near Fenny Compton it follows the same direction to Banbury, where it crosses a