It may not be generally known to your readers, perhaps, that the first
iron bridge in England was projected at, and cast from, the furnaces of
Colebrook-Dale, and erected over the Severn, near that place, about the
year 1779; and, considering it to be the _first_ bridge of the kind, I
feel little hesitation in stating it to be, even now, the most beautiful
one. This structure, at that time thought to be a wonderful attempt, was
the entire offspring of Mr. Reynolds' genius; it was planned, cast, and
erected, under his immediate care and superintendance.

I cannot suppose the reason given by your author for the discontinuance
of the works at Colebrook-Dale to be correct, as there is another large
furnace in the immediate neighbourhood, called "Madeley Wood Furnace"
(also belonging to Mr. Reynolds's family), which was allowed to make,
and, I believe, still makes, the best iron and steel in the United
Kingdom. Mr. Reynolds had also other great iron-works at Ketley, since
carried on by his two sons, William and Joseph, and still in high
reputation, as to the quality of the iron made there; these are not more
distant from Colebrook-Dale than six or seven miles, and between the two
there are the extensive and highly valuable works of "Old Park," &c.,
belonging to Mr. Botfield (so that the whole district abounds in the
materials), which not having the advantage of the immediate vicinity of
the Severn for conveyance, would have been more likely to have stopped
from the circumstances stated in your extract; _viz._ the failure in
quality or quantity of iron-stone, coals, or other necessary matter. The
Colebrook-Dale fires must, therefore, I conceive, have ceased to blaze,
and the blast of her furnaces to roar, from some other cause, and from
some private reason of her late proprietors.

Your constant reader,