altered circumstances could readily make them. And now, in the
midst of this great and responsible work, he found time to "run
down" to Eskdale (very different "running down" from that which we
ourselves can do by the London and North Western Railway), to see
his aged mother once more before she died. What a meeting that
must have been, between the poor old widow of the Eskdale shepherd,
and her successful son, the county surveyor of Shropshire, and
engineer of the great and important Ellesmere Canal!

While Telford was working busily upon his wonderful canal, he had
many other schemes to carry out of hardly less importance, in
connection with his appointment as county surveyor. His beautiful
iron bridge across the Severn at Buildwas was another application
of his favourite metal to the needs of the new world that was
gradually growing up in industrial England; and so satisfied was he
with the result of his experiment (for though not absolutely the
first, it was one of the first iron bridges ever built) that he
proposed another magnificent idea, which unfortunately was never
carried into execution. Old London Bridge had begun to get a
trifle shaky; and instead of rebuilding it, Telford wished to span
the whole river by a single iron arch, whose splendid dimensions
would have formed one of the most remarkable engineering triumphs
ever invented. The scheme, for some good reason, doubtless, was
not adopted; but it is impossible to look at Telford's grand
drawing of the proposed bridge--a single bold arch, curving across
the Thames from side to side, with the dome of St. Paul's rising
majestically above it--without a feeling of regret that such a
noble piece of theoretical architecture was never realized in
actual fact.