I proceeded till I came to the head of the canal, where the
navigation first commences. It is close to a weir over which the
Dee falls. Here there is a little floodgate, through which water
rushes from an oblong pond or reservoir, fed by water from a corner
of the upper part of the weir. On the left, or south-west side, is
a mound of earth fenced with stones which is the commencement of
the bank of the canal. The pond or reservoir above the floodgate
is separated from the weir by a stone wall on the left, or south-
west side. This pond has two floodgates, the one already
mentioned, which opens into the canal, and another, on the other
side of the stone mound, opening to the lower part of the weir.
Whenever, as a man told me who was standing near, it is necessary
to lay the bed of the canal dry, in the immediate neighbourhood for
the purpose of making repairs, the floodgate to the canal is
closed, and the one to the lower part of the weir is opened, and
then the water from the pond flows into the Dee, whilst a sluice,
near the first lock, lets out the water of the canal into the
river. The head of the canal is situated in a very beautiful spot.
To the left or south is a lofty hill covered with wood. To the
right is a beautiful slope or lawn on the top of which is a pretty
villa, to which you can get by a little wooden bridge over the
floodgate of the canal, and indeed forming part of it. Few things
are so beautiful in their origin as this canal, which, be it known,
with its locks and its aqueducts, the grandest of which last is the
stupendous erection near Stockport, which by-the-bye filled my mind
when a boy with wonder, constitutes the grand work of England, and
yields to nothing in the world of the kind, with the exception of
the great canal of China.