his Shropshire castle. Nor was that all:
by Mr. Pulteney's influence, Telford was shortly afterwards appointed
to be county surveyor of public works, having under his care all the
roads, bridges, gaols, and public buildings in the whole of Shropshire.
Thus the Eskdale shepherd-boy rose at last from the rank of a working
mason, and attained the well-earned dignity of an engineer and a
professional man.

Telford had now a fair opportunity of showing the real stuff of which
he was made. Those, of course, were the days when railroads had not
yet been dreamt of; when even roads were few and bad; when
communications generally were still in a very disorderly and
unorganized condition. It is Telford's special glory that he reformed
and altered this whole state of things; he reduced the roads of half
Britain to system and order; he made the finest highways and bridges
then ever constructed; and by his magnificent engineering works,
especially his aqueducts, he paved the way unconsciously but surely for
the future railways. If it had not been for such great undertakings as
Telford's Holyhead Road, which familiarized men's minds with costly
engineering operations, it is probable that projectors would long have
stood aghast at the alarming expense of a nearly level iron road
running through tall hills and over broad rivers the whole way from
London to Manchester.

At first, Telford's work as county surveyor lay mostly in very small
things indeed--mere repairs of sidepaths or bridges, which gave him
little opportunity to develop his full talents as a born engineer. But
in time, being found faithful in small things, his employers, the
county magistrates, began to consult him more and more on matters of
comparative importance. First, it was a bridge to be built across the
Severn; then a church to be planned at Shrewsbury, and next, a second
church in Coalbrookdale. If he was thus to be made suddenly into an
architect, Telford thought, almost without being consulted in the
matter, he must certainly set out to study architecture. So, with
characteristic vigour, he went to work to visit London, Worcester,
Gloucester, Bath, and Oxford, at each place taking care to learn
whatever was to be learned in the practice of his new art.
Fortunately, however, for Telford and for England, it was not
architecture in the strict sense that he was finally to practise as a
real profession. Another accident, as thoughtless people might call
i