t, led him to adopt engineering in the end as the path in life he
elected to follow. In 1793, he was appointed engineer to the projected
Ellesmere Canal.

In the days before railways, such a canal as this was an engineering
work of the very first importance. It was to connect the Mersey, the
Dee, and the Severn, and it passed over ground which rendered necessary
some immense aqueducts on a scale never before attempted by British
engineers. Even in our own time, every traveller by the Great Western
line between Chester and Shrewsbury must have observed on his right two
magnificent ranges as high arches, which are as noticeable now as ever
for their boldness, their magnitude, and their exquisite construction.
The first of these mighty archways is the Pont Cysylltau aqueduct which
carries the Ellesmere Canal across the wide valley of the Dee, known as
the Vale of Llangollen; the second is the Chirk aqueduct, which takes
it over the lesser glen of a minor tributary, the Ceriog. Both these
beautiful works were designed and carried out entirely by Telford.
They differ from many other great modern engineering achievements in
the fact that, instead of spoiling the lovely mountain scenery into
whose midst they have been thrown, they actually harmonize with it and
heighten its natural beauty. Both works, however, are splendid feats,
regarded merely as efforts of practical skill; and the larger one is
particularly memorable for the peculiarity that the trough for the
water and the elegant parapet at the side are both entirely composed of
iron. Nowadays, of course, there would be nothing remarkable in the
use of such a material for such a purpose; but Telford was the first
engineer to see the value of iron in this respect, and the Pont
Cysylltau aqueduct was one of the earliest works in which he applied
the new material to these unwonted uses. Such a step is all the more
remarkable, because Telford's own education had lain entirely in what
may fairly be called the "stone age" of English engineering; while his
natural predilections as a stonemason might certainly have made him
rather overlook the value of the novel material. But Telford was a man
who could rise superior to such little accidents of habit or training;
and as a matter of fact there is no other engineer to whom the rise of
the present "iron age" in engineering work is more directly and
immediately to be attributed than to himself.

Meanwhile, the Eskdale pionee