With Watt, occupation in business was not the necessity that it was to Boulton; and he was only too glad to get rid of it and engage in those quiet pursuits in which he found most pleasure. In the year 1790, he removed from the house he had so long occupied on Harper’s Hill, to a new and comfortable house which he had built for himself at Heathfield in the parish of Handsworth, where he continued to live until the close of his life. The land surrounding the place was, until then, common, and he continued to purchase the lots as they were offered for sale, until, by the year 1794, he had enclosed about forty acres. He took pleasure in laying out the grounds, planting many of the trees with his own hands; and in course of time, as the trees reached maturity, the formerly barren heath became converted into a retreat of great rural beauty.
Annexed to the house, in the back yard, he built a forge, and upstairs, in his “Garret,” he fitted up a workshop, in which he continued to pursue his mechanical studies and experiments for many years. While Watt was settling himself for the remainder of his life in the house at Heathfield, Boulton was erecting his large new Mint at Soho, which was completed and ready for use in 1791.
When the lawsuits, which had given Watt so much anxiety, were satisfactorily disposed of, an immense load was removed from his mind; and he indulged in the anticipation of at last enjoying the fruits of his labour in peace. Being of frugal habits, he had already begun to save money, and indeed accumulated as much as he desired. But when the heavy arrears of Cornish dues were collected, about the period of expiry of the patent, a considerable sum of money necessarily fell to Watt’s share; and then he began to occupy himself in the pleasant recreation of looking out for an investment of it in land. He was, however, hard to please, and made many journeys before he succeeded in buying his estate.
“I have yet met with nothing to my mind,” he wrote from Somerton; “Lord Oxford has some very considerable estates to sell near Abergavenny, but the roads to them are execrable, and it seemed that it would be a sort of banishment to live at them, though the parts I saw are in themselves pleasant. I am to-day informed of one with a house near Dorchester, which I have sent to inquire about, though I have my doubts that it will prove like the rest. I propose, if nothing hinders, to be at Taunton to-morrow night, and shall then visit the Wedgwoods, who at present live at Upcot, near that place. Afterwards, I propose making a tour through the eastern part of Devonshire, and returning by Dorsetshire to Bath; but my resolves may be altered by the attractions of various magnets, so that I cannot tell you where to write to me till I get some fixed residence.”[386]
A fortnight later he was at Exmouth, but still undecided.
“In respect to estates,” he writes,—“I have seen nothing that pleases me. Most of them, as you know by experience, are surrounded with bad roads, beggarly villages, or some other nuisance, and one need not purchase plagues. On the whole, something nearer home seems more suitable to me than anything in these western counties, which, though they have more luxuriant vegetation, and perhaps a milder climate, are not exempt from cold, as I experience here colder weather than we had last autumn in Scotland. But the greatest drawback is the absence of such society as one is used to, and their abominably hilly roads, as they never flinch, but go straight up any hill which comes in their way, and Nature has bestowed plenty upon them.”[387]
Eventually Watt made several purchases of land at Doldowlod, on the hanks of the Wye, between Rhayader and Newbridge, in Radnorshire. There was a pleasant farmhouse on the property, in which he occasionally spent some pleasant months in summer time amidst beautiful scenery; but he had by this time grown too old to root himself kindly in a new place; and his affections speedily drew him back again to the neighbourhood of Soho, and to his comfortable home at Heathfield.
During the short peace of Amiens in the following year, he made the longest journey in his life. Accompanied by Mrs. Watt, he travelled through Belgium, up the banks of the Rhine to Frankfort, and home by Strasburg and Paris. While absent, Boulton wrote him many pleasant letters, telling him of what was going on at Soho. The brave old man was still at the helm there, and wrote in as enthusiastic terms as ever of the coins and medals he was striking at his Mint. Though strong in mind, he was, however, growing feebler in body, and suffered much from attacks of his old disease. “It is necessary for me,” he wrote, “to pass a great part of my time in or upon the bed; nevertheless, I go down to the manufactory or the Mint once or twice a day, without injuring myself as heretofore, but not without some fatigue. However, as I am now taking bark twice a day, I find a daily increase of strength, and flatter myself with the pleasure of taking a journey to Paris in April or May next.”[388]
On Watt’s arrival in London, a letter of hearty welcome from Boulton met him; but it conveyed, at the same time, the sad intelligence of the death of Mrs. Keir, a lady beloved by all who knew her, and a frequent inmate at Soho and Heathfield. One by one the members of the circle were departing, leaving wide gaps, which new friends could never fill up. The pleasant associations which are the charm of old friendships, were becoming mingled with sadness and regret. The grave was closing over one after another of the Soho group; and the survivors were beginning to live for the most part upon the memories of the past. But it is one of the penalties of old age to suffer a continuous succession of such bereavements; and that state would be intolerable but for the comparative deadening of the feelings which mercifully accompanies the advance of years. “We cannot help feeling with deep regret,” wrote Watt, “the circle of our old friends gradually diminishing, while our ability to increase it by new ones is equally diminished; but perhaps it is a wise dispensation of Providence so to diminish our enjoyments in this world that when our turn comes we may leave it without regret.”[389]
One of the deaths most lamented by Watt was that of Dr. Black of Edinburgh, which occurred in 1799. Black had watched to the last with tender interest the advancing reputation and prosperity of his early protégé. They had kept up a continuous and confidential correspondence on subjects of mutual interest for a period of about thirty years. Watt, though reserved to others, never feared unbosoming himself to his old friend, telling him of the new schemes he had on foot, and freely imparting to him his hopes and fears, his failures and successes. When Watt visited Scotland he rarely failed to take Edinburgh on his way, for the purpose of spending a few days with Black and Robison. The latter went express to London, for the purpose of giving evidence in the suit of Watt against the Hornblowers, and his testimony proved of essential service. “Our friend Robison,” Watt wrote to Black, “ exerted himself much; and, considering his situation, did wonders.” When Robison returned to Edinburgh, his Natural Philosophy class received him with three cheers. He proceeded to give them a short account of the trial, which he characterised as “not more the cause of Watt versus Hornblower, than of science against ignorance.” “When I had finished,” said he, “I got another plaudit, that Mrs. Siddons would have relished.”[390]