*[9] The discovery formed the subject of a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries in London on the 7th of May, 1789, published in the 'Archaeologia,' together with a drawing of the remains supplied by Mr. Telford.
*[10] An Eskdale crony. His son, Colonel Josias Stewart, rose to eminence in the East India Company's service, having been for many years Resident at Gwalior and Indore.
*[11] Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated 3rd Sept. 1788.
*[12] Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated Shrewsbury, 8th October, 1789.
*[13] It was then under seventeen millions sterling, or about a fourth of what it is now.
*[14] Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated 28th July, 1791.
*[15] The writer of a memoir of Telford, in the 'Encyclopedia Britannica,' says:—"Andrew Little kept a private and very small school at Langholm. Telford did not neglect to send him a copy of Paine's 'Rights of Man;' and as he was totally blind, he employed one of his scholars to read it in the evenings. Mr. Little had received an academical education before he lost his sight; and, aided by a memory of uncommon powers, he taught the classics, and particularly Greek, with much higher reputation than any other schoolmaster within a pretty extensive circuit. Two of his pupils read all the Iliad, and all or the greater part of Sophocles. After hearing a long sentence of Greek or Latin distinctly recited, he could generally construe and translate it with little or no hesitation. He was always much gratified by Telford's visits, which were not infrequent, to his native district."
CHAPTER V.
TELFORD'S FIRST EMPLOYMENT AS AN ENGINEER.
As surveyor for the county, Telford was frequently called upon by the magistrates to advise them as to the improvement of roads and the building or repair of bridges. His early experience of bridge-building in his native district now proved of much service to him, and he used often to congratulate himself, even when he had reached the highest rank in his profession, upon the circumstances which had compelled him to begin his career by working with his own hands. To be a thorough judge of work, he held that a man must himself have been practically engaged in it.