When engaged upon his surveys, our engineer was the same simple, cheerful, laborious man. While at work, he gave his whole mind to the subject in hand, thinking of nothing else for the time; dismissing it at the close of each day's work, but ready to take it up afresh with the next day's duties. This was a great advantage to him as respected the prolongation of his working faculty. He did not take his anxieties to bed with him, as many do, and rise up with them in the morning; but he laid down the load at the end of each day, and resumed it all the more cheerfully when refreshed and invigorated by natural rest, It was only while the engrossing anxieties connected with the suspension of the chains of Menai Bridge were weighing heavily upon his mind, that he could not sleep; and then, age having stolen upon him, he felt the strain almost more than he could bear. But that great anxiety once fairly over, his spirits speedily resumed their wonted elasticity.
When engaged upon the construction of the Carlisle and Glasgow road, he was very fond of getting a few of the "navvy men," as he called them, to join him at an ordinary at the Hamilton Arms Hotel, Lanarkshire, each paying his own expenses. On such occasions Telford would say that, though he could not drink, yet he would carve and draw corks for them. One of the rules he laid down was that no business was to be introduced from the moment they sat down to dinner. All at once, from being the plodding, hard-working engineer, with responsibility and thought in every feature, Telford unbended and relaxed, and became the merriest and drollest of the party. He possessed a great fund of anecdote available for such occasions, had an extraordinary memory for facts relating to persons and families, and the wonder to many of his auditors was, how in all the world a man living in London should know so much better about their locality and many of its oddities than they did themselves.
In his leisure hours at home, which were but few, he occupied himself a good deal in the perusal of miscellaneous literature, never losing his taste for poetry. He continued to indulge in the occasional composition of verses until a comparatively late period of his life; one of his most successful efforts being a translation of the 'Ode to May,' from Buchanan's Latin poems, executed in a very tender and graceful manner. That he might be enabled to peruse engineering works in French and German, he prosecuted the study of those languages, and with such success that he was shortly able to read them with comparative ease. He occasionally occupied himself in literary composition on subjects connected with his profession. Thus he wrote for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, conducted by his friend Sir David (then Dr.) Brewster, the elaborate and able articles on Architecture, Bridge-building, and Canal-making. Besides his contributions to that work, he advanced a considerable sum of money to aid in its publication, which remained a debt due to his estate at the period of his death.
Notwithstanding the pains that Telford took in the course of his life to acquire a knowledge of the elements of natural science, it is somewhat remarkable to find him holding; acquirements in mathematics so cheap. But probably this is to be accounted for by the circumstance of his education being entirely practical, and mainly self-acquired. When a young man was on one occasion recommended to him as a pupil because of his proficiency in mathematics, the engineer expressed the opinion that such acquirements were no recommendation. Like Smeaton, he held that deductions drawn from theory were never to be trusted; and he placed his reliance mainly on observation, experience, and carefully-conducted experiments. He was also, like most men of strong practical sagacity, quick in mother wit, and arrived rapidly at conclusions, guided by a sort of intellectual instinct which can neither be defined nor described.*[7] Although occupied as a leading engineer for nearly forty years— having certified contractors' bills during that time amounting to several millions sterling—he died in comparatively moderate circumstances. Eminent constructive ability was not very highly remunerated in Telford's time, and he was satisfied with a rate of pay which even the smallest "M. I. C. E." would now refuse to accept. Telford's charges were, however, perhaps too low; and a deputation of members of the profession on one occasion formally expostulated with him on the subject.
Although he could not be said to have an indifference for money, he yet estimated it as a thing worth infinitely less than character; and every penny that he earned was honestly come by. He had no wife, *[8] nor family, nor near relations to provide for,—only himself in his old age. Not being thought rich, he was saved the annoyance of being haunted by toadies or pestered by parasites. His wants were few, and his household expenses small; and though he entertained many visitors and friends, it was in a quiet way and on a moderate scale. The small regard he had for personal dignity may be inferred from the fact, that to the last he continued the practice, which he had learnt when a working mason, of darning his own stockings.*[9]
Telford nevertheless had the highest idea of the dignity of his profession; not because of the money it would produce, but of the great things it was calculated to accomplish. In his most confidential letters we find him often expatiating on the noble works he was engaged in designing or constructing, and the national good they were calculated to produce, but never on the pecuniary advantages he himself was to derive from them. He doubtless prized, and prized highly, the reputation they would bring him; and, above all, there seemed to be uppermost in his mind, especially in the earlier part of his career, while many of his schoolfellows were still alive, the thought of "What will they say of this in Eskdale?" but as for the money results to himself, Telford seemed, to the close of his life, to regard them as of comparatively small moment.
During the twenty-one years that he acted as principal engineer for the Caledonian Canal, we find from the Parliamentary returns that the amount paid to him for his reports, detailed plans, and superintendence, was exactly 237L. a year. Where he conceived any works to be of great public importance, and he found them to be promoted by public-spirited persons at their own expense, he refused to receive any payment for his labour, or even repayment of the expenses incurred by him. Thus, while employed by the Government in the improvement of the Highland roads, he persuaded himself that he ought at the same time to promote the similar patriotic objects of the British Fisheries Society, which were carried out by voluntary subscription; and for many years he acted as their engineer, refusing to accept any remuneration whatever for his trouble.*[10]
Telford held the sordid money-grubber in perfect detestation. He was of opinion that the adulation paid to mere money was one of the greatest dangers with which modern society was threatened. "I admire commercial enterprise," he would say; "it is the vigorous outgrowth of our industrial life: I admire everything that gives it free scope:, as, wherever it goes, activity, energy, intelligence— all that we call civilization—accompany it; but I hold that the aim and end of all ought not to be a mere bag, of money, but something far higher and far better."
Writing once to his Langholm correspondent about an old schoolfellow, who had grown rich by scraping, Telford said: "Poor Bob L—— His industry and sagacity were more than counterbalanced by his childish vanity and silly avarice, which rendered his friendship dangerous, and his conversation tiresome. He was like a man in London, whose lips, while walking by himself along the streets, were constantly ejaculating 'Money! Money!' But peace to Bob's memory: I need scarcely add, confusion to his thousands!" Telford was himself most careful in resisting the temptations to which men in his position are frequently exposed; but he was preserved by his honest pride, not less than by the purity of his character. He invariably refused to receive anything in the shape of presents or testimonials from persons employed under him. He would not have even the shadow of an obligation stand in the way of his duty to those who employed him to watch over and protect their interests. During the many years that he was employed on public works, no one could ever charge him in the remotest degree with entering into a collusion with contractors. He looked upon such arrangements as degrading and infamous, and considered that they meant nothing less than an inducement to "scamping," which he would never tolerate.
His inspection of work was most rigid. The security of his structures was not a question of money, but of character. As human life depended upon their stability, not a point was neglected that could ensure it. Hence, in his selection of resident engineers and inspectors of works, he exercised the greatest possible precautions; and here his observation of character proved of essential value. Mr. Hughes says he never allowed any but his most experienced and confidential assistants to have anything to do with exploring the foundations of buildings he was about to erect. His scrutiny into the qualifications of those employed about such structures extended to the subordinate overseers, and even to the workmen, insomuch that men whose general habits had before passed unnoticed, and whose characters had never been inquired into, did not escape his observation when set to work in operations connected with foundations.*[11] If he detected a man who gave evidences of unsteadiness, inaccuracy, or carelessness, he would reprimand the overseer for employing such a person, and order him to be removed to some other part of the undertaking where his negligence could do no harm. And thus it was that Telford put his own character, through those whom he employed, into the various buildings which he was employed to construct.