ON May 21 the bicentenary occurs of the birth of Francis Egerton, third and last Duke of Bridgewater, who has been called “the Father of British inland navigation”, and to whom a monument exists at Ashridge bearing an inscription which says that “by devoting the energies of his mind to the accomplishments of the most splendid works of inland navigation, [he] opened a new field of national industry and rendered the most important services to the commercial interests of this country”. A sickly, neglected boy, and an ignorant, awkward and unruly youth, the Duke was only twelve years of age when he succeeded to the title, and there was little promise in his early life that he would become one of the country's benefactors. A disagreement at the age of twenty-two with the widowed Elizabeth, Duchess of Hamilton, led to his leaving London for his home at Worsley near Manchester, and his whole life was henceforth devoted to the management of his collieries and estates. Obtaining an Act of Parliament in 1759 for a canal from Worsley to Manchester, he engaged the services of James Brindley (1716-72), and the next few years saw the construction of the Worsley to Manchester Canal with its famous Barton Aqueduct over the River Irwell, and also the Bridge-water Canal from Longford Bridge to the Mersey at Runcorn, by which craft could proceed from Manchester to Liverpool. While he exercised the greatest possible economy in his private affairs, the Duke spent some £220,000 on his canals, which, however, ultimately yielded an annual revenue of £80,000. The Bridgewater Canal was sold in 1887 to the Manchester Ship Canal Company for £1,710,000. The Duke died in London on March 8, 1803, and was buried in the family vault at Ashridge. The monument to which reference has been made now belongs to the National Trust.