John Phillips was working on many canal projects and can be called one of the first canal enthusiasts. His detailed work first appeared in 1805 and can still be regarded to be one of the most complete descriptions of the british inland waterways.

Excerpt from A General History of Inland Navigation, Foreign and Domestic: Containing a Complete Account of the Canals Already Executed in England, With Considerations on Those Projected All canals may be considered as so many roads of a certain kind, on which one horse will draw as much as thirty horses on ordinary turnpike roads, or on which one man alone will transport as many goods as three men and eighteen horses usually do on common roads. The public would be great gainers were they to lay out upon the making every mile of a canal twenty times as much as they expend upon amile of turnpike road; but a mile of canal is often made at a less expense than the mile of turnpike, consequently there is a great inducement to multiply the number of canals. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.