’The novelty of the construction of this spire, even in this its first skeleton state, excited attention, and as it drew towards its completion, and near the moment when, with its covering of slates, altogether amounting to many tons weight, it was to move, or not to move, fifty feet from the ground to the top of the tower, everybody in the neighbourhood, forming different opinions of the probability of its success or failure, became interested in the event.

’Several of my father’s friends and acquaintances, in our own and from adjoining counties, came to see it drawn up.  Fortunately, it happened to be a very fine autumn day, and the groups of spectators of different ranks and ages, assembled and waging in silent expectation, gave a picturesque effect to the whole.  A bugle sounded as the signal for ascent.  The top of the spire appearing through the tower of the church, began to move upwards; its gilt ball and arrow glittered in the sun, while with motion that was scarcely perceptible it rose majestically.  Not one word or interjection was uttered by any of the men who worked the windlasses at the top of the tower.

’It reached its destined station in eighteen minutes, and then a flag streamed from its summit and gave notice that all was safe.  Not the slightest accident or difficulty occurred.’  Maria adds:—­’The conduct of the whole had been trusted to my brother William (the civil engineer), and the first words my father said, when he was congratulated upon the success of the work, were that his son’s steadiness in conducting business and commanding men gave him infinitely more satisfaction than he could feel from the success of any invention of his own.’

Towards the close of 1811 Edgeworth was requested, as he understood, by a committee of the House of Commons on Broad Wheels, to look over and report on a mass of evidence on the subject.  This he did, but then found that it was a private request of the chairman, Sir John Sinclair, who begged that the report might be given to the Board of Agriculture.  This Edgeworth declined, but wrote instead and presented An Essay on Springs applied to Carts; and in 1813 he published an essay on Roads, and Wheel Carriages.  His daughter writes:—­’In the course of the drudgery which he went through he received a great counterbalancing pleasure from the following passage, which he chanced to meet with in a letter to the committee, written by a gentleman to whom he was personally a stranger: 

’"Mr. Edgeworth was the first who pointed out the great benefit of springs in aiding the draught of horses.  The subject deserves more attention than it has hitherto met with.  No discovery relative to carriages has been made in our time of equal importance; and the ingenious author of it deserves highly of some mark of public gratitude."’