It was a glorious situation for one like myself,--so earnest as I was in all that related to mechanism--in the study of men as well as of machinery.
I wish many a young man would do as I then did.

I am sure they would find their reward in that feeling of constant improvement, of daily advancement, and true independence, which will ever have a charm for those who are earnest in their endeavours to make right progress in life and in the regard of all good men." After three years spent at Maudslay's, Mr.Nasmyth returned to Edinburgh to construct a small stock of engineering tools suitable for starting him in business on his own account.

He hired a workshop and did various engineering jobs, in order to increase his little store of money and to execute his little stock of tools.

This occupied him for two years; and in 1834 he removed the whole of his tools and machinery to Manchester.
He began business there in a very humble way, but it increased so rapidly that he was induced to remove to a choice piece of land on the banks of the Bridgewater Canal at Patricroft, and there make a beginning--at first in wooden sheds--of the now famous Bridgewater Foundry.
"There," says he, "I toiled right heartily until December 31st, 1856, when I retired to enjoy, in _active_ leisure, the result of many an anxious and interesting day.

I had there, with the blessing of God, devoted the best years of my life to the pursuit of a business of which I was proud.