Small again endeavoured to induce Watt to visit Birmingham, to superintend the erection of the engine, the materials for which were now lying at Soho. He also held out to Watt the hope of obtaining some employment for him in the midland counties as a consulting engineer. But Watt could not afford to lose more time in erecting trial-engines; and he was too much occupied at Glasgow to leave it for the proposed uncertainty at Birmingham. He accordingly declined the visit, but invited Small to continue the correspondence; “for,” said he, “we have abundance of matters to discuss, though the damned engine sleep in quiet.” Small wrote back, professing himself satisfied that Watt was so fully employed in his own profession at Glasgow. “Let nothing,” he said, “divert you from the business of engineering. You are sensible that both Boulton and I engaged in the patent scheme much more from inclination to be in some degree useful to you than from any other principle; so that if you are prosperous and happy, we do not care whether you find the scheme worth prosecuting or not.”[124] Replying to Small’s complaint of himself, that he felt _ennuyé_ and stupid, taking pleasure in nothing but sleep, Watt said: “You complain of physic; I find it sufficiently stupifying to be obliged to think on any subject but one’s hobby; and I really am become monstrously stupid, and can seldom think at all. I wish to God I could afford to live without it; though I don’t admire your sleeping scheme. I must fatigue myself, otherwise I can neither eat nor sleep. In short, I greatly doubt whether the silent mansion of the grave be not the happiest abode. I am cured of most of my youthful desires, and if ambition or avarice do not lay hold of me, I shall be almost as much _ennuyé_ as you say you are.”[125] [124] Small to Watt, 17th September, 1770. Boulton MSS. Small again recurred to the subject of Watt’s removal to Birmingham, informing him that he had provided accommodation for him, “having kept a whole house in my power, in hopes you may come to live here.” Watt’s prospects were, however, brightening. He was then busily occupied in superintending the construction of the Monkland Canal. He wrote Small that he had a hundred men working under him, who had “made a confounded gash in a hill,” at which they had been working for twelve months; that by frugal living he had contrived to save money enough to pay his debts, and that he had plenty of remunerative work before him. He had also become concerned in a pottery, which, he said, “does very well, though we make monstrous bad ware.”[126] He had not, indeed, got rid of his headaches, though he was not so much afflicted by low spirits as he had been. But he confessed that after all he hated the business of engineering, and wished himself well rid of it, for the reasons stated in a preceding chapter. [125] Watt to Small, 20th October, 1770. Boulton MSS.