Towards the end of 1785 the engines which had been in hand were nearly finished, and work was getting slacker than usual at Soho. Though new orders gave Watt trouble, and occasioned him anxiety, still he would rather not be without them. “It will be well,” he wrote to his partner, “if we can get some orders now for engines worth while. What we have been doing lately has been very trifling, and if we don’t get orders soon, our men will be idle. As it happens at present, we have at least three engineers too few here, there being eight engines to be done in two or three months, and only three engineers.”[270] It was matter of gratification to Watt to be able to report that the engines last delivered had given great satisfaction. The mechanics were improving in skill, and their workmanship was becoming of a superior character. “Strood and Curtis’s engine,” said he, “has been at work some time, and does very well. Whitbread’s has also been tried, and performs exceedingly well.” The success of Whitbread’s engine was such that it had the honour of a visit from the King, who was greatly pleased with its performances. Not to be outdone, “Felix Calvert,” wrote Watt, “has bespoken one, which is to outdo Whitbread’s in magnificence.” [270] Watt to Boulton, 27th August, 1785. The slackness of work at Soho was not of long continuance. Orders for rotative engines came in gradually; one from Harris, of Nottingham; another from Macclesfield, to drive a silk-mill; a third from Edinburgh, for the purposes of a distillery; and others from different quarters. The influx of orders had the effect at the same time of filling Soho with work, and plunging Watt into his usual labyrinth of perplexity and distress. In September we find him writing to Boulton,-- “My health, is so bad that I do not think I can hold out much longer, at least as a man of business, and I wish to consolidate something before I give over.” ... Again, “I cannot help being dispirited, because I find my head fail me much, business an excessive burden to me, and little prospect of my speedy release from it. Were we both young and healthy, I should see no reason to despair, but very much the contrary. However, we must do the best we can, and hope for quiet in heaven when our weary bones are laid to rest.”[271] [271] Watt to Boulton, 24th September, 1785. A few months later, so many more orders had come in, that Watt described Soho as “fast for the next four months,” but the additional work only had the effect of increasing his headaches. “In the anguish of my mind,” he wrote, “amid the vexations occasioned by new and unsuccessful schemes, like Lovelace I ‘curse my inventions,’ and almost wish, if we could gather our money together, that somebody else should succeed in getting our trade from us. However, all may yet be well. Nature can be conquered if we can but find out her weak side.”