We find little record of Smeaton's engagements between 1759, when he completed his great undertaking, and 1764, when he applied for and obtained the appointment of receiver for the Derwentwater Estates.* It may be, as one of his biographers remarks, that, as yet, there was little demand in England for the constructive skill of so bold and able an engineer. Not but that there was work enough: for the highways were in a deplorable condition; in many districts intercommunication was rendered difficult by the want of sufficient bridges; in the commercial ports of the country dock accommodation was almost unknown; but England was then too poor, or her energies were too exclusively concentrated upon maritime enterprise and colonial extension, for her to undertake to supply these deficiencies on any extensive scale. * These estates were confiscated by the Crown, on the death of the last Earl of Derwentwater,--executed for high treason,--and conferred by Parliament on Greenwich Hospital. [Sidenote: His engineering works.] His reputation, however, was gradually extending throughout the kingdom, and in 1760 we find him consulted by the magistrates of Dumfries respecting the improvement of the Nith. He was similarly consulted as to the lockage of the river Wear, the opening up of the navigation of the Chelmer to Chelmsford, of the Don above Doncaster, of the Devon in Clackmannanshire, of the Tetney Haven navigation near Louth, and the improvement of the river Lea; but the improvements he recommended do not seem to have been carried out, through want of funds. In truth, his first great engineering enterprise was undertaken in his own county, where he was employed in extensive repairs of the dams and locks on the river Calder; and he effected many important improvements in that navigation, which confirmed the general belief in his skill and judgment. At the same time he carried out extensive works on the river Aire from Leeds to its junction with the Ouse. To Smeaton also is mainly due the recovery of the inundated lands in the Lincoln Fens, and in the low levels between Doncaster and Hull. The river Witham, between Lincoln and Boston, was still, it is said, a source of constant grief and loss to the farmers along its banks. It had become choked up by neglect, so that "not only had the navigation of the river become almost lost, but a large extent of otherwise valuable land was constantly laid under water." At a still later period he undertook to improve the drainage of the North Level of the Fens, and the outfall of the Nene at Wisbeach. For this purpose he recommended the construction of a powerful outfall-sluice at the mouth of the Nene.