village was authorised, and cost an extra £7,000. At Watford, the canal descended through the seven Watford Locks to the same height as the summit of the Grand Junction Canal, allowing a level junction with it at Long Buckby (Norton Junction). To avoid a deep cutting and a short tunnel at Watford, the company eventually agreed to buy the land they needed from a Mrs Bennett, despite the cost of £2,000 plus £125 per acre (£312 per ha). She drove a hard bargain, insisting that she be allowed to keep a pleasure boat on the summit level, and that she should appoint the Watford lock keeper, to ensure that he would always be civil to her and her tenants, and would protect her property from damage by boatmen. The company agreed, providing that the lock keeper was suitably qualified. The main line of the canal was completed in 1814, and opened on 9 August. The Welford Arm, which was essentially a navigable feeder, since it connected to the reservoirs which provided the water supply, was not completed until November. The total cost of the project was around £292,000, which rose by another £13,500 the following year. The main line was long, with a level pound of between the locks at Foxton and those at Watford. The opening of the Grand Union Canal provided an additional source of water for the northern summit level of the Grand Junction Canal. Development The new canal was not a commercial success, mainly because there was little local traffic, and it relied on traffic passing through from other canals. The company correspondence shows large amounts of effort devoted to negotiations on rates, but it was not in a strong position, and coal was carried at around one third of the rate authorised by the enabling Act of Parliament. Pig iron and other heavy castings only raised d (0.6p) per ton per mile, whereas on the Monmouthshire Canal at the time, such cargoes were charged at 5d (2p) per ton per mile. Despite this, they had managed to repay most of their debts by 1826, and paid the first dividend to shareholders of one per cent. All loans had been repaid by 1836, and the dividend rose to 1.25 per cent in 1840. With the opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838, and the prospect of lower tolls, men who were committee members of