AGRICULTURAL ENGINKS. 59 



[Rough draft.] 

 " MR. KENDAL, "CAMBORNE, January 26th, 1813. 



" Sir, I have yours of the 17th inst. The thrashing 

 machine engine is ready for you, and shall be sent up imme- 

 diately. I wish you to get about 100 fire bricks, 200 common 

 bricks, 20 loads of stone, and 20 bushels of lime. The house will 

 get finished while I am fixing the engine. About 1500 or 1600 

 weight of iron for your engine has been sent to the Blue Hills 

 Mine, St. Agness. I wish you could send down your cart to 

 fetch it from there to Padstow. There is no part of these cast- 

 ings but may be easily conveyed in a common butt or cart. When 

 you have the stone, brick, and lime ready, and a cart to send to 

 St. Agness for the castings, please to write me, and I will come 

 to Padstow at the same time with them, and finish the engine. 

 The sooner you get ready the better, as I expect to have an 

 engagement in about four weeks' time, that would prevent 

 my corning to Padstow for some time ; therefore I wish to get 

 your engine finished before that time. Please to write me 

 as early as possible, and let me know when you will be ready 

 for me, and what day I shall meet your cart at St. Agness for 

 the castings. 



" Your obedient servant, 



" KICHAKD TREVITHICK." 



Real inventors .hesitate not to erect their own en- 

 gines, lend a hand in building the house, walk to the 

 scene of action, or take a lift in a cart ; and by such 

 steps was the gift of genius moulded to the wants of 

 daily life ; while the modern engineer of eminence, 

 living in large cities, knows little of the minutiae of his 

 work, or even of the working mechanics on whose skill 

 the success of his ideas is dependent. 



"In 1815, Mr. Kendal, the proctor of Padstow, sent for me 

 to repair his steam-engine. To prevent the old disputes in 

 collecting his corn tithes, he had at work one of Captain 

 Trevithick's steam thrashing machines. The small farmers 



