Tunnels and Their Making 39 



by the stage coach! There was only one 

 thing for it Stephenson had to make a 

 fresh survey, leaving Northampton on one 

 side and cutting through the hills he had 

 so keenly desired to miss, for " Old George ' 

 dearly loved a well-graded line, and he 

 realised that deep cuttings and a tunnel 

 to keep it anything on the level he desired 

 would add greatly to an already heavy 

 expenditure. 



But he could not have foreseen that 

 an underground river (by some called a 

 spring), would be tapped at Kilsby, and 

 that the contractor who offered to bore 

 the tunnel and line it for a sum of less than 

 100,000 would be ruined and so worried 

 that he died under the strain. 



It was necessary to go on with the 

 boring, but so difficult was this problem 

 of water, sufficient being pumped out daily 

 to supply the needs of a fairly large town, 

 that over 300,000 was expended before 

 the line could be completed, and the 

 coaches withdrawn which were supplying 

 the link between the two lengths of 



