THE BIRKBECK INSTITUTION. 229 



often wondered since at the amount of genuine happi- 

 ness which a young fellow of regular habits, not caring 

 for either pipe or mug, may extract even from pay like 

 this. 



Then came a pause, and after it the mad time of 

 the railway mania, when I was able to turn to some 

 account the knowledge gained upon the Ordnance 

 Survey. In Staffordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Dur- 

 ham, and Yorkshire, more especially the last, I was in 

 the thick of the fray. It was a time of terrible toil. 

 The day's work in the field usually began and ended 

 with the day's light, while frequently in the office, and 

 more especially as the awful 30th of November drew 

 near, there was little difference between day and night, 

 every hour of the twenty-four being absorbed in the 

 work of preparation. The 30th of Xovember was the 

 latest date at which plans and sections of projected 

 lines could be deposited at the Board of Trade, failure 

 in this particular often involving the loss of thousands 

 of pounds. One of my last pieces of field work in 

 those days was the taking of a line of levels from the 

 town of Keighley to the village of Haworth in York- 

 shire. On a certain day, under grave penalties, these 

 levels had to be finished, and this particular day was 

 one of agony to me. The atmosphere seemed filled 

 with mocking demons, laughing at the vanity of my 

 efforts to get the work done. My levelling-staves were 

 snapped and my theodolite was overthrown by the 

 storm. "\Vhen things are at their worst a kind of 

 anger often takes the place of fear. It was so in the 

 present instance; I pushed doggedly on, and just at 

 nightfall, when barely able to read the figures on my 

 levell ing-staff, I planted my last "bench-mark" on a 

 tombstone in Haworth Churchyard. Close at hand 

 was the vicarage of Mr. Bronte, where the genius was 



