194 OPPOSITION BY MR. BRADSHAW. CHAP. X. 



them to proceed with the hasty completion of their 

 survey. 1 



The principal opposition, however, was experienced 

 from Mr. Bradshaw, the manager of the Duke of 

 Bridge water's canal property, who offered a vigorous and 

 protracted resistance to the survey in all its stages. The 

 Duke's farmers obstinately refused permission to enter 

 upon their fields, although Mr. Stephenson offered to 

 pay for any damage that might be done. Mr. Bradshaw 

 positively refused his sanction in any case ; and being a 

 strict preserver of game, with a large staff of keepers in 

 his pay, he declared that he would order them to shoot 

 or apprehend any persons attempting a survey over his 

 property. But one moonlight night a survey was ob- 

 tained by the following ruse. Some men, under the 

 orders of the surveying party, were set to fire off guns 

 in a particular quarter ; on which all the gamekeepers 

 on the watch made off in that direction, and they were 

 drawn away to such a distance in pursuit of the sup- 

 posed poachers, as to enable a rapid survey to be made 

 during their absence. 



Mr. Stephenson, afterwards describing before Parlia- 

 ment the difficulties which he encountered in making 

 the survey, said : " I was threatened to be ducked in 

 the pond if I proceeded, and, of course, we had a 

 great deal of the survey to take by stealth, at the 

 time when the people were at dinner. We could not 

 get it done by night : indeed, we were watched day 

 and night, and guns were discharged over the grounds 



Mr. Sandars, when forwarding I Lord Sefton never spoke to me after- 



to Robert Stephenson the original of 

 this document (amongst the bundle of 

 documents referred to in a previous 

 note), added to it "The foregoing 

 was written by me, and given to Mr. 

 Oliver, one of the surveyors of the 

 railway intended to pass through Lord 

 Derby and Lord Sefton's property. 



wards when he found out the ruse 

 that had been practised. I little 

 thought then that railways would in 

 the end overwhelm me." Mr. Sandars 

 died at Taplow, Bucks, a few years 

 since, unhappily in very reduced cir- 

 cumstances. 



