THE BLISWORTH CUTTING. 



313 



nearly six miles long and about thirty feet high. 

 Passing over the Denbigh Hall cutting, and the Wol- 

 verton embankment of a mile and a half in length 

 across the valley of the Ouse, we come to the excavation 

 at Blisworth, a brief description of which will give the 

 reader an idea of one of the most difficult kinds of 

 railway work. 



The Blisworth Cutting is one of the longest and deepest 



BJLIS WORTH CUTTING. [By Pereival Skelton.] 



grooves ever cut in the solid earth. It is a mile and a 

 half long, in some places sixty-five feet deep, passing 

 through earth, stiff clay, and hard rock. Not less than 

 a million cubic yards of these materials were dug, quar- 

 ried, and blasted out of it. One-third of the cutting 

 was stone, and beneath the stone lay a thick bed of clay, 

 under which were found beds of loose shale so full of 

 water that almost constant pumping was necessary at 

 many points to enable the works to proceed. For a 

 year and a half the contractor went on fruitlessly con- 



