320 FAILURE OF CONTRACTORS. CHAP. XV. 



were helped through by the directors. Then there was 

 that terrible contract of the Kilsby tunnel, which broke 

 the No wells j and killed one of them. The contractors 

 to the north of Kilsby were more fortunate, though 

 some of them pulled through only with the greatest 

 ifficulty. Of the eighteen contracts in which the 

 ne was originally let, only seven were completed by 

 e original contractors. Eleven firms were ruined 

 by their contracts, which were relet to others at advanced 

 prices, or were carried on and finished by the Company. 

 The principal cause of increase in the expense, however, 

 was the enlargement of the stations. It appeared that 

 we had greatly under-estimated the traffic, and it accord- 

 ingly became necessary to spend more and more money 

 for its accommodation, until I think I am within the 

 mark when I say that the expenditure on this account 

 alone exceeded by eight or ten fold the amount of the 

 Parliamentary estimate." 



The magnitude of the works, which were unpre- 

 cedented in England, was one of the most remarkable 

 features in the undertaking. The following striking 

 comparison has been made between this railway and 

 one of the greatest works of ancient times. The Great 

 Pyramid of Egypt was, according to Diodorus Siculus, 

 constructed by three hundred thousand according to 

 Herodotus, by one hundred thousand men. It required 

 for its execution twenty years, and the labour expended 

 upon it has been estimated as equivalent to lifting 

 15,733,000,000 of cubic feet of stone one foot high. 

 Whereas, if the labour expended in constructing the 

 London and Birmingham Railway be in like manner 

 reduced to one common denomination, the result is 

 25,000,000,000 of cubic feet more than was lifted for the 

 Great Pyramid ; and yet the English work was per- 

 formed by about 20,000 men in less than five years. 

 \ And whilst the Egyptian work was executed by a 

 powerful monarch concentrating upon it the labour and 



