CHAP. XVI. STEPHENSON ON ESTIMATES. 337 



of referring to the charges brought against engineers of 

 so greatly exceeding the estimates : " He had had a 

 good deal to do with making out the estimate of the 

 Xorth Midland Railway, and he believed there never 

 was a more honest one. He had always endeavoured 

 to state the truth as far as was in his power. He had 

 known a director, who, when he (Mr. Stephenson) had 

 sent in an estimate, came forward and said, ' I can do it 

 for half the money.' The director's estimate went into 

 Parliament, but it came out his. He could go through 

 the whole list of the undertakings in which he had been 

 engaged, and show that he had never had anything to 

 do with stock-jobbing concerns. He would say that he 

 would not be concerned in any scheme, unless he was 

 satisfied that it would pay the proprietors : and in 

 bringing forward the proposed line to Scarborough, he 

 was satisfied that it would pay, or he would have had 

 nothing to do with it." 



During the time that our engineer was engaged in 

 superintending the execution of these great under- 

 takings, he was occupied in surveying other lines of 

 railway in various parts of the country. With that 

 object he visited the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and 

 surveyed several lines there ; and he afterwards sur- 

 veyed routes along the east coast from Newcastle to 

 Edinburgh, with the view of completing the main line 

 of communication with London. When out on foot in 

 the fields, on these occasions, he was ever foremost in 

 the march ; and he delighted to test the prowess of his 

 companions by a good jump at any hedge or ditch that 

 lay in their way. His companions noted with surprise 

 his remarkable quickness of observation. Nothing 

 escaped his attention the trees, the crops, the birds, 

 or the farmer's stock ; and he was usually full of lively 

 conversation, everything in nature affording him an 

 opportunity for making some striking remark, or pro- 

 pounding some ingenious theory. When taking a 



VOL. III. Z 



