130 MY LIFE 



One day, having to drive over to Dunstable on some busi- 

 ness, my brother took me with him. When there, we walked 

 out to a deep cutting through the chalk about a mile to the 

 north-west, where the road was being improved by further 

 excavation to make the ascent easier. This was the great 

 mail-coach road to Birmingham and Holyhead, and although 

 the railway from London to Birmingham was then making 

 and partly finished, nobody seemed to imagine that in twelve 

 years more a railway would be opened the whole distance, 

 and, so far as the mails and all through traffic were concerned, 

 all such costly improvement of the high-roads would be quite 

 unnecessary. 



My brother had some conversation with the engineer who 

 was inspecting the work, and took a lump of chalk home with 

 him to ascertain its specific gravity, as to which there was 

 some difference of opinion. While taking luncheon at the 

 hotel we met a gentleman of about my brother's age, who 

 turned out to be a surveyor, and who was also interested in 

 engineering and science generally; and after luncheon they 

 borrowed a small pair of scales and a large jug of water, and 

 by suspending the chalk by a thread below the scale-pan, they 

 weighed it in water, having first weighed it dry in the ordinary 

 way, and the weight in air, divided by the difference between 

 the weights in air and water, gives the specific gravity suffi- 

 ciently near for ordinary purposes. This little experiment 

 interested me greatly, and made me wish to know something 

 about mechanics and physics. Mr. Matthews lived at Leigh- 

 ton Buzzard, where he carried on the business of watch-and- 

 clock maker as well as that of engineer and surveyor. He 

 had undertaken the survey of the parish of Soulbury, but 

 having too much other work to attend to, he was looking out 

 for someone to take it off his hands. This matter was soon 

 agreed upon, and a few weeks afterward we left Silsoe to 

 begin the work. 



The village of Soulbury is a very small one, though the 

 parish is rather large. It is only three miles from Leighton, 

 and we obtained accommodation in the school-house, a rather 

 large red-brick house, situated at the further end of the vil- 



