i 3 4 MY LIFE 



front of the wheels, making the tires rough like files, etc., all 

 of which were found to be quite unnecessary, owing to the 

 apparently unforeseen fact that as engines became more power- 

 ful they became heavier. 



On the heath about a mile and a half north of Leighton 

 there was a tumulus, and I was very anxious to know if there 

 was anybody or thing buried under it. The whitesmith was 

 equally interested, and he agreed to go with me some morning 

 very early when we should not be likely to be interfered with. 

 So we started one morning about five, with a couple of spades, 

 and began digging straight down in the middle of the tumulus. 

 It was light sandy soil, easy to move, and we dug a good large 

 hole till we got down about five feet deep, which was the 

 height of the barrow, and then, having found nothing whatever 

 for our trouble, we filled the hole up again, laid on the turf 

 and got back to breakfast, very tired, but glad to have done it, 

 even though we had found nothing. 



Having finished our plans of Soulbury, and made the three 

 copies needed with their books of reference, with some other 

 odd work, my brother took me up to London on Christmas 

 Eve, travelling by coach to Berkhampstead, and thence on to 

 London by the railway, which had been just opened. We 

 went third class for economy, in open trucks identical with 

 modern goods trucks, except that they had hinged doors, but 

 with no seats whatever, so that anyone tired of standing must 

 sit upon the floor. Luckily it was mild weather, and the 

 train did not go more than fifteen or twenty miles an hour, 

 yet even at that pace the wind was very disagreeable. The 

 next day we went home to Hoddesdon for a holiday. It had 

 been settled that, as no more surveying work was in view, I 

 should go back to Leighton to Mr. Matthews for a few months 

 to see if I should like to learn the watch and clock-making 

 business as well as surveying and general engineering; and as 

 there seemed to be nothing else available I did so. 



Mr. William Matthews was a man of about thirty. He 

 had been married two years, and had a little girl under a year 



