242 MY LIFE 



little experience annoyed me much, and, with others of the 

 same nature later on, so disgusted me with business as to form 

 one of the reasons which induced me to go abroad. 



When we had wound up William's affairs as well as we 

 could, my brother John returned to London, and I was left to 

 see if any work was to be had, and in the mean time devoted 

 myself to collecting butterflies and beetles. While at Leices- 

 ter I had been altogether out of the business world, and do 

 not remember even looking at a newspaper, or I might have 

 heard something of the great railway mania which that year 

 reached its culmination. I now first heard rumours of it, and 

 someone told me of a civil engineer in Swansea who wanted 

 all the surveyors he could get, and that they all had two 

 guineas a day, and often more. This I could hardly credit, 

 but I wrote to the gentleman, who soon after called on me, 

 and asked me if I could do levelling. I told him I could, and 

 had a very good level and levelling staves. After some little 

 conversation he told me he wanted a line of levels up the 

 Vale of Neath to Merthyr Tydfil for a proposed railway, with 

 cross levels at frequent intervals, and that he would give me 

 two guineas a day, and all expenses of chain and staff men, 

 hotels, etc. He gave me all necessary instructions, and said 

 he would send a surveyor to map the route at the same time. 

 This was, I think, about mid-summer, and I was hard at work 

 till the autumn, and enjoyed myself immensely. It took me 

 up the south-east side of the valley, of which I knew very little, 

 along pleasant lanes and paths through woods and by streams, 

 and up one of the wildest and most picturesque little glens 

 I have ever explored. Here we had to climb over huge rocks 

 as big as houses, ascend cascades, and take cross-levels up 

 steep banks and precipices all densely wooded. It was sur- 

 veying under difficulties, and excessively interesting. After 

 the first rough levels were taken and the survey made, the 

 engineers were able to mark out the line provisionally, and I 

 then went over the actual line to enable the sections to be 

 drawn as required by the Parliamentary Standing Orders. 



In the autumn I had to go to London to help finish the 

 plans and reference books for Parliament. There were about 



