242 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



necessary : then he gave way, and said, " Oh, if you are going to 

 law about such a trifle, I suppose I must pay it again ! " and, 

 counting out the money, added, " There it is ; but I paid it 

 before, so give me a receipt this time," apparently considering 

 himself a very injured man. This 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 Leicester 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 some one 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 ex- 

 plored. 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 surveying under 

 difficulties, and excessively interesting. After the first rough 



