| Description | Brunel describes his state of health:
'Thank you very much for your enquiries...I am not particularly well in body or mind - I don't get away. I am still lame in the left foot and my back is weak. I don't write this letter without leaning back to rest and in consequence I suppose of the state of my stomach I am nervous, anxious, and unhappy, in fact blue devilish - an infinite number of things crowding in on one requiring attention and thought - all in arrears & I am quite incapable of getting through them; everything seems to go wrong - we talk of the 30th for opening and now everyone believes it - but me, I suppose I need a dose of salts.'
Addressed to: 'TR Guppy, Esq, GW Steam ship office, Bristol'
A full transcript of this letter, with some background information, can be found in Adrian Vaughan, 'The Intemperate Engineer' (Ian Allen Publishing, 2010), pp. 115-6. |