| Description | Letter discussing the Great Western Railway and the SS Great Western.
Thank you very much for your letter - I wish it had been yourself instead; I should like a good skeming [sic] chat such as we have had sometimes...The GWR goes on well - I trust - but what with the circumstances of my not having seen much of it and what with my nervousness I am very frightened. I can hardly say of what I am particularly anxious: Hammond and the others have worked most zealously and have all my instructions but still one's eye is the only one after all - and I dread the trial of each part of the line as it comes into operation...I thank you for your kind offer of assistance...Certainly the kindness and consideration of all around me, our directors especially, is almost enough to relieve my mind from anxiety and that is saying much indeed but it's uphill work still to keep my spirits up - You will find this a desperate long scrawl and rather over much about self - but it's a recreation - next to a pleasant chat - after half a dozen dull letters I have had to write with still a fearful heap of arrears by my side...I wish I could follow your advice [about taking on a co-engineer] but the press is too immediate for any remedy now - it would require more thought of method to avail myself of the assistance of a person new to [the situation] than to struggle on as it is.
Written from: paper headed '18, Duke St, Westminster Great Western Railway'
Addressed to: 'TR Guppy Esq, G West Steam ship office, Bristol' [Great Western Steamship office]
A full transcript of this letter, with some background information, can be found in Adrian Vaughan, 'The Intemperate Engineer', (Ian Allen Publishing 2010), p. 116. |