n--the trees, the crops, the
birds, or the farmer's stock; and he was usually full of lively
conversation, everything in nature affording him an opportunity for
making some striking remark, or propounding some ingenious theory. When
taking a flying survey of a new line, his keen observation proved very
useful to him, for he rapidly noted the general configuration of the
country, and inferred its geological structure. He afterwards remarked
to a friend, "I have planned many a railway travelling along in a
postchaise, and following the natural line of the country." And it was
remarkable that his first impressions of the direction to be taken almost
invariably proved correct; and there are few of the lines surveyed and
recommended by him which have not been executed, either during his
lifetime or since. As an illustration of his quick and shrewd
observation on such occasions, we may mention that when employed to lay
out a line to connect Manchester, through Macclesfield, with the
Potteries, the gentleman who accompanied him on the journey of inspection
cautioned him to provide large accommodation for carrying off the water,
observing--"You must not judge by the appearance of the brooks; for after
heavy rains these hills pour down volumes of _water_, of which you can
have no conception." "Pooh! pooh! _don't I see your bridges_?" replied
the engineer. He had noted the details of each as he passed along.

Among the other projects which occupied his attention about the same
time, were the projected lines between Chester and Holyhead, between
Leeds and Bradford, and between Lancaster and Maryport by the western
coast. This latter was intended to form part of a west-coast line to
Scotland; Stephenson favouring it partly because of the flatness of the
gradients, and also because it could be formed at comparatively small
cost, whilst it would open out a valuable iron-mining district, from
which a large traffic in ironstone was expected. One of its collateral
advantages, in the engineer's opinion, was, that by forming the railway
directly across Morecambe Bay, on the north-west coast of Lancashire, a
large tract of valuable land might be reclaimed from the sea, the sale of
which would considerably reduce the cost of the works. He estimated that
by means of a solid embankment across the bay, not less than 40,000 acres
of rich alluvial land would be gained. He proposed to carry the road
across the ten miles of sands which li