s, but was obliged to follow the last of the party through
all the machinery, down little wooden stairs and along tottering
planks, to the bottom of the well. On turning round at the foot of
the last flight of steps through an immense dark arch, as far as
sight could reach stretched a vaulted passage, smooth earth
underfoot, the white arches of the roof beyond one another
lengthening on and on in prolonged vista, the whole lighted by a
line of gas lamps, and as bright, almost, as if it were broad day.
It was more like one of the long avenues of light that lead to the
abodes of the genii in fairy tales, than anything I had ever
beheld. The profound stillness of the place, which was first broken
by my father's voice, to which the vaulted roof gave extraordinary
and startling volume of tone, the indescribable feeling of
subterranean vastness, the amazement and delight I experienced,
quite overcame me, and I was obliged to turn from the friend who
was explaining everything to me, to cry and ponder in silence. How
I wish you had been with us, dear H----! Our name is always worth
something to us: Mr. Brunel, who was superintending some of the
works, came to my father and offered to conduct us to where the
workmen were employed--an unusual favor, which of course delighted
us all. So we left our broad, smooth path of light, and got into
dark passages, where we stumbled among coils of ropes and heaps of
pipes and piles of planks, and where ground springs were welling up
and flowing about in every direction, all which was very strange.
As you may have heard, the tunnel caved in once, and let the Thames
in through the roof; and in order that, should such an accident
occur again, no lives may be lost, an iron frame has been
constructed--a sort of cage, divided into many compartments, in
each of which a man with his lantern and his tools is placed--and
as they clear the earth away this iron frame is moved onward and
advances into new ground. All this was wonderful and curious beyond
measure, but the appearance of the workmen themselves, all
begrimed, with their brawny arms and legs bare, some standing in
black water up to their knees, others laboriously shovelling the
black earth in their cages (while they sturdily sung at their
task), with the red, murky light o