Progress of the work—1886. London Railway when it was opened in 1876. The line was nearly ready for the Government inspection, and I was walking over it with Price, when he tripped over a board that lay upon the permanent way, and falling with his knee across the edge of a sleeper, split his knee-cap, which left him slightly lame ever since.
Whether from this or what other reason I do not know, he took to reading more than men of his stamp generally do, and being experienced in tunnelling and intelligent, he pushed his way forward more rapidly than others, and was able to take higher positions.
He carried out his part of the work in the most efficient manner, and with great rapidity, so that in November, 1884, I was able to remove him to another contract before the whole of the works of the Severn Tunnel were completed.
Second in position on the works on the Monmouthshire side was Joe Talbot’s brother. Mat Talbot, William Cox occupying a similar position on the Gloucestershire side.
Under these men, who were called ‘walking gangers,’ there were employed, when the works were in full swing, as many as fifty gangers on the Monmouthshire side, and seventeen on the Gloucestershire side; each ganger having under him, on the average, five miners and twenty-one labourers; and in addition to these, there were the men called ‘runners out,’ who pushed the full skips from the head-