Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Railways, Engineers, Commerce, Expertise

    Discusses decline of the railway surveyors, the individuals who 'sprung up like mushrooms' when the soil was made fertile by 'railway speculation', but have subsequently fallen into such financial hardship that they 'are scarcely able to construct a bridge to carry them safely over their last week's washing-bill'. Observes that their 'ingenuity is now required' to overcome the problems of fulfilling their hopes of 'becoming, in time, Brunels or Stephensons'.