A great deal of opposition was encountered in making the surveys for the
London and Birmingham Railway, and although, in every case, as little
damage was done as possible, simply because it was the interest of those
concerned to conciliate all parties along the line, yet, in several
instances, the opposition was of a most violent nature; in one case no
skill or ingenuity could evade the watchfulness and determination of the
lords of the soil, and the survey was at last accomplished at night by
means of dark lanterns.
On another occasion, when Mr. Gooch was taking levels through some of the
large tracts of grazing land, a few miles from London, two brothers,
occupying the land came to him in a great rage, and insisted on his
leaving their property immediately. He contrived to learn from them that
the adjoining field was not theirs and he therefore remonstrated but very
slightly with them, and then walked quietly through the gap in the hedge
into the next field, and planted his level on the highest ground he could
find—his assistant remaining at the last level station, distant about a
hundred and sixty yards, apparently quite unconscious of what had taken
place, although one of the brothers was moving very quickly towards him,
for the purpose of sending him off. Now, if the assistant had moved his
staff before Mr. Gooch had got his sight at it through the telescope of
his level, all his previous work would have been completely lost, and the
survey must have been completed in whatever manner it could have been
done—the great object, however, was to prevent this serious
inconvenience. The moment Mr. Gooch commenced looking through his
telescope at the staff held by his assistant, the grazier nearest him,
spreading out the tails of his coat, tried to place himself between the
staff and the telescope, in order to intercept all vision, and at the
same time commenced shouting violently to his comrade, desiring him to
make haste and knock down the staff. Fortunately for Mr. Gooch, although
nature had made this amiable being’s ears longer than usual, yet they
performed their office very badly, and as he could not see distinctly
what Mr. Gooch was about—the hedge being between them—he very simply
asked the man at the staff what his (the enquirer’s) brother said. “Oh,”
replied the man, “he is calling to you to stop that horse there which is
galloping out of the fold yard.” Away went Clodpole, as fast as he could
run, to restrain the unruly energies of Smolensko the Ninth, or whatever
other name the unlucky quadruped might be called, and Mr. Gooch in the
meanwhile quietly took the sight required—he having, with great judgment,
planted his level on ground sufficiently high to enable him to see over
the head of any grazier in the land; but his clever assistant, as soon as
he perceived that all was right, had to take to his heels and make the
shortest cut to the high road.
In another instance, a reverend gentleman of the Church of England made
such alarming demonstrations of his opposition that the extraordinary
expedient was resorted to of surveying his property during the time he
was engaged in the pulpit, preaching to his flock. This was accomplished
by having a strong force of surveyors all in readiness to commence their
operations, by entering the clergyman’s grounds on the one side at the
same moment that they saw him fairly off them on the other, and, by a
well organised and systematic arrangement, each man coming to a
conclusion with his allotted task just as the reverend gentleman came to
a conclusion with his sermon; and before he left the church to return to
his home, the deed was done.
—Roscoe’s _London and Birmingham Railway_.