developing more than twice the horse-power. A contemporary writer thus describes the _Great Western_: “The officers, crew, and engineers are about sixty in number. The saloon is 75 feet long, 21 feet broad, exclusive of recesses on each side, where the breadth is 34 feet and the height 9 feet. The decorations are in the highest degree tasteful and elegant, and the apartment may vie with those of the club-houses of London in luxury and magnificence. The splendour of a saloon is, however, a matter of very inferior consequence, and it is higher praise to state that the more essential parts of the vessel and all her machinery are examples of mechanical skill and ingenuity which cannot be surpassed.” [Illustration: THE “GREAT WESTERN.” FROM A PRINT OF 1837.] The saloon was decorated with about fifty panels, the larger ones, according to a contemporary description, representing “rural scenery, agriculture, music, the arts and sciences, interior views and landscapes, and parties grouped, or engaged in elegant sports and amusements; the smaller panels contained beautifully pencilled paintings of Cupid, Psyche, and other aerial figures.”[61] Every berth and cabin had a bell communicating with the stewards’ room, the method of communication being described as follows for the instruction of travellers: “When the attendance of the steward is required, the passenger pulls the bell-rope in his berth, which rings the bell in the small box (in the stewards’ room) and at the same time by means of a small lever forces up through a slit in the lid a small tin label with the number of the room painted requiring the services of the steward, and there remains, until the steward has ascertained the number of the room and pushed it down again. Thus, instead of an interminable number of bells there are only two. This arrangement, which is alike ingenious as it is useful, is deserving the notice of architects.”[62] [61] _The Mirror._ [62] _Civil Engineer and Architect’s Journal._