What a blank in my journal [_the last entry is dated January 1834_], and during the most eventful part of my life. When last I wrote in this book I was just emerging from obscurity. I had been toiling most unprofitably at numerous things, unprofitably, at least, at the moment. The railway was certainly being thought of, but still very uncertain. What a change. The railway now is in progress. I am thus engineer to the finest work in England. A handsome salary, on excellent terms with my directors, and all going smoothly. But what a fight we have had, and how near defeat, and what a ruinous defeat it would have been. It is like looking back upon a fearful pass; but we have succeeded. And it is not this alone, but everything I have been engaged in has been successful. Clifton bridge--my first child, my darling, is actually going on: recommenced work last Monday--glorious!! [_Here follows a list of the undertakings on which he was then engaged._] I think this forms a pretty list of real sound professional work, unsought for on my part, that is, given to me fairly by the respective parties--all, except the Wear Docks, resulting from the Clifton bridge, which I fought hard for, and gained only by persevering struggles.... And this at the age of twenty-nine. I really can hardly believe it, when I think of it. I am just leaving 53 Parliament Street, where I may say I have made my fortune, or, rather, the foundation of it, and I have taken 18 Duke Street. CHAPTER IV. _RAILWAY WORKS._ A.D. 1835--1859. ÆTATIS 30--54. CONSTRUCTION OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY--THE BOX TUNNEL--THE BATH AND BRISTOL STATIONS--THE PADDINGTON STATION--THE GREAT WESTERN HOTEL--BRANCHES AND EXTENSIONS OF THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY--THE BRISTOL AND EXETER RAILWAY--RAILWAYS IN DEVONSHIRE AND CORNWALL--RAILWAYS TO BASINGSTOKE, TO WEYMOUTH, AND TO SALISBURY--IN SOUTH WALES--IN IRELAND--IN ITALY--IN INDIA--SUPERVISION OF WORKS--MR. BRUNEL’S ENGINEERING STAFF--HIS REPUTATION AS A WITNESS--REMINISCENCES OF MR. BRUNEL, 1835-1838. In the extract from Mr. Brunel’s diary given at the close of the last chapter he refers to the successful issue of the contest for the Great Western Railway Act as a very important event in his life. As the result proved, he did not take too hopeful a view of his future prospects; for from that time to his death he was fully employed as the engineer of railways which, in number and importance, were not inferior to those of any of his contemporaries. Of the main lines he constructed, one extends uninterruptedly from London to the Land’s End, and another to the extremity of South Wales, at Milford Haven, 285 miles from Paddington. * * * * *