My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

LIFE AT LEICESTER AND NEATH 133Itcompeted, however, with several other lines, and Iheard that many of these agreed to make up a sumto buy off its opposition. Not one-tenth of the linesproposed that year were ever made, and the moneywasted upon surveyors, engineers, and law expensesmust have amounted to millions.Finding it rather dull at Neath living by myself, Ipersuaded my brother to give up his work in Londonas a journeyman carpenter and join me, thinking thatwith his practical experience and my general knowledge,we might be able to do architectural, building,and engineering work, as well as surveying, and intime get up a profitable business. We returnedtogether early in January, and continued to boardand lodge with Mr. Sims in the main street, whereI had been very comfortable, till the autumn, when,hearing that my sister would probably be home fromAmerica the following summer, and my motherwishing to live with us, we took a small cottage closeto Llantwit Church, and less than a mile from themiddle of the town. It had a nice little garden andyard, with fowl-house, shed, etc., going down to theNeath Canal, immediately beyond which was theriver Neath, with a pretty view across the valley toCadoxton and the fine Drumau mountain.Having the canal close at hand and the riverbeyond, and then another canal to Swansea, made uslong for a small boat, and not having much to do, mybrother determined to build one, so light that it couldbe easily drawn or carried from the canal to the river,and so give access to Swansea. It was made as smalland light as possible to carry two or, at most, threepersons. When finished, we tried it with muchanxiety, and found it rather unstable, but with alittle ballast at the bottom and care in moving, it did