[123] Tunnels are not the only monuments of great antiquity that have come down to us. In the course of a very interesting article upon the Suez Canal, in the Cornhill Magazine for May 1865, the writer, speaking of the obelisk in front of the Temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis, says, “It is thirty-eight centuries old. It is the father of all obelisks that have arisen since. It was raised a century before the coming of Joseph; it has looked down upon his marriage with Asenath; it has seen the growth of Moses; it is mentioned by Herodotus; Plato sat under its shadow. Of all the obelisks which sprang up around it, it alone has kept its first position. One by one it has seen its sons and brethren depart to great destinies elsewhere. From these gardens came the obelisks of the Vatican and the Porta del Popolo, and their venerable pillar (for so it looks from the distance) is now almost the only landmark of the seat of the wisdom of Egypt.”
[124] The extract in the text is taken from Book II, chapter 1, of the “Books of Diodorus Siculus, made English by G. B. Booth, of the City of Chester, Esqre.,” published in London, Anno 1700.
[125] Of Anne, we learn that she was the daughter of James, King of Cyprus and Jerusalem; that she was married in 1433 to Louis, second Duke of Savoy, and second son of Amadeus VIII., who abdicated in 1434, and, although not an ordained priest, was nominated Pope in January 1440, and was the last of the Anti-Popes; his abdication of the Papacy took place in 1444, and his death in 1451. Anne, considered the most lovely woman of the period in which she lived, gained by the beauty of her person and her intellectual capacity such ascendency over her husband, from the time of his coming to the throne, that she not only disposed of all the honours and appointments of the duchy, but founded several useful industrial establishments. She gave the best proof of her own industry and attention to domestic duties by being the mother of sixteen children, most of whom grew up to man’s and woman’s estate. Anne’s death took place at Geneva in 1463; her husband survived her two years.
[126] The language in the text is confirmed by the following paragraph in the Times of the 13th September, 1867. The Genoa Morimento has the following from Nice:—“The news of the success of the Fell system for passing mountains has been received here with pleasure, and two distinguished Nizzards intend visiting Mont Cenis to see how far that system can be applied to the Col di Tenda. The people of Nice well know that the only thing that can give life to their trade is a rapid communication with Cuneo, because by that town they would be in direct intercourse with Piedmont, Lombardy, and Venetia. When the necessary studies shall have been made of the development of the line in question, and of the outlay it would require, the company which would be formed to carry it out would probably ask the Alta Italia Railway Company to take charge of at least the construction of the section which would end at the short tunnel that must be made on the Col itself. The town of Nice would put itself at the head of the company for promoting the work, and would take a large number of shares.” Negotiations are in progress for carrying this intention into effect.
[127] These are four in number of the respective lengths as follows:—Oakley, 800 yards; Belsize, 1,460; Elstree, 900; Ampthill, 640. Total 3,800 yards, or two miles and a sixth.
[128] In 1865 the London and North-Western Railway Company promoted in Parliament the Buxton Chapel-en-le-Frith and Sheffield Railway, the length of which was to have been twenty-four miles. When the Bill had passed the House of Commons, it was withdrawn under arrangements made with its opponent, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Company. If the line had been constructed, it would have had upon it the two longest tunnels in Great Britain. One would have been three and one-eighth miles, and the other four miles long.
[129] “While upon tunnels, the construction of that upon the West End and Crystal Palace Railway may be referred to, in consequence of the anxiety that was felt on account of its passing very close to the south-west angle of the Crystal Palace, between that point and the Water Tower, the foundations of which were being laid just as the tunnelling was proceeding at that spot. It will be remembered that the present Water Tower replaced one of which the foundation was deemed insufficient. Considering the enormous weight and height of the Water Tower, with its huge tank at the top, capable of containing several hundred tons of water, it became necessary to take every precaution, the matter being of great importance both as regards the safety of the tunnel, with its huge superincumbent weight, and the Water Tower, which, from its great height, and also from being placed at some little distance laterally from the tunnel, might easily have been thrown out of the perpendicular, had any settlement taken place after its erection.
“The precautions taken with the tunnelling were: never to leave the earth resting upon the bars longer than absolutely necessary; to build the crown bars into the work, instead of withdrawing them, as is usually done in less important places; to select the hardest and best bricks, and to have them set in Portland cement, under careful and independent inspection on the part of the Engineers, the Contractors, and the Crystal Palace Company. The average thickness of the brickwork at this part, consisting of nine rings in the arch, five in the invert and side walls, was 3 feet 9 inches. The general shape of the tunnel was a semi-ellipse, 24 feet wide by 16 high.
“No settlement took place, nor was the Water Tower at all affected, although at other portions of the tunnel a small motion of the side walls took place, by their slightly approaching each other, with some crushing of the brickwork.”—Extract from Letter of G. H. Phipps, Esq., to the Author, dated the 16th of October, 1867.
[130] There are about 3,000 miles of canals and navigable rivers in France.