Transcribed from the 1833 George Wightman edition by DavidPrice,
A
LETTER
TO
THE KENSINGTON CANAL COMPANY,
ON THE
SUBSTITUTION OF THE PNEUMATIC RAILWAY
FOR THE COMMON RAILWAY
BY WHICHTHEY CONTEMPLATE EXTENDING THEIR LINE OF CONVEYANCE.
BY JOHN VALANCE.
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THECOMPANY.
LONDON:
GEORGE WIGHTMAN, 24, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1833.
p.2“Under circumstances of this sort, there can be nodoubt that those microcosmic minds, which, habitually occupied inthe consideration of what is little, are incapable of discerningwhat is great, and who already stigmatise the proposition as aromantic scheme, will, not unsparingly, distribute theepithets—absurd, ridiculous, chimerical. Thecommissioners must, nevertheless, have the hardihood to brave thesneers and sarcasms of men who, with too much pride to study, andtoo much wit to think, undervalue what they do not understand,and condemn what they cannot comprehend.”
Report on the Practicability ofthe Erie and Hudson Canal.
J. S.Hodson, Printer, Cross Street, Hatton Garden.
p. 3ALETTER, &c.
My Lord and Gentlemen,
THE contemplated addition of a railway to your line ofconveyance, induces me to solicit the honour of your attention toa method of effecting your object, which may, perhaps, prove thecheapest and best you can adopt.
From the statements of the gentlemen who gave explanations onthe subject at the meeting, your object appears to be, to effectsome method of communication between your basin at Kensington,and some point of the Grand Junction Canal, and the proposedLondon and Birmingham Railway, which may enable you, either totake advantage of the Grand Junction Canal as a channel to conveyand receive goods to and from, or of the proposed railway toBirmingham; so that you may be able to convey passengers to andfrom that railway, and to and from the western parts of town,should it be put into operation.
Your present line being a water line, I should, were it notfor the intervention of the high ground which is between yourbasin and the Grand Junction Canal, recommend the extension ofthis water line; because an additional expenditure of900l. or 1000l., to provide a couple of the gigs bywhich passengers are now conveyed at the rate of ten or twelvemiles an hour along the Paisley and Ardrossan Canal, would thenenable you to carry any number of passengers to and from theBirmingham Railway considerably faster, and many times cheaper,than omnibuses, &c. &c. would convey them to and from thetown end of that railway.
But as the numerous locks, which the height of that groundrenders necessary, would occasion the lo