Page:Walker (1888) The Severn Tunnel.djvu/36

Rh plan for the tunnel under the river, which has since been carried out.

The Midland Company had in the meantime given some support to the bridge at Sharpness Point. The two works had been commenced almost simultaneously; but when the bridge was ready for opening, in October, 1879, the only work done at the tunnel was the sinking of five shafts, and the driving of about two miles of small heading.

Among the guests invited to the luncheon by which the opening of the bridge was celebrated, were Sir Daniel Gooch, the Chairman of the Great Western Railway Company, and Mr. Charles Richardson, the engineer under whose superintendence the works of the tunnel were being carried out. Sir Daniel, whose health was proposed at the luncheon, in replying, gave the company present an invitation to attend at the Severn Tunnel in about six weeks, and walk through the headings, which would then be completed. He said: ‘It will be rather wet, and you had better bring your umbrellas.’ Alas, he little knew how wet it was; for Mr. Richardson, sitting near him and hearing these words, had received an intimation, on his way to attend the ceremony, that a great spring had been tapped on the western side of the river, that the pumps had been overpowered by the inrush of the water, and that the whole of the work was drowned.

To Sharpness a considerable number of ships are