r the lines already opened or under construction only traversed the
valley of the Severn. It was now proposed to penetrate the uplands which
lie between the banks of Sabrina and the shores of Cardigan Bay. It was
a somewhat formidable undertaking. "The mountains of Carno," wrote the
philosophic Pennant, "like the mountains of Gilboa, were celebrated for
the fall of the mighty." On their steep slopes, in 1077 Gruffydd ab
Cynan and Trahaiarn ab Caradoc had wrestled for the sovereignty of North
Wales. Across their shoulders, some four centuries later, had marched
the English troops of Henry IV. to their camp near Machynlleth, in a vain
effort to subjugate the redoubtable Welsh chieftain, Owain Glyndwr. Now
the mighty heads of the mountains were, at last, to shake and submit to
the incursion of another invader, more insistent and more powerful than
any that had gone before, and a Montgomeryshire engineer and contractor
were to conquer where an English King had failed. In one respect only
was their experience akin. Henry's army had become dissolved by the
continuance of bad weather which gave them all cold feet. The rain, that
falls alike upon the just and unjust, was to hamper Mr. David Davies's
army of navvies, but never to deter them from reaching and abiding at
Machynlleth.

In the initial stages of the new invasion all went well. So rapidly were
the Parliamentary preliminaries negotiated that, on July 27th, 1857,
while the promoters of the neighbouring Oswestry and Newtown Railway were
still wrangling over their internecine rivalries, Royal Assent was given
to the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway Bill, authorising the Company to
raise a capital of 150,000 pounds in 10 pound shares and loans to the
extent of 50,000 pounds. The total length of the proposed line was 22.5
miles and the works were to be completed within five years.

A month later the first ordinary meeting of the Company was held at
Machynlleth. Sir Watkin presided over a most harmonious gathering, in
striking contrast to some of the meetings which had assembled further
east, and the directors in their report, read by Mr. D. Howell, who was
to act as secretary until the amalgamation of the company in the Cambrian
Railways in 1864, had little to say beyond offering congratulations to
the shareholders on the speedy passing of their measure through
Parliament. The report seems to have been adopted without comment, and
the only other business was to