e was
superintending the pumping engines erected there by Messrs. Boulton and Watt;
for it was he who erected for them in that district the first Cornish pumping
engine, with separate condenser. He had at that time in regular use a
portable gas lantern, formed by filling a bladder with gas, and fixing to it
a jet, which was attached to the bottom of a glass lantern, which he used for
the purpose of lighting himself home at night across the moors from the
mining engines.

His locomotive engine, made upon the non-condensing principle (since adopted
in all engines for that purpose), was constructed, in consequence of a
lameness which confined him to the sofa, and set to work at Redruth in 1784.
It is still in existence in perfect working order, and was exhibited before a
meeting of the Mechanical Engineers at Birmingham, in the year 1850, when a
memoir of Mr. Murdoch was read, which has been kindly forwarded to us by the
President, John M'Connell, Esq., C.E.

It is among the traditions of Redruth, that one night William Murdoch,
wishing to try an experiment with his new invention, lighted the lamp under
the boiler, and set it a-going on a narrow, smooth, hard-rolled gravel walk
leading to the church, a mile distant. The little engine went off at a great
pace, whistling and hissing as it went, and the inventor followed as fast as
he could in chase. Soon he heard cries of alarm, horror, despair, and came
up to the worthy clergyman of the parish cowering up against the hedge,
almost in a fainting fit, under a strong impression that it was the Evil One
in person who just hissed past him in a fire-flaught.

Those of this generation who remember their first encounter with a locomotive
in a dark night, can realize the terror of a country clergyman on
encountering so strange an apparition in a night walk.

It speaks as highly for Messrs. Boulton and Watt, in whose service he passed
all the active years of his life, as for Mr. Murdoch, that on leaving
Cornwall, he refused 1000 pounds a-year, which was offered him by the mining
adventurers to remain in the county, in charge of the steam-pumping engines.
Liberal as the offer seems, it would have paid them well, for on his
departure the engines lost twenty-five per cent. of their working power.

Handsworth Church, near Soho, contains a marble statue of James Watt, by
Chantrey, a copy of that erected in Westminster Abbey.

The railway passes Aston Hall, where James Watt and his