The Grand Junction Railway Companion to Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham/Preface
Preface.
I have been compelled rather precipitately to send this Volume forth to the Public;—the necessity has arisen from the appearance of another work with a similar title.
This Work has been repeatedly taken for mine;[1] and containing as it does numerous errors,[2] it was calculated to do me much injury in the estimation of the Public. In self-defence, therefore, I was compelled to bring out mine earlier than I originally intended.
From the report of my Publisher, I find I have now to return thanks to the Booksellers of Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, in particular, for the liberal manner in which they have patronised my Volume; they having ordered, before the publication, five-sixths of the edition, which consists of 3,000 copies. As I cannot assume to myself any peculiar merit in the compilation. I am obliged to regard this fact as an expression of their feeling as to the propriety of a publisher bringing out a work under the title of another, which has been previously extensively advertised; and I doubt not but this feeling will be participated in by the Public.
In executing the work, I have received the greatest kindness from the Directors of the Grand Junction Railway Company, and every facility for gaining information has been afforded me, for which I return my sincere thanks. It would, however, be ungrateful in me not particularly to mention John Moss, Esq, and N. D. Bold, Esq., who have at some personal trouble enabled me to acquire facts which otherwise could not have been obtained. To Joseph Locke, Esq., the able Engineer under whose direction the Grand Junction Railway has been completed, I am also indebted for any peculiarity which distinguishes the Map from those usually compiled, and also for much information contained in the work. The gratifying duty of returning thanks and acknowledging obligations being accomplished. I take my leave of the Public for the present, hoping my little volume will not disappoint its expectation.
- ↑ In one instance, a most respectable Firm in Liverpool ordered twelve copies under this impression.
- ↑ The following is a specimen. On page 51 in Mr. Cornish's book, the public are informed, that Warrington Bridge "has twenty arches, which are sixty-five feet span, and the same number of feet high." When the fact is, it has but twelve arches, nine of which are but sixteen feet span, and twenty-eight feet high.