The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-02-07 00:00:00

s note book

'ercival, w

escriptions of a far-off county. _
loped that this writer will not fail to favour the readers of

descriptions

ais journal with a few more such glowing

Flemming Webb concludes his highly interesting paper on
he Origin and Progress of Writing : it contains a great deal
hat ought to be remembered, and many facts that well-read
not be acquainted with. A translation of
klexander Dumas' tale of the " Benedictines of St. Nicholas

ersons even ma

le Vieux" will, doubtless, cause a hearty laugh. The subject
of it relates to a pedantic German Baron, a bon vivant, who
is entertained by a horde of banditti instead of a brotherhood
of monks. A tale entitled "The Hospital Boy," which refers
to poor Chatterton—

"The gifted boy that perished in his pride,

will be read with curiosity. This tale has an illustration of
Red Cliff Church, Bristol, " The Astrologer's Bride" is
also an !original story, illustrative of London in the Olden
time, by Miss Reddell. It is well told and will delight the
lovers of romance. Mr. Sargent contributes some extracts
from his " Old Schoolmaster's Book of Records." Mrs.
Caulton describes a Ramble. A. queer story called " The
Ghost Haunted," some sweet stanzas by John Bolton Roger-
son, and a song by Robert Burns, the eldest son of the poet,
(equal to some of his father's,) and an able article on the
Sheffield and Manchester Railway, with a view of the Ethe-

row Viaduct, complete the number. As we have taken con-
siderable interest in this railway we shall give the following
extract, a description of the viaduct, which is indeed a stu-
pendous undertaking :
.

" The view before the reader delineates one of the most
beautiful and stupendous works connected with railways to
which engineering science has yet given birth. The line of
the Sheffield, Ashton, and Manchester Railway, is curried
over the river Etherow by a splendid viaduct of three arches,
forrqed of stone and timber. The arches are composed of
three timber ribs each, formed of three-inch planks, put to-

gether on the laminating principle, with tar and brown paper
between each layer. The centre arch is 150 feet span, and
forty feet versed sine. The western arch is 135 feet span,
and the eastern 120 feet ; the radius of each being the same
as the centre arch, so that the thrust upon the stone piers is
rendered as equal as possible. The whole of the ribs are five
feet in depth ; those in the centre of each arch are two feet
four inches wide, and those at the outsides one foot len inches.
The spandzils are composed of timber framing, upon which
are placed the main longitudinal beams, which carry the cross-
joisting and the half balks upon which the rails and chairs are
fastened. The cross joists are five feet apart from centre to
centre. The three ribs in each arch are firmly braced to-
gether by diagonal and cross stays and wrought iron rods.
The extreme length of the viaduct is '506 feet. Its length,
however, is inconsiderable, compared with other similar mi.
dertakiugs, and is not so remarkable a feature as the extra-
ordinary height at which the trains and heavy engines used
on this line are safely and rapidly carried across the valley
below. The extreme height from the foundations to the top
of the viaduct is 136 feet—more than ten feet higher than the
viaduct under the Manchester knd Birmingham Railway, at
Stockport, and about fourteen lea higher than the celebrated
chain bridge over the Menai Straits. The quantity of stone
used is about one hundred and eighty-six thousand cubic feet,
and of timber about 41,000 cubic feet. The foundations of
the piers and abutments are laid upon the solid rock. The
piers at the base above the footings are forty-three and a half
feet by twenty-two and a half feet, and at the springing they
are thirty-five feet by fifteen feet. The stone, which was
brought from near Tintwistle (sir miles distant), is of excel-
lent quality, and much superior to quarries in the immediate
neighbourhood, and the whole of the work is solid Ashlar.
The timber is from the Baltic, all dressed with the plane, and
has been immersed in a solution of sulphate of copper to
render it impervious to the dry rot, or the attack4af insects.
The entire structure was designed by Joseph Locke, Esq.,
C.E., and executed under the management of Alfred S. Jee,
Esq., the resident engineer of the company. The first
foundation stone of this gigantic undertaking was laid on
the sth of March, 1842, by John Chapman, Esq., one of the
directors of tile company, and the whole, notwithstanding
the turns-out of workmen and the changes of the weather,
was completed and opened on the 24th of December, 1842.
The cost of the erection, we understand, was about £25,000.
In this system of timber bridge building, the straight trussing
in the main principle of support is dispensed with, for the
spandril framing cannot be considered ss such. It is merely
a combination of wood-work to convey the weight passing
over the roadway on the simple curved rib ; and all timbers
in a state of tension are avoided, for when a weight enters

be roadway the whole struetu

The next on the heap is the work by " The Accountant fur
Irish Inheritances," entitled

Xs.d. ; or, Accounts of Irish Heirs. By Samuel Lover;
illustrated by " that same." Grapel, Liverpool.
Mr. Lover has, we perceive, appointed Mr. Grapel his

agent for this work.
Having got the start of his adversary, Mr. Lever, in his
" Tom Burke," Mr. Lover not only "made the running,"
but "keeps his place ;" and we suspect it will end with a

d neck race" between these two " dreadful story-

vbody will give either of them a character is

urprising), who contrive to absorb the public attention
welve times a year. Mr. Lover takes us in the present tale