Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., Past President of the Institute of Civil Engineers
Sir John Rennie
an walking, or rather shuffling, along in an extraordinary manner, in what appeared to me to be a sack. I immediately stopped to look at him, and gazed on him with astonishment. Several persons, apparently friends, accompanied him, and I inquired what it meant; I was informed that the person whom I saw enveloped in a sack had, during a severe illness, prayed to the Saint of the church of Mattozenhas to deliver him from his illness, promising that if he recovered he would annually on the Saint’s fête-day walk to the church in his grave-clothes, to return his thanks for his delivery from death. The poor fellow seemed to be much fatigued, and no wonder, as travelling for two miles in such hot weather over a dusty road in such an uncomfortable costume must have been very severe work. Next day we were off before daylight, and reached our old quarters at Aveiro the same night. I soon saw that it would be difficult to get a good line for the railway over this district; it was too hilly and expensive, and would have required long tunnels through granite rocks and heavy embankments. I therefore gave up this line, that is as far as Ovar. After leaving Aveiro we took a new route nearer to the hills, and with the exception of a part of the river Vouga, it was preferable to the coast line formerly mentioned. The summit near the Busaco hills was a little higher, but there the line
