Note 21 — Chapter I · EARLY LIFE. A.D. 1806—1828.

Mr. Brunel’s comment in his diary is as follows:—‘Without ascribing any particular merit to myself, I cannot help observing, for my future guidance, that being alone, and giving few but clear orders, and those always to the men who were to execute them, I succeeded in an operation not altogether mean, and which a very trifling want of precaution or order might have caused to be a total failure.’