E N O T . T HE m ater ials for the followin g b rief sketch of the f career o Sir Morton Peto have been very scanty . He left no papers for reference . His letters before his stay at Pesth were written hastily on hi s t n . journeys , and sometimes between Board mee i gs He dictated some notes as to his early days , of n which use has been made so far as possible . I his business and Parliamentary career newspaper ’ s reports of meetings and works , and Hansard ’ i Debates , have been the chief sources of nforma T I e tion . o Mr . Forrest am greatly ind bted for access to the Lib rary at the Institution of Civil n . n E gineers , and to Messrs Curry and La kester for information kindly given as to railway and t - o her works . The two portraits facing title page an d at page 1 1 2 represent Sir Morton respectively i n n d n middle age a in his closi g years . H . P . C N T E N T O S . I. E A R LY DAYS I I. IN BUSIN E SS I I I IN P A . R LI AM E N T IV . P E R SO N A L V . A P P E N DIX E R R AT UM . P a e 1 line 5 fr om foot r ead E ast er n C ounties R ailwa Lon don g 7 , , y ( o Y r m outh 1 2 1 m iles w ith ranc hes it was di ided in t o t a , 2 , b ) v ‘ se t ions c . r i A en ix List of c , et ( de pp d , G i zN GR ISSE LL AN D P E T O FAM ILIES . o i l Garde b t er f M art n de a ii a o n 9 A u . 1 4 v , b r g , 7 7 ied 1 ril 1 81 5 d 5 Ap , E liza eth K i n b , g , a 1 8 orn 1 9 J a n . 1 83 orn 3 di ed 5 J M VI y, 7 0 b . 7 b L , e b 1 2 died 1 5 A ril 1 81 5 M a 1 88 1 86 . F . , 8 3. p , . y. 7 . 7 1 l = i z h ohn H n r h H T . E a et e n a M a r t i n . f; , . l b , J y, t or n M arsha o r n Birke t . b ll , b 30 A ri M D 4 ul p l , . J y, 1 81 3 1 81 7 died died N ov 2 n d, 1 886 . a t daughter of R obert m 5 u 1 74 1 m J ly. ; i 2 J an . , 1 766 ; d ed 1 e 0 a g d 9 . Ann orn Charles E iz . b , l a be t h , 1 3 une 1 or n o r n J , 77 7 b b m a rr ied T hom as 2 4 N ov. , 30 D ec . , de la Gr d 1 8 a e 7 7 1 78 2 Ga . J an , 1 8 1 . i et h 0 E l zab W . H u rst Allova As i e l y hp t . i ed 2 4 F eb . d , 1 82 5 . W i iam So hia am es A n n ll , p , J , , born 2 5 born 1 1 born bor n 1 9 Sept “ e l Dec ied S t . 81 1 une 1 81 8 5 . 1 82 0 m ar r p , ; J . ; , ; di ed i 2 5 d e d 1 8 1 81 5 E dw . Ladd un e 1 87 9 N o v. 1 863 m ar ri ed Bet t e 1 843. J , , ( , (m a rri ed (m ar ried M ary E m m a W i i w ren e ll am La c ) . H o s . Fr enc h bb ) ) . EARLY DAYS . SAM UEL MORT ON PET O (better remembered as Sir t 4 1 80 Mor on Peto) was born on August , 9 , at n Whitmore House , Sutto , in the parish of Woking . r on The house was then a fa mhouse , a farm which his father , William Peto , rented from the then f o . owner Sutton Place , Mr Weston Charles Peto , a brother of William , was a tenant of another farm on the estate , known as Lady Place . Whitmore u House has by the removal of the farm b ildings , which were between the road and dwelling , been much changed in surroundin gs ; but the house it n an d remains much the same as was origi ally , 1 8 9 on a visit in September , 7 , Sir Morton pointed s h out the room in which he wa born . In the paris of Cobham resided his grandparents , James Peto f wh o and wi e , and an uncle of the same name , lived to be the patriarch of the family and a very SIR M R T ON P E T O O. keen sportsman , as a portrait of him on his pony with a pack of harriers , in the family, shows . At the age of six the subject of our memoir went ’ hi s 1 81 6 to Cobham till grandfather s death , in , and attended a school kept by a Mr . Fletcher in a house - which stood by the lichgate , at the north east corner of the churchyard . After that period his parents removed to Low Grounds , near Great Marlow . Up to twelve years of age he daily went to a school at Marlow kept by a Mr . Field . When travellin g 1 865 was in the United States , in , Sir Morton - h asked by a gray headed man at St . Louis if e d ’ remembere James , who had been a servant at Low Grounds , and Sir Morton reminded him of the duty James had fulfilled of seeing him safe - - s at the school house . Long after the school day were over , and having to be near Marlow on n is busi ess , and hearing that h old schoolmaster was ill , he went to pay him a visit . Mr . Field ‘ was very pleased , and told him he was the only boy h e ever had who wrote entire copies with e out the pen being made , and with the last lin ’ as good as the fir st . At twelve years Samuel - went to a boardin g school kept by a Mr . Alex h th e of . T e ander Jardine , at top Brixton Hill schoolmaster was an Independent . The school E A R L Y D A YS . had a very good reputation , and numbered about - thir ty boarders and some day scholars . The terms were about thirty pounds per annum (without e . t extras , g , drawing , music , and fencing) , and he education was at that tim e deemed suffi cient for a l ds destined to a business career . The boy who ' could not en d his schooling at fourt een was deemed a stupid lout so the n ew pupil was told ; b ut ’ while at M r . Jardine s he showed there was n o fear of the term being applied to him . He made rapid as two progress in drawing , is shown by water — colour drawings which remain of a girl feeding s n - pig and a boy mending a et . The drawing master . n d was a Mr Lee . Mrs . Jardine a Mrs . Lee were ’ sisters . Mrs . Lee kept a young ladies boarding n h school a little way dow the ill , and the boys went there for their drawing lessons , which were given in a room divided by a movable partition ’ - i from the girls music room , and wh le the drawing went on the young ladies hammered away at the ’ Battle of Prague and the Siege of Paris . Samuel was taught Latin , French , simple mathe a e . m ti s , and algebra In modern languages the education he received was mediocre ; he felt this 1 . 86 afterwards Writing from Pesth , in 9 , he said I am very much impressed while here with SIR M R T N P E T 4 O O O . the absolute necessity of our boys being thor oughly in up French and German . I fin d the boys here and in Vienna far better linguists and better mathematicians , and better acquainted with fi scienti c matters generally , than our English boys , and the area is really so much enlarged in the race of competition that what was a good education ’ formerly for a man to make his way with in the ' ’ - i afia r . world , is now only a very second rate But he showed hisclassical taste and his very happy gift 1 of writing in gaining a 0 s . prize for the best verse translation of a Latin hymn , The Cross the Way to ’ ’ ‘ Yoa th s M a azi n e the Crown , in the g , to which Jane r . Taylor contributed . F om his aptitude in writin g he was in gre at request to write letters for the f o . school servants , none whom could write His u uncle , Henry Peto , the b ilder, took a great interest in the school, and every month gave a series of 1 08 .