To construct such a hotel, at such a cost, was
a plucky venture for a railway possessing only 80 miles of line, but the
County Down was always a plucky company, and the Right Honourable Thomas
Andrews, its Chairman, to whom its inception and completion is chiefly
due, was a bold, adventurous and successful man.
Another experience somewhat removed from ordinary railway affairs that
helped to enliven the latter part of my time on the County Down, and
added variety to the work imposed by the Railway and Canal Traffic Act
and the revision of Rates and Charges, was a project in which I became
engaged connected with the Isle of Man.
Joseph Mylchreest was a Manxman, a rough diamond but a man of sterling
worth. He left home when young and worked first as a ship's carpenter.
An adventurous spirit led him to seek his fortune in various parts of the
world--in the goldfields of California and Australia and in the silver
mines of Peru and Chili. Later on he went to South Africa, where in the
diamond mines he met with great success and made a large fortune. His
property there he disposed of to Cecil Rhodes, and it now, I am told,
forms part of the De Beers Consolidated Company's assets.
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