First edition, first impression. Signed by Peter Vaux on the title page. 202pp, with black and white illustrations. Black cloth0-covered boards witth gilt lettering to spine. 8vo. Cloth a little pushed at spine ends, else neat, clean, bright and tight throughout. In its original glossy dust jacket, a little bumped on extreme edges.
Alfred Harris Vaux was a civil engineer for the East India Railway Company. In this revealing collection of his letters, written between 1850 and 1873, there is insight into his beginnings in Pudding Lane in London and the trials of family life in India in the latter half of the 19th century. This is not a story of a great statesman, or an army commander, rather it is about the ordinary men and women whose tireless work and loyal devotion created the Indian railways, once described as the brightest jewel in the crown bequeathed by the Raj. But there is also drama, with the Indian mutiny of 1857 and a fascinating insight into Victorian engineering practices. The letters are edited by his grandson, army officer, Peter Vaux.
