Shortly before his death Richard Trevithick
wrote to his old friend Davies Gilbert:
"I have been branded with folly and madness
for attempting what the world calls impossibilities, and even from
the great engineer, the late Mr. James Watt, who said to an eminent
scientific character still living, that I deserved hanging for
bringing into use the high-pressure engine. This so far has been my
reward from the public; but should this be all, I shall be satisfied
by the great secret pleasure and laudable pride that I feel in my
own breast from having been the instrument of bringing forward and
maturing new principles and new arrangements of boundless value to
my country. However much I may be straitened in pecunary
circumstances, the great honour of being a useful subject can never
be taken from me, which to me far exceeds riches".
He died a pauper at Dartford in Kent on 22nd
April 1833
