horsework

Updated: May 7, 2025

But it was no better than horsework; and after "legging" Harecastle Tunnel, which is more than a mile and a half long, the men were usually completely exhausted, and as wet from perspiration as if they had been dragged through the canal itself.

Samuel Smiles - The Life of Thomas Telford; civil engineer with an introductory history of roads and travelling in Great Britain