ABSTRACT
Interest in the idea of linking Britain to the continent of Europe and specifically to France is usually identified as beginning in the early nineteenth century. In the middle of the French Wars, a French mining engineer, Jacques-Joseph Mathieu-Favier, apparently made the somewhat implausible suggestion that the time was ripe to link countries who were then enemies. His proposal envisaged a two-gallery tunnel from Cap Gris Nez to Folkestone, to be constructed from each side to an artificial island on Varne bank in mid-channel. Services were to be provided by horse-drawn coaches. It seems that during the brief peace of Amiens in 1802–3 Napoleon expressed an interest in the proposal, and in informal discussions with Charles James Fox, a former foreign secretary, it was suggested that the scheme was ambitious enough to require the two countries to undertake it jointly. However, the resumption of war for a further decade and a half put paid to such exploratory discussions. 1
