Part 5 (2/2)

Another consideration which would deter travellers,use of the railways, would be want of acco the line, unless the directors of the railway choose to build inns as commodious as those on the present line of road

But those inns the directors would have in part to support also, because they would be out of the way of any business except that arising fro and so accidental that the landlords could not afford to keep either a cellar or a larder

”Commercial travellers, who stop and do business in all the towns and by so doing render coive that constant support to the houses of entertainment which makes them able to supply the occasional traveller well and at a cheap rate, would, as a o by the railroad; and the occasional traveller, ent the sao by the coach road also, because of the cheerful coentry, or those who travel in their own carriages, would by any chance go by the railway A nobleman would really not like to be drawn at the tail of a train of wagons, in which so with a noise that would drown all the bells of the district, and in thehis vehicle broke to pieces, and himself killed or crippled by the collision of those thirty-ton masses”

SIR ASTLEY COOPER'S OPPOSITION TO THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY

Robert Stephenson, while engaged in the survey of the above line, encountered much opposition from landed proprietors Many years after its co the past, he said:-”I remember that we called one day on Sir Astley Cooper, the e his aversion to the railway He was one of our most inveterate and influential opponents His country house at Berkhampstead was situated near the intended line, which passed through part of his property We found a courtly, fine-looking old gentleman, of very stately manners, who received us kindly and heard all we had to say in favour of the project But he was quite inflexible in his opposition to it No deviation or iest had any effect in conciliating hienerally, and to this in particular 'Your scheme,' said he, 'is preposterous in the extreant a character as to be positively absurd Then look at the recklessness of your proceedings! You are proposing to cut up our estates in all directions for the purpose ofan unnecessary road

Do you think, for one entleo on you will in a very few years _destroy the nobility_!'”

OPPOSITION TO MAKING SURVEYS

A great deal of opposition was encountered in hae was done as possible, simply because it was the interest of those concerned to conciliate all parties along the line, yet, in several instances, the opposition was of a enuity could evade the watchfulness and determination of the lords of the soil, and the survey was at last accoht by means of dark lanterns

On another occasion, when Mr Gooch was taking levels through so land, a fewthe land ca their property i field was not theirs and he therefore rehtly with thee into the next field, and planted his level on the highest ground he could find-his assistant re at the last level station, distant about a hundred and sixty yards, apparently quite unconscious of what had taken place, although one of the brothers washim off Now, if the assistant had ht at it through the telescope of his level, all his previous ould have been completely lost, and the survey must have been coreat object, however, was to prevent this serious inconvenience The h his telescope at the staff held by his assistant, the grazier nearest hi out the tails of his coat, tried to place himself between the staff and the telescope, in order to intercept all vision, and at the sa him to make haste and knock down the staff Fortunately for Mr Gooch, although nature had er than usual, yet they performed their office very badly, and as he could not see distinctly what Mr Gooch was about-the hedge being between them-he very simply asked the man at the staff what his (the enquirer's) brother said ”Oh,”

replied the alloping out of the fold yard” Aent Clodpole, as fast as he could run, to restrain the unruly energies of Smolensko the Ninth, or whatever other naht be called, and Mr Gooch in the reat judgh to enable hirazier in the land; but his clever assistant, as soon as he perceived that all was right, had to take to his heels and h road

In another instance, a reverend gentle demonstrations of his opposition that the extraordinary expedient was resorted to of surveying his property during the ti to his flock This was acco force of surveyors all in readiness to corounds on the one side at the same moment that they saw hianised and syste to a conclusion with his allotted task just as the reverend gentleman came to a conclusion with his sermon; and before he left the church to return to his hoham Railway_

SANITARY OBJECTIONS

Mr Se Stephenson_, reed in opposition to railways, and ainst tunnels Sir Anthony Carlisle insisted that ”tunnels would expose healthy people to colds, catarrhs, and consuers of tunnel travelling were depicted in all their horrors Worst of all, however, was 'the destruction of the atmospheric air,' as Dr Lardner terentle shafts would be altogether insufficient to prevent the dangers arising froas, which in large quantities was fatal to life He showed, for instance, that in the proposed Box tunnel, on the Great Western Railway, the passage of 100 tons would deposit about 3090 lbs of noxious gases, incapable of supporting life! Here was an uncoers between London and Bristol But steps were adopted to allay these formidable sources of terror Soleot up and published, signed by several of thethe perfect wholesomeness of tunnels, and the purity of the air in theing, what certainly subsequent experience has not verified, that the atreeable temperature, and free from smell' Mr

Stephenson declared his conviction that a tunnel twenty er to life than a railway in the open air; but, at the same time, he admits that tunnels were nuisances, which he endeavoured to avoid wherever practicable”

ELEVATED RAILWAYS

In the _Gentleazine_ for June, 1830, it is stated:-”There are at present exhibiting in Edinburgh three large s of railways and their carriages, invented by Mr dick, who has a patent These railways are of a different nature fro the surface of the ground, but elevated to such a height as, when necessary, to pass over the tops of houses and trees The principal supports are of stone, and, being placed at considerable distances, have cast-iron pillars between the with a velocity hitherto unparalleled, by ine or other pri the railway Froes the friction is very small”

EVIDENCE OF A GENERAL SALESMAN

The advantages London derives froathered froe Rowley in 1834, on behalf of the Great Western Railway Company