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In 1840 the total length of turnpike-roads in England and Wales was about 25,000 miles, which had been kept up during the preceding five years at an annual cost of £989,545, or £45 per mile-£36 having been expended in the usual repairs, and £9 on improvements. In addition to these items, the charge for management was nearly £6, also yearly. There were 1116 trusts, 7796 toll-gates and side-bars, and 1300 surveyors. Besides the turnpikes, the extent of other highways, 'parish roads,' was nearly 105,000 miles, maintained at a cost of £11, 3s. per mile yearly.

It was along the chief of these thoroughfares that, up to a recent period, travelling by mail or stage coach was prosecuted with such spirit and regularity as to make the roads a scene of continued animation and excitement. In 1837 licences were granted to 3026 stage-coaches, of which 1507 went to or from London, besides 103 mail-coaches. The number of passengers per year about the period in question has been estimated at 2,000,000. The conveyance of these gave movement to a system of traffic unequalled in any part of the world. In no other country was there such promptitude, such celerity of transit; and in fine weather there was real enjoyment in sitting behind the four spirited horses, which, in their compact and well-kept harness, trotted along the roads at a speed varying from seven to ten miles an hour: and for the leisurely traveller the top of a stage-coach presented advantages for viewing scenery which constitute no part of railway accommodation. There was time to discuss the merits of a ruin or a landscape; the appearance and disappearance of one and the other were not then, as now, simultaneous; and conversation could be carried on with a chance of its being heard. Then there was variety in the road itself: : now traversing a well-cultivated vale, curving in and out among pastures and corn-fields, at times pleasantly overshadowed by trees; anon rising over a hill, descending into a valley, skirting or crossing a running stream, penetrating at times the most picturesque parts of the land; going through-not past-towns and villages, where people ran to their doors and windows to see the vehicle speed by, and gazed after it with a feeling of pride as long as it remained in view. The traveller then could make himself acquainted with much that was interesting along his line of route, and carry away a definite impression of the scenes which had passed before his eyes.

But there were drawbacks: exposure to wet or inclement weather; the rapacity of innkeepers who purveyed for travellers; that of their servants; and the fees to coachmen and guards, exercised and levied without compunction, and often with incivility; oppressive to all compelled to submit thereto, but more especially to persons of slender means.

And further: how few of the latter class could afford to travel by stagecoach. The broad-wheeled wagon, creeping on at the snail's pace of three miles an hour, or the canal-boat, oftentimes as slow, was their only resource. In either of these the journey from London to Manchester occupied a week; and yet, with all their tedium and misery, they were much more resorted to by respectable people of scanty means than is commonly known or believed in the present day.

But what travelling was ten years ago is, and becomes more and more, matter of history. Except in little-frequented parts of the country stagecoaches and wagons have disappeared. Having superseded less perfect

machinery, they in turn were set aside by a power more in accordance with the aims and requirements of the age.

From the roads of the past we turn to the roads of the present. What was the origin of the latter? According to certain writers we should find it by a study of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Something, however, more to the purpose than hieroglyphs occurs in Roger North's book, already quoted: 'Another remarkable thing,' says Roger, referring to the neighbourhood of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 'is their way-leaves; for when men have pieces of ground between the colliery and the river they sell leave to lead coals over their ground; and so dear that the owner of a rood of ground will expect £20 per annum for this leave. The manner of the carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery down to the river exactly straight and parallel, and bulky carts are made with four rowlets fitting these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse will draw down four or five chaldron of coals, and is an immense benefit to the coal-merchants.' This account, as is obvious, refers to a mode of transport already established, and we may believe that similar contrivances would sooner or later be made available in other districts; but we meet with no subsequent instance until 1738, when a railway was laid down from Cockenzie to the coal-pits of Tranent, across the ground on which, some years later, the Highlanders put General Cope to flight, and won the famous battle of Prestonpans. A portion of the line, which may still be traced, was selected as a position for the English cannon. About the same time iron trams were laid down at the Whitehaven collieries. The practice had been, as described by Roger North, to make the rails of wood, and fix them parallel on cross-pieces called sleepers, embedded in the earth. Thin plates of iron were sometimes nailed on to protect those parts most exposed to weara precaution which could scarcely have failed to suggest the idea of rails made entirely of iron. These were first introduced at Coalbrookdale, where, in order to keep the furnaces at work during a slack season, a number of bars five feet long, four inches wide, and one and a half inches thick, were cast to be used as rails instead of wood, with the intention of taking them up for sale in case of a sudden demand.

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The difficulty of keeping the wheels from slipping off was urged as an objection against the use of these rails, and obviated some years afterwards, in 1776, by casting rails with an upright flange or guide at one side. These being nailed to wooden sleepers, or, as subsequently, to blocks of stone, the two flanges kept the wheels in place, and kept the wagons from running off the track. The form, however, presented certain inconveniences: dirt accumulated in the angle, and edge rails' were substituted, which, with modifications, have ever since remained in use. Those laid down at Lord Penrhyn's quarries were oval in form, with the narrow edge upwards, in lengths of four and a half feet, and kept in place by a solid dovetail block cast on the lower edge, and fitted into an iron sleeper underneath. A flange on either side of the tire prevented any deviation of the wheels; and the saving of power was such, that two horses regularly drew a train of twenty-four wagons, each containing about a ton; and ten horses were found sufficient to conduct a traffic which had, on a common road, required 400.'

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Another form of rail, in section resembling a T, came into use in the

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northern mining districts. The descending portion was cast with a gradual sweep-technically, 'fish - bellied 'from end to end, to give strength between the bearings. With this was first used the 'chair' a supporter made of cast-iron, which, being fixed to the sleepers, received and held each lap-joint of the rails. The wheels were kept from running off by a flange on the inner edge of the tire, while the shape of the rail was such as to prevent any lodgment of dirt on the surface. But in all these rails there was one, essential defect their liability to break; a defect that still remained, notwithstanding the attempts to overcome it by increasing the weight of the casting; and a fatal one, had wrought-iron not been available. Rails of this material were laid down in 1808, but proved unsuitable, owing to their square form, the only one in which they could then be manufactured; and it was not until 1820, when Mr Birkenshaw produced rails by a process of rolling-a species of wire-drawing on a stupendous scale-that the difficulty was overcome. Since then the texture of rails has been as remarkable for toughness and elasticity as it was formerly for rigidity and brittleness.

Gradually iron roads grew into use in coal-fields and the mineral districts in the northern and midland counties; and by the close of the tenth year of the present century there were more than 150 miles in South Wales. The first well-ascertained attempt to take a systematic commercial view of their utility was made in 1800, by Dr James Anderson, in a periodical entitled 'Recreations in Agriculture.' He proposed to construct railways by the side of the turnpike-roads, so as to follow the ordinary levels and lines of traffic: to commence with the highway from London to Bath. Where the road ascended a hill, the level was to be sought by going round its base, constructing a viaduct or piercing a tunnel; and so carefully are these contingencies discussed, that, with the exception of horses being the moving power, the doctor's plans and arguments might be almost literally adopted in a railway prospectus of the present day. One point particularly insisted on was, that the lines should be managed by government commissioners, not by companies, who would unite monopoly with speculation; and should be kept open and patent to all alike who shall choose to employ them, as the king's highway, under such regulations as it shall be found necessary to subject them by law.' No immediate result followed the publication of these views; no one had then thought of railways independent of other thoroughfares, and to border the latter by iron routes was a scheme too impracticable to be entertained.

Two years later, in March 1802, a communication from Mr R. L. Edgeworth appeared in 'Nicholson's Journal,' calling attention to the same subject. To quote the writer's words, he had many years before 'formed the project of laying iron railways for baggage-wagons on the great roads of England,' but having been met by numerous and powerful objections, he had despaired of success. Among these was urged the first cost, and the continual charge for repairs. To obviate the latter, he proposed, instead of an enormous load in one car, to divide the burden among several smaller cars, whereby the wear of the rails would be materially diminished. Models of these cars had been presented to the Society of Arts in 1768, and their inventor rewarded with a gold medal. In 1788 he made four other carriages, with cast-iron wheels working on friction rollers, and used

them for some time on a wooden railway to convey lime for agricultural purposes.

To test the merits of his plan, Edgeworth suggested that four lines of railway might be laid on ten or twelve miles of one of the great roads leading from the metropolis. The rails were to be made hollow from the bottom upwards, for strength and to save expense; broad at bottom, and rounded at the top, to prevent the lodgment of dirt and dust; and fixed to sleepers of stone, so that their upper surface should stand about four inches above the road. On these should run light wagons, each containing not more than one ton and a half weight. The two inner tracks were to be for goods, the two outer ones for passenger-carriages, to travel in either direction, and when they met, turn off by sidings to the wagon-way. To obviate all difficulty with respect to the wheels of public or private vehicles, they were to be placed on 'cradles or platforms,' fitted and constructed to run on the rails. The horses that brought the carriage would drag it on to the cradle, or truck, as it would now be called, and, descending at the opposite end, draw it along the line-stage-coaches, six miles an hour, with one horse; hackney-coaches, eight miles; and with the greatest ease and safety, by night as well as by day.

Hills were to be avoided by making a circuit; but a perfect level was not absolutely insisted on: no insurmountable objection existed to a rise of one foot in ten.' Another part of the plan was the employment of steam-power with stationary engines, with which it would be 'not impossible, by slight circulating chains, like those of a jack running upon rollers, to communicate motion between small steam - engines, placed at a considerable distance from each other; to these chains carriages might be connected at will, and, when necessary, they might instantaneously be detached.'

There is yet another name connected with the development of our railway system which must not be passed over-that of Thomas Gray, a native of Leeds. He was in Belgium in 1816, when, hearing that a canal had been projected to connect the coal-field of that country with the frontier of Holland, he very earnestly recommended to Mr Cockerill, with whom he was acquainted, the making of a railway instead. His mind had been for some time directed to the subject; and in 1818 he shewed to his friends manuscript 'Observations on a Railroad for the whole of Europe,' and soon after returned to England for the purpose of making his schemes public. In 1820 he published a seven-and-sixpenny octavo, which went through five editions in five years, entitled 'Observations on a General Iron Railway, or Land Steam Conveyance, to Supersede the Necessity of Horses in all Public Vehicles: shewing its vast Superiority in every Respect over the present Pitiful Methods of Conveyance by Turnpike-Roads and Canals.' In this work, among advantages to result from the new system, Gray shewed that fish, vegetables, agricultural and other perishable produce might be rapidly carried from place to place; that two post deliveries in the day would be feasible; and that insurance companies would be able to promote their own interests by keeping railway fire-engines, ready to be transported to the scene of a conflagration at a moment's warning. The cost of construction Gray calculated at £12,000 a mile. He was decidedly in favour of direct lines by the shortest course. His plan

included a trunk-line straight from London to Plymouth and Falmouth, minor lines to Portsmouth, Bristol, Dover, and Harwich, with an offset from the latter to Norwich; a trunk-line also from London to Birmingham and Holyhead, another to Edinburgh by Nottingham and Leeds, and secondary lines from Liverpool to Scarborough, from Birmingham to Norwich; in short, his system, remarkable for its simplicity, comprehended all the important towns of the kingdom, and in many respects is preferable to that which now prevails. His plan for Ireland had a grand trunk-line from Dublin to Derry, another to Kinsale, and by lesser lines ramifying from these he connected all the chief towns of the island with the capital. Whatever effect Gray's persevering labours may have had in directing attention to the subject of railways, in suggesting views to others, he himself gained neither reward nor honour. His late years were passed in obscurity as a dealer in glass on commission at Exeter, in which city he died in October 1848, at the age of sixty-one. He deserves not to be forgotten.

These statements embody interesting evidence of the germination of ideas and the growth of intelligence: the time was coming for maturer aims and increased powers of realising them.

The first authorisation of a railway by act of parliament is said to have been that of the Surrey Railway -an iron track laid from Merstham to Wandsworth in 1809; and of a short line from Cheltenham to Gloucester. Both have since become adjuncts or portions of other and grander lines.

In September 1825 a railway was opened which led from the mines near Darlington to the wharfs on the Tees at Stockton-the whole distance about twenty miles-for the transport of coal. At first the wagons were drawn by horses; and such was the effect of easy carriage, that the price of coal at Stockton fell from 18s. to 8s. 6d. per ton; lead was carried from the interior to the ships at greatly reduced rates; and a brisk trade in lime sprung up which had not before existed. Shortly after the opening two coaches were placed on the line for the conveyance of passengers-large, roomy vehicles, to carry twenty-six persons as a regular load, and in extraordinary cases half as many more, an addition which in no way interfered with the speed of the journey. They had no springs, and were intended to run backwards or forwards without being turned. A block of wood made to press against the tire of the wheels by means of an iron lever within reach of the driver enabled him to check the motion or stop suddenly when required. Ten miles an hour was the usual speed, and seemed scarcely to require an effort from the single horse that drew the load, so seldom was there any strain on the traces; and the smooth and equable motion of the coach was a constant theme of congratulation among the passengers. The line originally consisted of but a single pair of rails, with sidings at frequent intervals, at which vehicles or coal-trains passed each other. The fare from Stockton to Darlington-twelve miles-was 2s. for the inside and half that sum for the outside. Traffic became so. lively between the two towns, owing to the facility of transit, that in the first year the proprietors returned £500. 'An intercourse,' as was said, 'and trade seemed to arise out of nothing, and no one knew how; and altogether the circumstance of bustle and activity which appeared along the line, with crowds of passengers going and returning, formed a matter

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