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MR. BENJAMIN BOBBIN. 



COUPLE of years ago the Great Smashem and 

 Crumple-em-up Railway Company — having pre- 

 viously obtained the permission of Parliament to 

 do so — proceeded to start a line from London to the 

 North on their own account, they having, up to that 

 time, been merely associated with another company, pay- 

 ing them, in fact, very heavily for permission to run 

 their own trains over the other's line. As anyone can see 

 by looking at the map, their new line of railway goes 

 twisting and turning right through the very heart of the 

 Harkaway countr}^ 



Now, there is not a more charming place in the whole 

 county than Oakley Hall, the home for I don't know how 

 many generations past of the Gooseys. The Gooseys are 

 descendants of the celebrated Godfrey de Goosye, who 

 came over with the Conqueror. Goosyes by the score 

 are buried in the little church in the park — Dame Mar- 

 garet de Goosye, Dame Constance de Goosye, Hugo 

 Malvoisin de Goosye, his son, Reginald de Goosye, and 

 heaps more too numerous to mention. It was during the 

 period when that merriest of monarchs, Charles II., occu- 

 pied the throne of England that the name of de Goosye 

 became altered to that of Goosey, and we believe it came 

 about pretty much in this way : The head of the family 

 at the period mentioned was a Colonel George de Goosye 



