78 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK oh. 



For a moment I expected the carriage to be crushed 

 by the next, but of course a second was enough to show 

 that this was not going to happen. Then I hardly knew 

 whether I was dead or alive ; I felt, however, no pain, 

 but my hands and coat were covered with blood. All 

 this happened, as it were, at once. Nelly had fallen 

 into my arms, and though she assured me that she was 

 all right, still, as I found she was bleeding very much, 

 I could not tell how much she might be hurt, or what 

 effect the shaking might have. 



Our carriage was lying on its side, partly in the field, 

 and partly on the hedge. So we had to scramble on to 

 the top, and get down as best we might. One poor 

 fellow was fainting, with a terrible gash on the top of his 

 head, but no one was actually killed. 



We got Nelly into a field and tied up her hand and 

 arm. She was very brave, and declared that she was 

 not hurt. 



It appeared that while we were going express speed, 

 the driver said 60 miles an hour, one of the wheels of the 

 engine came off. The engine then went off the line and 

 at last broke from the tender and plunged into a field, 

 ploughing up a thick thorn hedge for some distance in 

 its fall. The tender was dragged off the rails by the 

 engine, and after going on a little while it also fell into 

 the field, but fortunately clear both of the engine and 

 the rails. The guard's van was next, it was dragged off 

 the rails by the tender, and ran past it and into the 

 ditch, but did not turn over. We were next to the van, 

 which also pulled us off the line. We ran, however, 

 right clear of the lines and turned over by ourselves. 

 We also dragged the next carriage and so on, but, fortun- 

 ately, each carriage fell clear of the rest and of the lines. 



If this had not been the case, if the carriages had 

 fallen on the line, and run into one another, it would 

 have been far worse. Or if we had been on an embank- 

 ment, many of us must have been killed. Only the last 

 carriage remained on the lines, and the last but one, 

 in which Annie [Lady Lubbock's maid] was, ran off but 

 did not upset. The sleepers were all broken for about 

 160 yards. 



The arrangements for getting us on to Birmingham 

 were very bad, and it was 11 instead of 7 when we 

 got here. 



