So HER OES OF IN i^ENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



so as to follow the ordinary levels and lines of traffic : to com- 

 mence 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 were these contingencies discussed, that, with the 

 exception of horses being the moving power, his plans and 

 arguments might be accepted as the description of a railway of 

 the present day. One poir.t particularly insisted on was, that 

 the railways should be managed by Government, not by private 

 companies, who would unite monopoly with speculation ; but 

 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 Dr. Anderson's 

 views; no one had then thought of railways independent of 

 other thoroughfares, and to border the latter by iron routes was 

 not to be entertained. 



There is another name connected with the rise of railways 

 which cannot be left unnoticed — Thomas Gray, of Leeds. 

 Hearing, while on the Continent in 1816, that a canal had 

 been projected to connect the coal-fields of Belgium with the 

 frontier of Holland, he recommended the making of a railway 

 instead. His mind had been for some time directed to the 

 subject; and in 1818 he showed to his friends a manuscript 

 containing observations on a railroad for the whole of Europe. 

 Soon after he returned to England for the purpose of making 

 his scheme public, and in 182.0 he published a volume entitled 

 " Observations on a General Iron Railway, or Land Steam Con 

 veyance, to supersede the Necessity of Horses in all Public 

 Vehicles : Showing its vast Superiority in every respect over 

 »he Present Pitiful Metliods of Conveyance by Turnpike Roads 



