GEORGE STEPHENSON. 8i 



and Canals." In this work, among advantages to result from 

 the new system, Gray showed 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 pro- 

 mote 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 was calculated at ;^i 2,000 

 a-mile; and his plan included a trunk line from London to 

 Plymouth and Falmouth ; lines to Portsmouth, Bristol, Dover, 

 and Harwich ; an offset from the latter to Norwich, a trunk 

 line from London to Birmingham and Holyhead, another to 

 Edinburgh by Nottingham and Leeds, with secondary lines 

 from Liverpool to Scarborough, and from Birmingham to 

 Norwich. His system was not only remarkable for its simplicity, 

 but comprehended all the important towns of the kingdom, and 

 was in many respects preferable to the lines subsequently made. 

 His plan for Ireland had a grand trunk line from Dublin to 

 Deny, another to Kinsale, and by lesser lines ramifying from 

 these he sought to connect all the chief towns with the Irish 

 capital. Regarding his projects, Sir John Hawkshaw, in his 

 British Association speech (1875), remarked : "No sooner had 

 our ancestors settled down with what comfort was possible in 

 their coaches, well satisfied that twelve miles an-hour was the 

 maximum speed to be obtained or that was desirable, than they 

 were told that steam conveyance on iron railways would super- 

 :5ede their ' present pitiful ' methods of conveyance. Such was 

 the opinion of Thomas Gray, the first promoter of railways, who 

 published his work on a general iron railway in 1819. Gray 

 was looked on as little better than a madman. ' When Gray 

 first i)roposed his great scheme to the public,' said Clievaiier 



