GEORGE STEPHENSON. 91 



were enabled to judge practically the advantages offered. 

 Twelve waggons were filled with stones till each waggon 

 weighed three tons, and a horse attached to them drew the 

 load, with apparent ease, a distance of six miles in an hour and 

 three-quarters. In the course of the journey the horse was re- 

 peatedly stopped to show that he had the power of starting the 

 load with apparent ease. At each stoppage other waggons were 

 attached, and the men employed on the line, to the number ot 

 about fifty, were also directed to mount the waggons. At the 

 end of the journey the entire load was found to have reached 

 rather more than fifty-five tons ! 



In all, about twenty Acts were passed prior to that of the 

 Stockton and Darlington line, mostly for short lengths, the 

 longest being a line of thirty miles, from Sutton Pool, near Ply- 

 mouth, to the neighbourhood of Dartmouth prison, the capital 

 of which is stated at the extremely low total of ^35,000. 



The first line authorised in Scotland was from Kilmarnock to 

 Troon, in Ayrshire, for which an Act was obtained in 1808, and 

 which, for a length of about ten miles, was estimated to cost 

 ;j^65,ooo. This line was opened in 1810, and forming as i<. 

 does an integral part of the large system now embraced unde) 

 the name of the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, it entitles 

 that company to be considered the premier railway in Scotland. 



It was about this time that Thomas Telford projected a very 

 extensive scheme to connect the east and west of Scotland by a 

 grand line, starting from Berwick, and proceeding by the valley 

 of the Tweed to Kelso, Peebles, and Lanark, to the town of 

 Ayr ! " We admire," says the compiler of the " Scottish Rail- 

 way Shareholders' Manual," in 1849, "the genius and sagacity 

 evinced by so magnificent a design ; but we do not wonder 

 that, in face of prejudice and ignorance on the part of the public. 



