9 2 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VER V. 



in the infancy of railway undertakings, it should have been laid 

 aside and forgotten. " In 1 8 1 1 the Berwick and Kelso Company 

 projected a line occupying part of Telford's ground, but this 

 particular railway was never carried out. The scheme lay 

 dormant for many years — for, unlike more modern Acts, no 

 limitation of time was put in the Act, so that the powers did 

 not lapse — and no step was ever made to carry it out. It is 

 true that later works have occupied nearly all the ground pro- 

 jected by Telford, so that a railway journey by Kelso, Peebles, 

 and Lanark to Ayr, can at this day be made per rail, over sub- 

 stantially the same ground as was taken up by the great engineer. 

 But the main lines of connection for traffic purposes, between 

 the east and west of Scotland, have been found elsewhere. 



The greater number of the companies incorporated by the 

 Acts up to this time embraced but few persons, and consisted 

 mostly of merchants or owners of collieries seeking an outlet 

 for their goods. Thus, the capital of the Penrhynmaur line, 

 for which an Act was obtained in 1 8 1 2, was held by two men, 

 the Earl of Uxbridge and Mr. Holland Griffith. On none of 

 the lines for which Acts were obtained ud to 1820 was any 

 other motive-power used or designed than that of horses, and 

 not one of the companies even proposed the adoption of the 

 steam-engine, though the invention was by this time beginning 

 to attract attention, nor did tlie idea of conveying passengers 

 seem to be entertained. 



This was, however, to be completely changed by the Act 

 obtained in 1 821, in which the clause defining the method of 

 haulage spoke of " the making and maintaining of the tramroada 

 and the passage upon them of waggons a/id other carriages, with 

 rnen, arid horses, or otherwise'' — words sufficiently elastic to 

 admit of any power being used. However, taking the Act 



