\ STOP 5T0'^ ; 



CHAPTER X. 



The Railway Mania— George Hudson, the Railway King— Serving 

 Notices in Ireland— Railway Enterprise and Landlords — George 

 Stephenson and the "Eldest Child" — In Coaching Days — Old 

 Times in Winter — Dr. Lee's Prophecies and their Fulfilment — 

 The late Duke of Buckingham and Chandos : an Uphill Fight 

 — Stowe in Days of Prosperity — -The Queen's Visit — In Days 

 of Adversity — Sir Thomas Aubrey as an Upright Judge — Sir 

 John Aubrey and his Dinners for the Free and Independent. 



In our days, when the country is covered with a network 

 of raihvay lines, some record from personal observations 

 of the great raihvay mania of 1846-47 may be of some 

 interest. In the previous year Sir Robert Peel, then 

 Prime Minister, had given his vote in favour of direct 

 through lines, and consequently of shorter routes. This 

 stimulated engineers, lawyers, financiers, and a whole 

 troop of company promoters to concoct and bring out 

 schemes for easier access to various points, some of 

 them undoubtedly useful, but many of them utterly 

 impracticable. The Stock Exchange w^as soon flooded 

 with prospectuses, speculation became rife, and immense 

 fortunes were rapidly made, and, 7;w7'e suo, in the end 

 more rapidly dissipated. The name of George Hudson, 

 the " Railway King," recalls to the minds of the older 



