THE RAILWAY MANIA. 153 



believe the two properties for which I had to serve 

 notices were not worth together more than ;^i5o; and 

 I received ^83 12s. alone for this work, which can 

 now be done by two penny stamped letters. 



In less than a year afterwards the crash came, and 

 most of the great fortunes accumulated during the 

 previous six years crumbled to the dust. Many 

 families were brought to the very verge of ruin by 

 the rampant speculation and inordinate competition 

 to obtain possession of certain districts of the country, 

 in the hope of aiding and swelling the already over- 

 grown businesses of some of the existing great railway 

 companies. 



Amongst the most bitter opponents of railways, as 

 a landowner, was the Duke of Buckingham, the father 

 of the late Duke. One of the projected lines, at the 

 time of which I am now v/riting, went through the 

 Duke's property at Stov/e, near Buckingham, and he 

 raised a complete posse coinitatus of his labourers and 

 dependents to oppose the survey. A raw Irishman, 

 named Oliver Byrne, was the engineer of the line, and 

 numerous affrays took place between his chainmen and 

 assistant surveyors and the Duke's posse ; there was 

 many a fight and breaking of heads, and every obstacle 

 was raised to prevent a survey being made and the 

 levels taken. Large sheets and tarpaulins were sus- 

 pended on poles, and stretched across fields and roads 

 in the vain hope of preventing the theodolites being 

 used. At last, one night, Oliver Byrne galloped up to 

 the White Hart in a chaise and four, shouting, " I've 

 done the Duke, I've done the Duke"; and, overjoyed 



