DR. LEE'S PROPHECY. 157 



lasted thirteen weeks in 18 14, they kept up the kitchen 

 fire only, and in the kitchen the family, the guests, and 

 servants all had to assemble, the heat being kept in with 

 cinders and broken glass. At last my grandfather sent 

 a waggon and four horses from his farm at Amersham 

 some twenty-five miles, fifteen miles from Aylesbur}', 

 and another ten miles to Uxbridge, and brought back 

 two tons of Newcastle coal — the coal cost £^ at 

 Uxbridge. Of course, until the railway was opened it 

 was impossible to carry on any large factory in the town, 

 as there were no adequate means of transport to or from 

 the place either for the raw material, coal, or machinery. 

 A curious prophecy, based on an intuitive idea of the 

 powers of science and of steam, was ventured upon by 

 the late eccentric owner of Hartwell House, Dr. Lee, at 

 our opening railway dinner. In his speech he said, 

 amidst the laughter of the company, "I should not be 

 surprised if the day would come when, in addition to 

 our Aylesbury branch, we should see a little branch to 

 Thame, another to Princes Risbro', another to Waddes- 

 don, and another to Wendover ; and perhaps some of us 

 may live to see this." The three first have long been in 

 use — and I am glad to say I have, in conjunction with the 

 learned doctor and Sir Harry Verney, had a hand in 

 carrying these through — the last, to Wendover, through 

 the instrumentality of the Metropolitan Company, is now 

 an accomplished fact, and the despised, condemned, and 

 ridiculed Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway will be- 

 come a portion of a great main line from London to the 

 North of England. 



I first became acquainted with the late Duke of 



