A RAILWAY CASE. 227 



Some years ago an action was tried at the Assizes 

 at Aylesbury which excited great interest in tlie railway 

 world. The action was brought by Sir Thos. F. Fre- 

 mantle, afterwards Lord Cottesloe, to recover damages 

 from the London and North-Western Railway Co. for 

 setting on fire the farm-buildings on his estate at 

 Swanbourne, adjoining the Buckinghamshire Railway, 

 which was owned and worked by the larger company. 

 It was alleged that the sparks from an engine passing 

 along the line from Bletchley to Oxford and Banbury 

 had caused the ignition, and damages to the value of 

 the buildings was claimed thereon. For some years past 

 the railway companies throughout England had been 

 subjected to these actions, and considerable sums had 

 been paid in consequence. This was a test case, that 

 the legal question should be set at rest once and for all, 

 and that the point should be settled as to whether a 

 railway company was answerable for damage from their 

 engines when working on the line, if the company had 

 taken every precaution that human skill could accom- 

 plish, not only in working the traffic, but in the building 

 of their locomotives, and had availed themselves of 

 every opportunity that science and invention could 

 suggest in order to be as perfect in every detail as 

 possible. 



Sir T. Fremantle's party asserted and proved that a 

 spark from an engine passing down the line had alighted 

 on the thatched roof of one of the farm-buildings and 

 had set on fire and burnt down the property, therefore, 

 they argued, the company were liable for the negligence 

 and carelessness of the driver in charge of the engine. 



