RAILWAY POLITICS 131 



Even the ghastly loneliness of the long straight road 

 ascending the pass of Smitham Bottom is no more, for 

 little villas, with dank little dungeons of gardens, line 

 the way, and tradesmen's carts calling for orders 

 compete with the motorists who shall kill and maim 

 most travellers along the highway. 



The numerous railway-bridges, embankments, 

 cuttings, and retaining-walls that disfigure the crest 

 of Smitham Bottom are chieflv the results of latter- 

 day activities. The first bridge is that of the Chipstead 

 Valley Railway — now merged in the South Eastern 

 and Chatham — from South Croydon to Chipstead and 

 Epsom, 1897 — 1900, with its wayside station of 

 " Smitham." This is immediately followed by the 

 London, Brighton, and South Coast's station of Stoat's 

 Nest, a transformed and transported version of the old 

 station of the same name some distance off, and beyond 

 it are the bridges and embankments of the same com- 

 pany's works of 1896-8 ; themselves almost inextricably 

 confused, to the non-technical mind, with the adjoining 

 South Eastern roadside station of Coulsdon. 



The chapters of railway history which produced 

 all this unlovely medley of engineering works are in 

 themselves extremely interesting, and have an 

 additional interest to those who trace the story of the 

 Brighton Road, for they are concerned with the 

 solution of the old problem which faced the coach 

 proprietors — how best and quickest to reach Brighton. 



Few outside those intimately concerned with railway 

 politics know that although the Brighton line was 

 opened throughout in 1842, it was not until 1898 that 

 the company owned an uninterrupted route between 

 London and Brighton. The explanation of that 

 singular condition of affairs is found in the curious 

 reluctance of Parliament, two generations ago, to 

 give any one railway company the sole control of any 

 particular route. Few in those times thought the 

 increase of population, and still more the increase 

 of travelling, would be so great that competitive 

 railways would be established to many places ; 



