132 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



and thus to sanction the making of a railway to be 

 owned by one company throughout seemed like the 

 granting of a perpetual monopoly. 



Following this reasoning, a break was made in the 

 continuity of the Brighton Railway between Stoat's 

 Nest and Redhill, a distance of five miles, and that 

 stretch of territory given to the South Eastern Railway, 

 with running powers only over it granted to the 

 Brighton Company. Similarly, between Croydon and 

 Stoat's Nest, the South Eastern had onlv running- 

 powers over that interval owned by the Brighton. 



In 1892 and 1894, however, the Brighton Company 

 approached Parliament and, proving the growing 

 confusion, congestion, and loss of time at Redhill 

 Junction, owing to this odd condition of things, 

 obtained powers to complete that missing link by the 

 construction of an entirely new railway between 

 Stoat's Nest and a point just within a quarter of a 

 mile of Earlswood Station, beyond Redhill, and also 

 to double the existing line between East and South 

 Croydon and Purley. The works were completed and 

 opened for traffic in 1898, when for the first time the 

 Brighton Railway had a complete and uninterrupted 

 route of its own to the sea. 



The hamlet of Smitham Bottom, which paradoxically 

 stands at the top of the pass of that name, in this 

 ancient way across the North Downs, can never have 

 been beautiful. It was lonely when Jackson and 

 Fewterel fought their prize-fight here, before that 

 distinguished patron of sport the Prince of Wales and 

 a more or less distinguished company, on June 9th, 

 1788 ; when the only edifice of ' Smith-in -the- 

 Bottom," as the sporting accounts of that time style 

 it, appears to have been the ominous one of a gibbet. 

 The Jackson who that day fought, and won, his first 

 battle in the prize-ring was none other than that 

 Bayard of the noble art, " Gentleman Jackson," after- 

 wards the friend of Byron and of the Prince Regent 

 himself, and subsequently landlord of the " Cock " at 

 Sutton. On this occasion Major Hanger rewarded 



