Railway Expansion 253 



paid such prices as should actually buy off a series of long 

 and tedious litigants." 



The promoters of that most unfortunate of lines, the Eastern 

 Counties predecessor of the Great Eastern Railway of to- 

 day found themselves faced with serious opposition in the 

 Lords after they had got their Bill through the Commons ; 

 " but," says the first report, " the directors, by meeting the 

 parties with the same promptness and in the same fair spirit 

 which had carried them successfully through their previous 

 negotiations, effected amicable arrangements with them," 

 and the company was incorporated in 1836. The negotia- 

 tions must, however, have been carried through with greater 

 promptness than discretion, for, to save the fate of their Bill, 

 the directors undertook to pay one influential landowner 

 120,000 for some purely agricultural land which was said 

 to be then worth not more than 5000. After they had 

 secured their Bill they made persistent attempts to get out of 

 paying the 120,000 ; and, altogether, they so shocked John 

 Herapath that in successive monthly issues of his " Railway 

 Magazine " all references to the Eastern Counties Railway 

 Company were encircled by a black border. 



In another instance a company proposed to meet the 

 opposition of certain landowners by carrying the line through 

 a tunnel, which would enable them to avoid the property in 

 question. The tunnel would have cost 50,000, and the land- 

 owners said, " Give us the price of that tunnel and we will 

 withdraw our opposition." The company offered 30,000, 

 and the landowners agreed to be " conciliated " on this basis. 

 They still came off better than the objector who began by 

 demanding 8000 and finally accepted 80. John Francis, 

 too, relates the following story : " The estate of a nobleman 

 was near a proposed line. He was proud of his park and great 

 was his resentment. In vain was it proved that the new road 

 would not come within six miles of his house, that the highway 

 lay between, that a tunnel would hide the inelegance. He 

 resisted all overture on the plea of his feelings, until 30,000 

 was offered. The route was, however, afterwards changed. A 

 new line was marked out which would not even approach his 

 domain ; and, enraged at the prospect of losing the 30,000, 

 he resisted it as strenuously as the other." 



There were some honourable exceptions to the general 



