PREFACE. 



OUR bonnie isle at least considerably more 

 than the southern half of it is now so crossed 

 and recrossed by the many intersecting lines of 

 " rail " which have of late sprung into being, 

 and which are still multiplying, that the map of 

 England in " Bradshaw " is beginning to bear a 

 strong resemblance to the web which we might 

 imagine constructed by some eccentric old spider, 

 who, defying all the rules of goemetry, sacrifices 

 symmetry to utility, content if only his meshes 

 are strong enough to secure for him occasionally 

 a goodly blue-bottle. Along these lines, which 

 form, as it were, the veins and arteries of the 

 country, the glowing blood of England courses 

 and recourses vigorously, in constantly renewed 

 pulsations, between her heart of hearts, the 

 Metropolis, and her distant extremities. Thus 

 it conies to pass that many, taking advantage of 

 the comparative proximity into which even the 

 Highlands of Scotland are now brought, and 



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