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 " Brad- 

 shaw " 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 

 geometry, 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 comes to pass that many, 

 taking advantage of the comparative proximity into 

 which even the Highlands of Scotland are now brought, 

 and yielding to that roaming propensity, so charac- 

 teristic of the Englishman, leave behind them for 

 awhile the ledger or the loom, and seek relief from the 

 sedentary occupations of a town life, in the bracing 



