Z EAILWAY TRAVELLING. 



establishment of the main or trunk lines 

 had dispossessed those men of their seats 

 whose names were as familiar as household 

 words, when associated with the require- 

 ments, the business, and the pleasures of the 

 community ; and had driven them, like the 

 ancient Britons, to the mountainous districts of 

 Wales and Cornwall, or to the swamps and 

 fens of the opposite side of our island, to follow 

 their vocation, and to seek their subsistence. 



It was then the fate of the author of this 

 narrative to be engaged in driving a coach 

 from one of the seaports on the eastern 

 coast, where the enemy had not yet pene- 

 trated, but to which he bid fair soon to be 

 a welcome visitor. 



One cold, dark winter morning, a little 

 before day, in the last decade of the first 

 half of this present nineteenth century 

 (my memory will not serve to state the 

 precise year), I was walking leisurely from 

 my lodgings, with my great-coat over my 

 left arm, and my four-horse whip in my 



