CHAPTER XVI THE COMING OF THE 



RAILWAY 



THE introdu6lion of steam as a means of 

 transport was an innovation that swept the 

 coaches right off the road and irretrievably 

 destroyed them. It was not merely a read- 

 justment of an existing system as the mail-coaches had 

 been, but the substitution of an entirely new order of 

 things which revolutionized travel, and cut, as it were, 

 a sharp dividing line between the leisurely day of 

 our forefathers and the modern hustling, hurrying age. 

 When it was first suggested that steam should be 

 utilized for draught purposes in place of horses, the 

 idea occasioned much merriment down the road. The 

 coachmen in particular regarded it as a huge joke: "The 

 tin kettle drive us off the road!" they would exclaim 

 with hearty guffaws of laughter at the very presumption 

 of the thing. "It can never come to pass," they declared 

 emphatically, "no country in the world has such 

 travelling as we have; what do we want with railways?" 



With coaches running twelve miles an hour, what 

 more could men desire? "If that isn't fast enough for 

 them, let them get out and run," said the swell drags- 

 men with withering scorn. Whilst, "If your head never 

 aches till the railways come, you won't have much to 

 complain of," was a favourite retort to anyone who 

 thought "there might be something in it." 



As a matter of fa6l, the railways came into existence 



at a critical time, for with the introdudion of the penny 

 i6 



