292 THE GRAND JUNCTION. CHAP. XIV. 



Manchester Railway, were in connexion with it, and 

 principally in the county of Lancaster. Thus a branch 

 was formed from Bolton to Leigh, and another from 

 Leigh to Kenyon, where it formed a junction with the 

 main line between Liverpool and Manchester. Branches 

 to Wigan on the north, and to Runcorn Gap and War- 

 rington on the south of the same line, were also formed. 

 A continuation of the latter, as far south as Birming- 

 ham, was shortly after projected under the name of the 

 Grand Junction Railway. 



The Grand Junction line was projected as early as 

 the year 1824, when the Liverpool and Manchester 

 scheme was under discussion, and Mr. Stephenson then 

 published a report on the subject. The plans w r ere 

 deposited, but the bill was thrown out on the opposition 

 of the landowners and canal proprietors. When en- 

 gaged in making the survey, Mr. Stephenson called 

 upon some of the landowners in the neighbourhood of 

 Nantwich to obtain their assent, and was somewhat dis- 

 gusted to learn that the agents of the canal companies 

 had been before him, and described the locomotive to 

 the farmers as a most frightful machine, emitting a 

 breath as poisonous as the fabled dragon of old ; and 

 telling them that if a bird flew over the district where 

 one of these engines passed, it would inevitably drop 

 down dead ! The application for the bill was renewed 

 in 1826, and again failed ; and at length it was deter- 

 mined to wait the issue of the Liverpool and Manchester 

 experiment. The act was eventually obtained in 1833, 

 by which time the projectors of railways had learnt 

 the art of " conciliating " the landlords, and a very 

 expensive process it proved. But it was the only 

 mode of avoiding a still more expensive parliamentary 

 opposition. 



When it was proposed to extend the advantages of 

 railways to the population of the midland and southern 

 counties of England, an immense amount of alarm was 



