CHAP. XV. INTERVIEW WITH SIR A. COOPER. 305 



was insisted at those meetings that there was no necessity 

 whatever for accelerating the existing communications, 

 there being already abundant means of conveyance for 

 travellers by the coaches daily travelling through the 

 district at ten miles an hour, whilst there was water- 

 carriage for heavy goods to a much greater extent than 

 had ever been required. Deputations from the pro- 

 moters of the railway attended some of these meetings 

 for the purpose of stating their case, but the land- 

 owners would not permit them to be heard. The Earls 

 of Clarendon and Essex were the most powerful oppo- 

 nents of the measure, and the other landed proprietors 

 followed in their wake. The attempt was made to 

 conciliate these landlords by explanations, but all such 

 efforts proved futile. 



" I remember," said Robert Stephenson, describing 

 the opposition, c< that we called one day on Sir Astley 

 Cooper, the eminent surgeon, in the hope of overcoming 

 his aversion to the railway. He was one of our most 

 inveterate and influential opponents. His house was at 

 Hemel Hempstead, and the line was so laid out as to 

 pass through part of his property. We found a courtly, 

 fine-looking old gentleman, of very stately manners, who 

 received us kindly and heard all we had to say in favour 

 of the project. But he was quite inflexible in his oppo- 

 sition to it. No deviation or improvement that we could 

 suggest had the slightest effect in conciliating him. He 

 was opposed to railways generally, and to this in parti- 

 cular. ' Your scheme,' said he, ' is preposterous in the. 

 extreme. It is of so extravagant a character, as to be 

 positively absurd. Then look at the recklessness of 

 your proceedings ! You are proposing to cut up our 

 estates in all directions for the purpose of making an 

 unnecessary road. Do you think for one moment of 

 the destruction of property involved by it? Why, 

 gentlemen, if this sort of thing be permitted to go 

 on, you will in a very few years destroy the noblesse ! ' 



VOL. III. X 



