CHAP. XVI. TRAVELLING BY RAIL. 351 



the high prices charged for such conveyances went by 

 waggon, and the poorer classes trudged on foot. George 

 Stephenson was wont to say that he hoped to see the 

 day when it would be cheaper for a poor man to travel 

 by railway than to walk, and not many years passed be- 

 fore his expectation was fulfilled. In no country in the 

 world is time worth more money than in England ; and 

 by saving time the criterion of distance the railway 

 proved a great benefactor to men of industry in all classes. 

 Many deplored the inevitable downfall of the old 

 stage-coach system. There was to be an end of that 

 delightful variety of incident usually attendant on a 

 journey by road. The rapid scamper across a fine 

 country on the outside of the four-horse " Express," or 

 " Highflyer ;" the seat on the box beside Jehu, or the 

 equally coveted place near the facetious guard behind ; 

 the journey amid open green fields, through smiling 

 villages and fine old towns, where the stage stopped to 

 change horses and the passengers to dine was alt very 

 delightful in its way ; and many regretted that this old- 

 fashioned and pleasant style of travelling was about to 

 pass away. But it had its dark side also. Any one 

 who remembers the journey by stage from London to 

 Manchester or York, will associate it with recollections 

 and sensations of not unmixed delight. To be perched 

 for twenty hours, exposed to all weathers, on the outside 

 of a coach, trying in vain to find a soft seat sitting 

 now with the face to the wind, rain, or sun, and now 

 with the back without any shelter such as the com- 

 monest penny-a-mile parliamentary train now daily 

 provides was a miserable undertaking, looked forward 

 to with horror by many whose business required them 

 to travel frequently between the provinces and the 

 metropolis. Nor were the inside passengers more agree- 

 ably accommodated. To be closely packed up in a little, 

 inconvenient, straight-backed vehicle, where the cramped 

 limbs could not be in the least extended, nor the wearied 



