354 TRAVELLING BY RAIL. CHAP. XVI. 



It was some time before the more opulent classes, 

 who could afford to post to town in aristocratic style, 

 became reconciled to railway travelling. The old fami- 

 lies did not relish the idea of being conveyed in a train 

 of passengers of all ranks and conditions, in which the 

 shopkeeper and the peasant were carried along at the 

 same speed as the duke and the baron the only dif- 

 ference being in price. It was another deplorable illus- 

 tration of the levelling tendencies of the age. 1 It put 

 an end to that gradation of rank in travelling which 

 was one of the few things left by which the nobleman 

 could be distinguished from the Manchester manufac- 

 turer and bagman. But to younger sons of noble fami- 

 lies the convenience and cheapness of the railway did 

 not fail to recommend itself. One of these, whose eldest 

 brother had just succeeded to an earldom, said one day 

 to a railway manager : " I like railways they just suit 

 young fellows like me with 'nothing per annum paid 

 quarterly.' You know, we can't afford to post, and it 

 used to be deuced annoying to me, as I was jogging 

 along on the box-seat of the stage-coach, to see the little 

 Earl go by drawn by his four posters, and just look up 

 at me and give me a nod. But now, with railways, it's 

 different. It's true, he may take a first-class ticket, 

 while I can only afford a second-class one, but we both 

 go the same pace!' 



For a time, however, many of the old families sent 

 forward their servants and luggage by railroad, and 



1 At a meeting of the Chesterfield j self. Sir Humphry Davy was once 



Mechanics' Institute, at which Mr. 

 Stephenson was present, one of the 

 speakers said of him, " Known as he 



similarly characterised; but the re- 

 mark was somewhat differently appre- 

 ciated. When travelling on the Con- 



is wherever steam and iron have opened tinent, a distinguished person about a 

 the swift lines of communication to foreign Court inquired who and what 

 our countrymen, and regarded by all | he was, never having heard of his 

 as the Father of Railways, he might I scientific fame. Upon being told that 



be called, in the most honourable 

 acceptation of the term, the first and 

 greatest leveller of the age" Mr. Ste- 

 phcnson joined heartily in the laugh 

 which followed this description of him- 



his discoveries had " revolutionised 

 chemistry," the courtier promptly re- 

 plied, "I hate all revolutionists; his 

 presence will not be acceptable here." 



