RAILWAYS 3 



to the ascendency and distinction he both desired and 

 deserved. 



I have been led into this train of reflection merely to 

 show that the coach-box is not the Avorst school for 

 acquiring ihe knowledge already spoken of — though, 

 perhaps, the person occupying that position may have 

 made it only a place of observation and amusement, and 

 as such may not have turned it to advantage. 



The gentleman above referred to has now paid the 

 debt of nature, and it is but due to his memory to state 

 that, to his indefatigable perseverance, his application to 

 business, his forethought and general capacity, is to be 

 attributed the success of that company of which he was 

 so long and so deservedly the head ; which, for its 

 efficiency and its remuneration to the shareholders, ranks 

 among the first railroad companies in the kingdom. At 

 his death he had accumulated near half a million of 

 money, it is said — an immense sum for a coachman to 

 realize — more, |)erhaps, than the industry and talents of 

 anyone man ought to realize ; and to his lasting praise it 

 must be recorded, that he did not forget, but took pains to 

 provide for, many of his dependents, whose means of sub- 

 sistence were destroyed by the introduction of the new 

 method of travelling. Had others upon whom the author 

 had far greater claims done the like, he would not have 

 been in the unenviable position for the last ten or twelve 

 years, to which that great change condemned him. 



The road on which I now drove, and more particularly 

 the coach I was on, admitted of a far greater variety of 

 character than the one I recently quitted. Going to a 

 large manufacturing town, and passing through a rich 



