TRAMWAYS AND TRAM-CARS. 215 



first Street tramway was opened at Birkenhead, in 

 Cheshire, on August 30th, i860. At Birkenhead a 

 large number used to be constructed, and were sent 

 to various other towns. An immense number of large 

 straggling towns, where the population is dispersed, 

 now make use of tramways, which, although they 

 injure carriages that cross their line of route, owing 

 to the defective way in which the rails are frequently 

 laid, are yet a great boon to the poorer class of the 

 inhabitants. As far as regards London, tramways 

 have not been altogether successful. 



I very well recollect tramway-rails being laid in 

 the Bayswater Road, but there was such an outcry from 

 the residents in the neighbourhood, that the line had 

 to be taken up. As regards London, tramways, it 

 appears, only answer in a comparatively poor neigh- 

 bourhood ; this is easily understood, as the people 

 in the wealthier districts mostly have their own 

 carriages or ride in cabs, and even were a tramway 

 to pass by their doors, might not feel disposed to 

 make use of it. 



Tram-cars are most destructive to horses, on this 

 account : when once the car is set in motion, like 

 rolling stock on a railway, that motion can easily be 

 continued, but it is the first effort to set the wheels 

 revolving that tries the back-sinews and fetlock -joints 

 of horses. Many expedients have been resorted to 

 in order to start the cars by mechanical power stored 

 up for the occasion, but I am not aware that they 

 have been successful. Mules have been employed 

 to supersede horses, a number of which may be seen 

 "working the tram-cars in the Westminster Bridge and 

 Brixton Roads ; but why they answer better than 

 horses for such work, I am at a loss to understand, 



