ENGLISH RAILWAYS. 541 



The last word reminds me that I must say a word or two here, 

 about the English railways. In point of speed I think their reputa- 

 tion outruns the fact. I did not find their average (with the excep- 

 tion of the road between Liverpool and London) much above that 

 of our best northern and eastern roads. They make, for instance, 

 hardly twenty miles an hour with the ordinary trains, and about 

 thirty-six miles an hour with the express trains. But the perfect 

 order and system with which they are managed; the obliging 

 civility of all persons in the employment of the companies to travel- 

 lers, and the quietness with which the business of the road is carried 

 on, strikes an American very strongly. For example, suppose you 

 are on a railroad at home. You are about to approach a small 

 town, where you may leave and take up, perhaps, twenty passen- 

 gers. As soon as the town is in sight, the engine or its whistle be- 

 gins to scream out the bell rings the steam whizzes and the 

 train stops. Out hurry the way passengers, in rush the new comers. 

 Again the bell rings, the steam whizzes, and with a noise something 

 between a screech and a yell, but more infernal than either a 

 noise that deafens the old ladies, delights the boys, and frightens all 

 the horses, off rushes the train whizzing and yelling over a mile 

 or two more of the country, before it takes breath for the like pro- 

 cess at the next station. 



In an English railway you seldom hear the scream of the steam 

 whistle at all. It is not considered part of the business of the en- 

 gineer to disturb the peace of the whole neighborhood, and inform 

 them that he and the train are coming. The guard at the station 

 notices the train when it first comes in sight. He immediately rings 

 a hand-bell, just loud enough to warn the passengers in the station, 

 to get ready. The train arrives no yelling, screaming or whizzing 

 possibly' a gentle letting off of the steam quite a necessary 

 thing not at all for effect. The passengers get out, and others get 

 in, and are all carefully seated by the aforesaid guard or guards. 

 "When this is all done, the guard of the station gives a tinkle or two 

 with his hand-bell again, to signify to the conductor that all is 

 ready, and off the train darts, as quietly as if it knew screaming to 

 be a thing not tolerated in good society. But the difference is na- 

 tional after all. John Bull says in his railroads, as in every thing 



