THE PASSING OF THE " DANDY ' in 



travelled until we reached the Port, where empty locks open 

 upon the derelict and silted harbour. Three miles lower 

 down the Sol way the Caledonian viaduct crosses, and it 

 was the construction of this railway that finally shattered 

 the hopes of Port Carlisle; shipping to the port was 

 obstructed. The old sandstone quay is weathered and 

 crumbling; it is already cut off from the land, and the 

 redshank whistles as it paddles in the mud of the boatless 

 harbour. No old salts, red and weathered as the sand- 

 stone, lean on the rope-covered bollards to watch the 

 flatmen transfer their cargoes to the schooners, for flats, 

 ships, and ancient sailors have departed for ever; it is 

 Port in name only. The heron can catch dabs in the 

 gutters on the marsh a few yards from the railway, but 

 the screaming gull finds no fisherman's offal to reward 

 his scrutiny of the harbour. 



Port Carlisle boasts that theirs is the last dandy, the 

 last one-horse railway; but rumour has it that another 

 survives at the other extremity of England in far Corn- 

 wall. Possibly, but does it also combine railroad and 

 canal ? The day of the dandy, however, is drawing to a 

 close. Even as we passed on our speedy journey we 

 saw signals lying ready to be put up, sleepers being 

 replaced, and safety rails laid at the worst curves. 

 Within three months other work will be found for the horse, 

 and the dandy will cease its diurnal trips; an engine 

 and carriage, perhaps a train, will ply between Drum- 

 burgh and Port Carlisle; the summer visitors to Sol way 

 shore must do without their dandy. Probably it will 

 stand, wheelless, beside its old canal bed to serve as a 

 shelter for platelayers, and the passing tourist will remark: 

 ' What a funny old carriage !" As we traveUed down 

 the line the platelayers at work cracked jokes with the 

 driver; to them the dandy was amusing. To some of us 

 there is pathos in the passing of the dandy. 



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