BOUND FOR THE BORDER 243 



ninety times, but not fewer than forty-eight times on 

 the way. 



On Smiday, September 8, 1895, an experimental 

 train of seven vehicles covered the w^hole distance, 

 without a single stoppage, in seven minutes under 

 six hours, or in less time than in the old days 

 stoppages alone would have absorbed. 



Here is a striking contrast. Within my lifetime 

 the transit from London to Carlisle — a distance of 

 nearly three hundred miles — has been reduced from 

 more than thirty-two hours by coach to less than six 

 hours by rail. 



Almost on the very day on which this railway feat 

 was accomplished by driver Benjamin Robinson, there 

 died Joseph Bell, the first engine-driver of all, inas- 

 much as he drove Stephenson's engine, the Eocket, 

 which is now in the National Museum at South 

 Kensington. In sixty years mail-coaches were born, 

 attained perfection, and, alas ! perished. In sixty 

 years. Bell saw the beginning of passenger railway- 

 trains, and all but saw the latest marvel, viz., a 

 speed of fifty miles an hour, maintained for six 

 successive hours without even a solitary halt by the 

 way. 



