i86 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



CHAPTER XIX 



History of a railway — Opening of the London and Birmingham, now 

 the London and North-Western — The Buckinghamshire — George 

 Stephenson and his son Robert — The Aylesbury — Messrs. Brydone 

 and Rummens — Marquis of Chandos — Mr. Stewart, secretary to 

 London and North- Western — Unfair opposition of landowner — 

 Contracts and their effect — Directors' advances — The Great Western 

 — The Metropolitan — Purchase of the A and B line — Shameful 

 treatment of the original directors — Their just claims ignored — The 

 Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnsliire (Great Central). 



It may be of some interest to railway people and 

 others to learn the singular history of a much 

 despised and greatly ridiculed little railroad. I may 

 be pardoned for recounting this, as I was the pro- 

 jector of the scheme for reviving a portion of the 

 original design of old George Stephenson, which 

 was further developed by his son Robert. This 

 line, the ' Buckinghamshire,' was one of the great 

 proposals of the latter in the year 1846, and was 

 projected to connect the Great Western at Oxford 

 with the London and North-Western at Bletchley, 

 as also to join the former line at Banbury with the 

 latter at Aylesbury, the two lines crossing at a spot 

 now called Verney Junction, in the parish of Claydon, 

 on land belonging to the late Sir Harry Verney. 

 7 he lines were commenced, and shortly afterwards 

 the railway crisis ensued, and in the end the portion 



