ORIGIN OF A RAILWAY 187 



from Verney Junction to Aylesbury was abandoned, 

 and was thought nothing of for a space of nearly 

 fifteen years. Sometime about the year i860 some 

 gentlemen called on me to confer as to the desirability 

 of making a line to Thame, and then continuing it to 

 Oxford from the terminus of the London and North- 

 Western at Aylesbury. The line was surveyed, 

 and was apparently sure of success, but ' the old, 

 old story,' want of capital, caused the project to be 

 abandoned. A year or two later, a Mr. Brydone, 

 one of the engineers of the Great Northern Rail- 

 way, with Mr. F. Rummens, a small and quite 

 unknown contractor, who had been one of those 

 concerned in the abortive railway to Thame, begged 

 of me to join them in reviving the undertaking. I 

 told them it was useless to attempt it, as a Bill had 

 been obtained the previous session by the Great 

 Western Company to make a line to that town and 

 thence to Oxford, but I said, I remember, that in 

 the year 1847, the portion of the Buckinghamshire 

 (formerly described) had been abandoned, and 

 ought to be revived. The original intention had 

 been to connect Aylesbury with Banbury, Bucking- 

 ham, and Oxford ; but the main line was now like 

 the play of ' Hamlet ' with the principal character 

 omitted. The line was, in fact, deprived of all its 

 value. If they thought it worth while, I would show 

 them the country, and prove it would be of in- 

 calculable advantage to the whole district if the 

 project could be carried out. I then ordered out a 

 carriage and pair of horses, and we started over the 



