I90 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



the directors of the London and North-Western. 

 The secretary repHed ' that he was directed to 

 inform him that as soon as the Hne was completed 

 they would be happy to work it on fair and equit- 

 able terms' The Marquis was then chairman of 

 both lines, and he, with our other directors, were of 

 course perfectly satisfied with our prospects. We 

 issued 35,000/. worth of 5 per cent, debentures, 

 which were readily taken up by the public, and we 

 thought we were in clover. Soon after the retire- 

 ment of the Marquis the crisis of 1866 came upon 

 us, and the want of money utterly paralysed our 

 exertions. In addition to this, a London solicitor, 

 the agent to an impecunious landowner, through 

 whose property our line passed for nearly three 

 miles, threw every obstacle in our way, levying 

 blackmail on us by every means in his power, per- 

 suading the tenants to put forth monstrous claims 

 for severance and residential injury, and causing us 

 quite a year's delay. This was most unwarrantable, 

 as this same lawyer had welcomed us effusively, pro- 

 mised to give us every encouragement, as the estate 

 would be improved 30 per cent, by having a station 

 upon it, and promised to let us have the land at 

 agricultural value. When we began to treat for 

 the land, as soon as the works had reached this pro- 

 perty, this man pretended that the proposed route 

 had been altered, which was utterly untrue, and 

 demanded three times the value of the land, and 

 stipulated that an iron railed fence should be carried 

 along the line instead of a fence of wood and a 



