194 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



and district, also to Harrow and Uxbridge. We pro- 

 jected a line direct to the Metropolis, this having 

 been, as I knew, a part of old George Stephenson's 

 original line from London into the North, but as the 

 authorities at Euston objected, we abandoned it to a 

 future opportunity. It would be useless to attempt a 

 record of the varied fortune which attended the appli- 

 cations to Parliament for a line up this Missenden 

 valley, until at last the Duke of Buckingham and 

 myself persuaded Sir Edward Watkin, with his 

 right hand. Sir Myles Fenton, to join the Board of 

 the ' A and B ' line, which in the end they agreed to 

 do, on vacancies being arranged for them. There- 

 after the new line was vigorously taken up ; and 

 finally, after nearly thirty years of frustrated 

 endeavour, the Act was obtained, and the line com- 

 pleted and opened from Baker Street to Aylesbury. 

 And a further development was projected, viz. the 

 bold scheme of purchasing the despised Aylesbury 

 and Buckingham, thus continuing the railway into 

 the North, and joining the Manchester, Sheffield, 

 and Lincolnshire line. This was looked on as too 

 Utopian for serious consideration, but through the 

 determined action of Sir Edward Watkin, who, as 

 Chairman of the Metropolitan, had succeeded in 

 purchasing the 'A and B ' Co. for 100,000/., the line 

 having cost us 167,000/., and had never earned a 

 shillincj for the shareholders, nor had the directors 

 ever received a farthing for their services, or their 

 expenses. This purchase gave the Metropolitan 

 Company an advance of fifty-six miles to the 



