EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS. 429 



1848, when ' stag '-hunting became a very extensive 

 matter of business, resulting, however, generally in the 

 escape of the * stag,' who, having an early suspicion 

 of the approach of his pursuers, got a good start, 

 and eventually managed to evade them and reach 

 a place of safety. As so many years have passed 

 since that time, persons may have forgotten the 

 meaning of the word ' stag,' and others be too young 

 to have heard the expression. It may be as well, 

 therefore, to explain that it was a term applied 

 to persons who, having obtained letters of allotment 

 for railway shares, become directors in railway com- 

 panies, or otherwise incurred liabilities which they 

 were totally unable to meet, were obliged to make 

 a hasty journey across the Channel to Boulogne or 

 some other place abroad, where they were safe from 

 any hostile measures to enforce payment of calls. A 

 vast number of persons were compelled to resort 

 to this plan, and it was an everyday occurrence 

 to hear that so-and-so was a 'stag.' Those 'stags,' 

 however, who had not the means of going abroad 

 and residing there were obliged to adopt some other 

 measures for concealing their whereabouts. 



By the end of the year 1847 the railway fever 

 had attained its height, to which it had been rapidly 

 progressing for the few previous years, as the state- 

 ment of lines authorized and those opened stands 



