440 THE COACHING AGE. 



the steam- carriages had to contend with, was the 

 want of capital — most of their inventors being 

 poor men ; much money was expended in ex- 

 periments and improvements — more than indi- 

 vidual capitalists could be persuaded to advance, 

 although Mr. Gurney altogether sunk £100,000 in 

 the undertaking, and a Mr. Ogle £60,000. More- 

 over, about this time the public mind was' running 

 upon railways, which met w^ith very general support 

 on the part of the community, while the locomotive 

 schemes remained in the hands of a few individuals. 

 That, notwithstanding all the difficulties he had to 

 contend with, Colonel Maceroni was tolerably suc- 

 cessful may be gathered from the journeys he per- 

 formed, and it may be assumed that he carried 

 locomotive-travelling on roads as far as was possible, 

 and showed the utmost extent to which it was 

 practically available. 



Some further account of his experimental journeys 

 and their results may not be uninteresting, first, how- 

 ever, giving two instances of experiments on rail- 

 ways which, like his, did not turn out very success- 

 fully. 



Variations from the ordinary mode of drawing 

 trains by a steam-engine attached in front were 

 adopted by two short lines out of London, namely, 

 the Croydon and the Blackwall. On the former the 



