1 873.] Railway Development. 167 



pay any dividend at all, and are frequently obliged to appeal 

 for refuge to the " Court." Yet here we have an actual 

 proof of the capabilities of iron and steam to serve a 

 district, and not to forget its shareholders ; for, even after 

 allowing something for the cost of land and administration, 

 such as might be contingent on an enterprise carried out 

 without the aid of one great proprietor, there is in the 

 Wotton revenue a good balance on the right side. 



It is only right, in concluding these remarks on this 

 curious branch, to say that there are no platforms, the rails 

 weigh only 30 lbs. to the yard, and the line is not fenced 

 except in grazing meadows ; at each main road crossing 

 there is a siding for trucks ; the guard issues tickets whilst 

 travelling in the train, the tickets being torn from a book as 

 in a tramway-carriage ; one ordinary train is instanced as a 

 fair average down, it consisted of the engine, a Great 

 Western railway-carriage, five empty coal trucks, and three 

 trucks laden with hay, which altogether weighed about 

 50 tons. 



The staff of servants working the train consists of one 

 engine-driver, one breaksman, and one guard ; at Messrs. 

 Chaplin and Home's offices, at Brill, there is a manager 

 and two clerks. The principal traffic is in coal, of which 

 from 100 tons to 140 tons go up weekly. 



How many parts of England, and more in Scotland and 

 Ireland, are languishing for want of such humble but 

 efficient steam tramways ; how enormously might the pro- 

 ductive powers of the soil be increased by such easy access 

 to and from the railway system ; every farmer might have the 

 railway wagons brought to his homestead, giving him cheap 

 lime, coal, and manure, and taking out his hay, straw, and 

 cattle ; and furthermore, what a field is here opened out for 

 the investment of capital now seeking employment and only 

 finding it in foreign enterprises. By a little careful 

 selection of the country, by the co-operation of the land- 

 owners, and with the aid of an occasional paper mill, 

 quarry, or manufactory, such undertakings might be made 

 to pay large and handsome dividends, very much exceeding 

 those obtained in the Wotton tramway. Their development 

 and their success must depend on the landowners them- 

 selves : if they will obstinately persist in making all kinds 

 of monstrous claims for severance and land, no investor 

 could reasonably be asked to embark in the scheme ; but if 

 they would content themselves with fair rent charges and 

 agricultural values, their properties might be benefited in a 

 way to yield them handsome returns. 



