Mr Tylor argues that Brading, in the Isle of Wight, was the favoured point of shipment.

In the Ninth Report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, page 290, mention is made of a charter, granted by Edward VI., giving a new municipal constitution to the "ancient borough" of Stratford-on-Avon in lieu of the franchise and local government taken away by the suppression of the guild previously existing there; and in this charter the guild in question is spoken of as having been, in former times, "founded and endowed with divers lands tenements and possessions," the rents, revenues and profits from which were to be devoted to the maintenance of a grammar school, an almshouse, and "a certain great stone bridge, called Stratford Bridge, placed and built over the water and river of the Avon beside the said borough."

The subject of rivers and river transport will be fully dealt with in later chapters.

The fair has, also, been widely described as the "Stourbridge" fair, a name which seems to associate it, quite wrongly, with the town of Stourbridge, in Worcestershire. I have preferred to follow here the spelling favoured by Defoe and other contemporary writers.

"Staple" was a term applied, in the Middle Ages (1) to a town to which traders were encouraged to send their supplies of some particular commodity—wool, for example—such town becoming the recognised headquarters of the trade concerned, while the arrangement was one that facilitated the collection of the taxes imposed by the King on the traders; and (2) to the commodity sold under these conditions.

The earlier Continental route was by river to Gravesend and thence by road to Dover.

This Act also provided that when the wheels of a waggon were so arranged that those at the back followed in a line with those in front, the two pairs thus running in one and the same groove, only half the usual tolls should be charged.

Passengers are to-day regularly conveyed between London and Edinburgh by train in eight and a quarter hours.

The journey between Birmingham and London can now be done by train in two hours.

The fares by the stage coaches generally worked out at 2½d. to 3d. a mile outside, and 4d. to 5d. a mile inside; and those by mail-coach at 4d. to 5d. a mile outside, and 8d. to 10d. a mile inside. An outside place on the Edinburgh mail-coach cost about 7½ guineas, and an inside place 11½ guineas, exclusive of tips to coachmen and guards at every stage, and meals and refreshments en route. C. G. Harper, in "The Great North Road," estimates that the total cost of a journey from London to Edinburgh by mail-coach was, for an outside traveller, 11 guineas, and for an inside traveller 15 guineas.

By an Act of Parliament passed in 1710 the number of sedan chairs allowed to ply for hire in London was fixed at 200, but the limit was raised in the following year to 300. This was, of course, independent of the private sedan chairs, of which every mansion had at least one.

So numerous were—or had been—the Thames watermen and lightermen that, according to Stow, they could at any time have furnished 20,000 men for the fleet.

Incidentally, this fact may explain why country roads to-day, still following old tracks, often have so many twists and turns when, one might think, they could just as well have been made straight.

A writer in the "Westminster Review" for October, 1825, referring to the lack of finger-posts, says: "There is scarcely a parish in the country, and not one in the remoter parts, where a stranger can possibly find his way, for want of this obvious remedy. South Wales is an inextricable labyrinth; it is a chance if there is a finger-post in the whole principality. Cornwall and Devonshire are as bad. If by chance they are once erected they are never repaired or replaced. The justices know their own roads and care nothing for the traveller."

Cross = cross road.

Similar Committees were, also, appointed in 1819, 1820, and 1821. In the report it eventually issued, the Committee of 1811 said: "By the improvement of our roads, every branch of our agricultural, commercial and manufacturing industry would be materially benefitted. Every article brought to market would be diminished in price; the number of horses would be so much reduced, that by these and other retrenchments, the expense of five millions would be annually saved to the public."

It was shown in evidence before the Select Committee of 1819 that the "surveyors" in a certain district included a miller, an undertaker, a carpenter, a coal merchant, a publican, a baker, "an infirm old man," and "a bedridden old man who had not been out of his house for several months." Nineteen times out of twenty, it was declared, the appointment was "a perfect job."

McAdam had found the roads at Bristol loaded with an accumulation two or three feet deep of stones, which had been thrown down during a series of years with the idea of "repairing" the roads. Such roads became his quarries for stones to be broken by hand.

Salisbury.

"Wines and groceries," says Archdeacon Plymley, "are brought up the Severn from Bristol and Gloucester to Shrewsbury, and so on to Montgomeryshire."

Eighteenth.

The Douglas navigation was afterwards purchased by the proprietors of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, who substituted an artificial cut for part of the natural channel of the river.

In giving an account of a visit he paid to Derbyshire in 1713, Dr. William Stukeley says in his "Itinerarium Curiosum" (2nd ed., 1776): "At the smelting works they melt down the lead ore, and run it into a mould, whence it becomes pigs, as they call it; the bellows continually are kept in motion by running water."

Barges were towed up-stream on the Severn by men. Writing in 1803, Archdeacon Plymley said: "A horse towing-path is now established from Bewdley to Coalbrookdale, which is more and more used, and it is hoped will soon be extended, the office of towing barges by men being looked upon as very injurious to their manners."

Subsequently supplemented by a tunnel of larger dimensions alongside, constructed by Telford.

The imports of raw cotton into the United Kingdom in 1910 were 17,614,860 cwts., or nearly 1973 million lbs., valued at £71,716,808.

Not only was it a case of the cart going before the horse, on a descending road, but in some instances there was attached to the waggon a sort of horse-trolley on which the animal itself could ride down-hill, and thus reserve its strength for taking back the empty waggon on a second pair of rails alongside.

In the first instance projections were cast on the rails to allow of their being attached to the wooden sleepers; but, as these projections were found to break easily, they were cast separately in the form of "pedestals," or "chairs," into which, after they had been fastened to the sleepers, the rails could be fixed with pieces of wood.

Mr Brunlees is of opinion that the plating of rails with a steel surface was probably begun about 1854, and that it was not until eight or ten years later they were made entirely of steel. "Now," he said in his address, "owing to the improvements in the manufacture of steel rails, they can be produced as easily and as cheaply as iron rails."

The adoption of the designation "Iron," as applied to the railway systems abroad, was probably influenced to some extent by Thomas Gray's "Observations on a General Iron Rail-way." First published in 1820, the work had gone through five editions by 1825, and in a letter addressed, in 1845, to Sir Robert Peel, urging the claims of Gray to generous treatment by the State, on the ground of his being the "author" (sic) of the railway system, Thomas Wilson wrote: "His name and his fame were spreading in other lands; his work was translated into all the European languages, and to the impression produced by it may be attributes the popular feeling throughout Germany and France in favour of rail-road which has terminated in the adoption of his railway system in Germany and Belgium especially."

The stone bridge here referred to allowed of an easy transport across the valley from the collieries to the Tyne. Constructed by a local mason, the bridge soon fell down, and was rebuilt in 1727, the architect thereupon committing suicide to spare himself the anxiety of any possible further collapse of his work. In Brand's "History and Antiquities of Newcastle" (1789) it is stated that the span of the bridge was 103 feet, that the height was 63 feet, and that the cost of the structure was £1200.

In the Company's further Acts of 1783 and 1785 this line was still spoken of as a "rail-way," with the hyphen; but in their Act of 1797 it had become a railway—without the hyphen.

Stationary engines.

The length of the main line from Carno Mill to Cardiff was to be 26 miles, the branches increasing the total to 44 miles. The estimates of expenditure put the cost of land and construction at £31,105, exclusive of £894 10s., for "obtaining the Act, etc." The items in respect to the main line were as follows:—

In regard to this particular plea, see further references to the Glamorganshire Canal Company on pages 238-9.

Amalgamated by the Midland Railway Company.

My authority for this statement is a newspaper article, headed "Centenary of the First Railway Act," written in 1901 by W. P. Paley, and to be found in a collection of railway pamphlets in the British Museum (08235 i 36). The name of the journal is not stated; but the writer of the article gives such precise details concerning the line in question that his information is evidently authentic.

In succeeding engines a double tube, bent in the form of the letter U, was fixed. Stephenson provided his "Rocket" with 25 tubes, thus giving a further substantial increase in the heating surface.

That this attitude of organised hostility on the part of the canal companies was well maintained is shown by the following extract from the "Manchester Advertiser" of January 30, 1836: "The proprietors of the Ayre and Calder navigation and of the Canals, have resolved to organise an opposition to all railways whatever in Parliament. The canal proprietors are thus openly setting themselves in opposition to one of the greatest improvements of the age."

See page 237.

In the Taff Vale Railway Act of 1836 (the same year as that in which Morrison made his proposals) the company were prohibited from paying a dividend of more than seven per cent when the full tolls were charged, or of more than nine per cent after the tolls had been reduced by twenty-five per cent; and the shareholders were required, at any meeting at which these maximum dividends were declared, to make such reasonable reductions in the amount of the rates to be paid during the following year as would, in their opinion, reduce the profits to the seven or nine per cent level. It was further provided that, for the purpose of "better ascertaining the amount of the clear profits upon the said railway," the company should submit their accounts to the Justices in Quarter Sessions, who were to make such reductions in the rates to be collected during the year next ensuing as would, in their judgment, reduce the profits to the prescribed minima. Mr A. Beasley, general manager of the Taff Vale Railway, who gives this information in an article on "How Parliament Harassed Early Railways," published in "The Railway Magazine" for November, 1908, adds: "The gentlemen of Quarter Sessions were never called upon to undertake this formidable task as the clauses were repealed by the Company's Act of 1840."

Under the Cheap Trains Act of 1883 the duty was remitted in the case of all fares not exceeding the rate of one penny a mile, and was reduced to two per cent on fares exceeding that rate for conveyance between urban stations within one urban district.

Professor Hadley states, in "Railroad Transportation," that in 1844 the average length of English railroads was fifteen miles.

The present Railway and Canal Commission, which, however, has no functions in regard to advising on railway Bills, was created in 1873 for a period of years, and was made permanent in 1888.

The figures in this column are taken from the Board of Trade Railway Returns for 1910.

When giving evidence before the Departmental Committee on Railway Agreements and Amalgamations, on June 21, 1910, Mr A. Beasley, general manager of the Taff Vale Railway Company, called attention to the fact that in "Bradshaw's Railway Manual" for 1909 there was published a special index of all the railways of which notices had appeared in that publication during sixty years (practically covering the whole position), the total of such railways, including light railways, being 1129. Of this number 86 were recorded as having been abandoned, closed or wound up, leaving a balance of 1043. In "Bradshaw's Railway Guide" for March, 1910, only 110 railways—including light railways, railways operated by joint committees, as well as railways in the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, and Jersey—were given as being in actual operation. "That shows," continued Mr Beasley, "that there must have been 933 railways, all separately authorised, most of them separately constructed, and many of them, for a time, separately worked, which have been purchased, amalgamated, leased or otherwise absorbed or taken over by other undertakings."

1825.

1832.

"The Law Relating to Railway and Canal Traffic"; Boyle and Waghorn. Vol. I, page 296.

"Publications of the Department of Economics and Political Science of the University of South Wales and Monmouthshire," No. 2 (1911).

The turnpike trust loans still outstanding on the 25th of March, 1887, amounted to £92,000.

See p. 63.

Lectures on the "History of Traffic Legislation and Parliamentary Action in Connection with Railways," delivered at the London School of Economics. See "The Railway News," November 30, 1907.

The existence of this large number of privately owned railway waggons—the greater proportion of which are in use in the coal trade—recalls the days when it was assumed that traders would provide their own rolling stock on the railways. It shows that they still do so to a considerable extent, although, of course, relying on the railway companies to supply the locomotives. It will also be seen how the questions which have arisen from time to time as to the use of a larger type of railway waggon and, also, of automatic couplers on waggons, may be complicated by the variety of ownership. There is an Association of Private Owners of Railway Rolling Stock, the objects of which are "to maintain and defend the rights and promote the interests of private owners and hirers of railway rolling stock."

An excellent summary of the general position to-day will be found in "The Rating of Railways," a booklet issued by the Editor of the "Great Western Railway Magazine."

In "Insurance Legislation in Germany; Copy of Memorandum containing the Opinions of various Authorities in Germany" [Cd. 5679], Herr E. Schmidt, Member of the Imperial Diet, and President of the German Tobacco Manufacturers' Association, is quoted as saying: "I am convinced that when the social legislation was introduced, and for the first time the large contributions for sickness insurance and later for old age and infirmity insurance had to be paid, many of us groaned. To-day, however, these contributions, which occur every year, are booked either to the general expenses account or the wages account—for they are, in fact, a part of wages—and they are naturally calculated as part of the cost of production, and eventually appear in the price of the goods, though perhaps not to the full extent in times of bad trade."

See an article on "Bishopsgate Goods Station," by Frank B. Day, in the "Great Eastern Railway Magazine" for July, 1911.

In the week ending April 17, 1909, the broccoli sent from the Penzance district to various destinations throughout the country filled 1012 railway waggons, and necessitated the running of 34 special trains.

See speech by Mr Frederick Shelford at a meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, May 24, 1910, reported in "United Empire; the Royal Colonial Institute Journal," for August, 1910.

When the Tramways Bill of 1870 was introduced, Mr Shaw Lefevre stated that its underlying principle was to empower local authorities "to construct tramways, but not, of course, work them."

Another of the witnesses was the Right Hon. J. W. Lowther, M.P., at that time Chairman of Committees, and now Speaker of the House of Commons. He assured the Commission that the power of "vetoing" tramways had worked a great deal of mischief. He further declared that the Standing Order had been most improperly used for the purpose of extorting all sorts of terms and conditions from tramway companies, and had subjected them to liabilities and disabilities which were never contemplated by Parliament.

See R. P. Porter's "Dangers of Municipal Trading," pp. 174-5, where it is stated that of over £4,000,000 spent by the London County Council on street widenings for tramway extensions only £377,000 was debited to the tramway undertaking.

"Electricity in Locomotion," by A. G. Whyte, 1911.

The total number of commercial motor-vehicles working in the London district in August, 1911, was, according to statistics compiled by "Commercial Motor," 3500.

Mails are now being sent out from London every night by motor-vans for distances of up to 100 miles.

July 31, 1911.

See pp. 58-63.

Figures for March 31. On September 30, 1911, the number of taxicabs in London was 7360.

Figure for Sept. 24, 1907.

A good example of these tendencies is offered by the Southend district, situate at the mouth of the Thames, a distance of 35 miles from London. Season tickets between London and Southend are issued by the railways at a low rate, and on the London, Tilbury and Southend line there are 6000 holders of these tickets. In the special interests of wives and daughters cheap tickets to London by an express train are issued on Wednesdays to allow of shopping in town, visits to the theatre, etc., and by this train there is an average of from 600 to 700 passengers, consisting almost exclusively of ladies.

Exclusive of those by season-ticket holders.

In an address delivered by him as president of the Railway Students' Union at the London School of Economics on October 24, 1911, Mr Sam Fay, general manager of the Great Central Railway, said: "There is little prospect of any extensive opening out of new competitive routes in this country, and, but for a few comparatively short lines here and there, the railway system may be considered complete."