The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

312 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xxvi.
money, to see green fields and clear blue skies, far from the
smoke and bustle of town. If the dear suburban-grown cab-
bages became depreciated in value, there were truck-loads of
fresh-grown country cabbages to make amends for the loss : in
this case, the " partial evil " was a far more general good. The
food of the metropolis became rapidly improved, especially in
the supply of wholesome meat and vegetables. And then the
price of coals—an article which, in this country, is as indispen-
sable as daily food to all classes—was greatly reduced. What a
blessing to the metropolitan poor is described in this single fact
And George Stephenson was not only the inventor of the system
of internal communication by which coals were made cheaper in
London, but he was also the originator of the now gigantic trade
in coal conveyed to the metropolis by railway.
The prophecies of ruin and disaster to landlords and farmers
were equally confounded by the opening of the London and Birmingham
Railway. The agricultural communications, so far
from being " destroyed," as had been predicted, were immensely
improved. The farmers were enabled to buy their coals, lime,
and manure, for less money, whilst they obtained a readier ac-
cess to the best markets for their stock and farm-produce.
Notwithstanding the predictions to the contrary, their cows
gave milk as before, their sheep fed and fattened, and even
skittish horses ceased to shy at the passing locomotive. The
smoke of the engines did not obscure the sky, nor were farmyards
burnt up by the fire thrown from the locomotives. The
farming classes were not reduced to beggary ; on the contrary,
they soon felt that, far from having any thing to dread, they had
very much good to expect from the extension of railways.
Landlords also found that they could get higher rents for
farms situated near a railway, than at a distance from one.
Hence they became clamorous for " sidings." They felt it to be
a grievance to be placed at a distance from a station. After a
railway had been once opened, not a landlord would consent to
have the line taken from him. Owners who had fought the
promoters before Parliament, and compelled them to pass their
domains at a distance, at a vastly-increased expense in tunnels
and deviations, now petitioned for branches and nearer station
!