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

CHAP. XXVI.] STAGECOACH AND EAILWAY CONTRASTED. 313
accommodation.* Those who held property near towns, and had
extorted large sums as compensation for the anticipated deterioration
in the value of their building land, found a new demand
for it springing up at greatly advanced prices. Land was now
advertised for sale, with the attraction of being " near a railway
station."
The prediction that, even if railways were made, the public
would not use them, was also completely falsified by the results.
The ordinary mode of fast travelling for the middle classes had
heretofore been by mail coach and stage coach. Those who
could not afford to pay the high prices charged for such convey-
ances went by wagon, and the poorer classes trudged on foot.
George Stephenson was wont to say that he hoped to see the
day when it would be cheaper for a poor man to travel by
railway than to walk ; and not many years passed before his
expectation was fulfilled. In no country in the world is time
worth more money than in England ;
and by saving time—the
criterion of distance—the railway proved a great benefactor to
men of industry in all classes. Many deplored the inevitable
downfall of the old stage-coach system. There was to be an
end of that delightful variety of incident usually attendant on a
journey by road. The rapid scamper across a fine country on
the outside of the four-horse " Express," or " Highflyer ; " the
seat on the box beside Jehu, or the equally coveted place near
the facetious guard behind ;
the journey amid open green fields,
through smiling villages and fine old towns, where the stage
stopped to change horses and the passengers to dine,—was all
very delightful in its way ; and many regretted that this old-
fashioned and pleasant style of travelling was about to pass
# Some landlords were slow in learning the advantages of railways. When,
many years later, an important railway bill was hefore Parliament, a noble
marquis compelled the company to pass his mansion at a distance of at least
five miles, to do which it was necessary to construct two expensive tunnels.
When the line was opened, his lordship felt the exceeding inconvenience of
being so far distant from a railway station, and requested the company to provide
a branch for his accommodation. As he had already put them to enormous
and unnecessary expense, they respectfully declined doing so, and he has since
been under the necessity of himself constructmg a branch at a cost of 160,0002.,
which he has requested the parent
for him.
14
company to do him the favour of working
.