[1] Mr Tylor argues that Brading, in the Isle of Wight, was the favoured
point of shipment.
[2] 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."
[3] The subject of rivers and river transport will be fully dealt with in
later chapters.
[4] 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.
[5] "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.
[6] The earlier Continental route was by river to Gravesend and thence by
road to Dover.
[7] 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.
[8] Passengers are to-day regularly conveyed between London and Edinburgh
by train in eight and a quarter hours.
[9] The journey between Birmingham and London can now be done by train in
two hours.
[10] 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.
[11] 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.
[12] 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.
[13] 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.
[14] 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."
[15] Cross = cross road.
[16] 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."
[17] 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."
[18] 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.
[19] Salisbury.
[20] "Wines and groceries," says Archdeacon Plymley, "are brought up the
Severn from Bristol and Gloucester to Shrewsbury, and so on to
Montgomeryshire."
[21] Eighteenth.
[22] 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.
[23] 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."
[24] 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."
[25] Subsequently supplemented by a tunnel of larger dimensions alongside,
constructed by Telford.
[26] 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.
[27] 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.
[28] 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.
[29] 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."
[30] 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."
[31] 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.
[32] 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.
[33] Stationary engines.
[34] 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:--
£ s. d.
Forming the road and laying the dram rails,
making the fences, etc., £220 per mile 5720 0 0
Iron dram rails, 44 tons per mile, at £6 per ton 6864 0 0
Sleepers, £40 per mile 1040 0 0
Purchase of land, 26 miles at £75 per mile 1950 0 0
Extra allowance, £100 per mile 2600 0 0
---------------
£18,174 0 0
[35] In regard to this particular plea, see further references to the
Glamorganshire Canal Company on pages 238-9.
[36] Amalgamated by the Midland Railway Company.
[37] 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.
[38] 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.
[39] 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."
[40] See page 237.
[41] 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."
[42] 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.
[43] Professor Hadley states, in "Railroad Transportation," that in 1844
the average length of English railroads was fifteen miles.
[44] 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.
[45] The figures in this column are taken from the Board of Trade Railway
Returns for 1910.
[46] 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."
[47] 1825.
[48] 1832.
[49] "The Law Relating to Railway and Canal Traffic"; Boyle and Waghorn.
Vol. I, page 296.
[50] "Publications of the Department of Economics and Political Science of
the University of South Wales and Monmouthshire," No. 2 (1911).
[51] The turnpike trust loans still outstanding on the 25th of March, 1887,
amounted to £92,000.
[52] See p. 63.
[53] 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.
[54] 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."
The receipts under this head were as follows:-- £
Steamboats, canals, harbours and docks 5,145,640
Rents, tolls, hotels, etc. 4,542,793
---------
9,688,433
[56] 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."
[57] 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."
[58] See an article on "Bishopsgate Goods Station," by Frank B. Day, in the
"Great Eastern Railway Magazine" for July, 1911.
[59] 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.
[60] 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.
[61] 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."
[62] 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.
[63] 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.
[64] "Electricity in Locomotion," by A. G. Whyte, 1911.
[65] The total number of commercial motor-vehicles working in the London
district in August, 1911, was, according to statistics compiled by
"Commercial Motor," 3500.
[66] Mails are now being sent out from London every night by motor-vans for
distances of up to 100 miles.
[67] July 31, 1911.
[68] See pp. 58-63.
[69] Figures for March 31. On September 30, 1911, the number of taxicabs in
London was 7360.
[70] Figure for Sept. 24, 1907.
[71] 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.
[72] Exclusive of those by season-ticket holders.
[73] 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."