Time and Distance from Birmingham.
To. Miles. H. M.
Wolverhampton 14½ 0 40
Stafford 29¼ 1 15
Whitmore 43¾ 1 55
Crewe 54 2 24
Hartford 65¾ 2 59
Manchester }
Liverpool } 97¼ 4 30
Afterwards the railway companies--there were just seven of them--issued
monthly leaflets on their own account. What a convenience to the
travelling public it would be if someone would collect these leaflets
and reprint them in the form of a little book or pamphlet! No sooner
did the idea occur to Bradshaw than he acted on it. There is no doubt
that had he delayed there were others ready to promulgate the notion.
Indeed, one Gadsby, a Manchester printer, followed close at his heels,
just missing priority by a few weeks.
[Illustration: THE COVER OF THE FIRST NUMBERS OF "BRADSHAW"--ACTUAL
SIZE.]
It was towards the end of October, the "10th mo." of the Quakers, that
the printing press at Manchester turned out the first "Bradshaw." It
was a very modest, unobtrusive little volume, bound in green cloth,
with a simple legend in gilt. It could be obtained of any bookseller or
railway company for the sum of sixpence. It was not, however, as we may
see, entitled "Bradshaw's Railway Guide"--that title was not to come
till later. Here, too, is the "address" or introduction to the first
"Bradshaw":--
"This book is published by the assistance of the several railway
companies, on which account the information it contains may be depended
upon as being correct and authentic. The necessity of such a work is
so obvious as to need no apology; and the merits of it can best be
ascertained by a reference to the execution both as regards the style
and correctness of the maps and plans with which it is illustrated."
For it must be borne in mind that Bradshaw was first and foremost a
map-engraver, and was not likely to let such an opportunity for a
display in public of his skill pass profitless by. We also give a
reproduction of the first page of Bradshaw's effort. From this little
book we learn that, like the French trams and omnibuses of to-day,
there was one charge for inside and another for outside passengers, six
shillings being the first-class fare between Liverpool and Manchester.
Of the first "time-tables," only two copies of each variety--for there
was a slight variation in the issues for October, 1839--are known to be
in existence: two are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and two are in
the possession of Bradshaw's successors, Henry Blacklock and Co., of
Manchester, so that they are among the rarest editions extant.
Some two months later, on New Year's Day, 1840, Bradshaw brought out
his little work in an amended form, with a brand-new title. This gave
him further opportunities, in the course of its thirty-eight pages,
for maps and letterpress, and to it he gave the title of "Railway
Companion." It is really in size and type and style the same thing as
the time-tables; but being sold at a shilling was continued distinct
from the time-tables until it was merged into the "Guide" in 1848.
There is some interesting, if somewhat startling, information in the
"Companion." One can only gasp at being confronted by "A table showing
the rate of travelling from one to four hundred miles an hour." These
rosy anticipations have not yet been realized--not even in the velocity
of the electric mono-rail.
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST COPY OF "BRADSHAW."]
How, it may be asked, did the railway companies of 1840 receive the
first general railway guide? Odd to relate, not with any great favour.
They even refused to supply their time-tables to Bradshaw when they
ascertained the use to which that enterprising Quaker was putting them.
"Why," they said, "if this fellow goes on in this way he will make
punctuality a kind of obligation, with penalties for failure. Whereas
at present, if the ten minutes past three train steams gently out at
twenty minutes to four, or even four o'clock, we do not fall much in
the esteem of the public, accustomed to the free and easy methods of
the stage-coach."
But the Quaker was not thus to be repressed. He got hold of the
time-tables somehow: he waited in person on the boards; afterwards
he even purchased stock in the hostile railway companies, and the
enterprise went on. But as yet the guides we have been describing
were not regularly issued. They were mere fitful publications, and it
was not until Adams, whom Bradshaw had secured as his London agent,
urged upon him the necessity of a regular issue that the first monthly
"Guide" made its _début_ in the world. This was on December 1st, 1841.
The "Guide" differed from its predecessors in being bound in paper--not
cloth--and in consisting of but thirty-two pages of printed matter. By
this time, too, Bradshaw could announce that "This work is published
monthly, under the direction and with the assistance of the railway
companies, and is carefully corrected up to the date it bears; every
reliance may, therefore, be placed on the accuracy of its details."
Moreover, it was dispensed in another and simpler form. The pages
of which it was composed were arranged on a single large sheet or
"broadside," "exhibiting at one view the hours of departure and arrival
of the trains on every railway in the kingdom, and are particularly
adapted for counting-houses and places of business." For this sheet
only threepence was demanded, but if mounted on stiff boards the price
was two shillings and ninepence.
In 1843 the railway mania, which afterwards enriched and beggared
thousands, was advancing apace. There were in that year just
forty-eight different railways in kingdom: and as the public were
keenly interested in them we find, together with a slight alteration
in the title of "Bradshaw" to the "Monthly General Railway and Steam
Navigation Guide," more reading matter, and "a list of shares,
exhibiting at one view the cost, traffic length, dividend, and market
value of the same."
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST COPY ISSUED WITH THE WORDS
"RAILWAY GUIDE."]
There is one curious circumstance in the early history of "Bradshaw,"
which Mr. Percy Fitzgerald has pointed out. Its founder appears to
have been ashamed of its youth, for when the fortieth number had been
attained we find, in September, 1844, a sudden jump to number 146.
Did those missing hundred numbers ever afterwards disturb the pious
Quaker's rest?
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE VERY EARLIEST "BRADSHAW."]
From these early guides a great deal of entertainment and instruction
is to be obtained. There is no mention of "express" trains, for
instance; they are described as "first class," "second class," "mixed,"
"fast," and "mail." We are told that "first-class trains stop at
first-class stations." Third-class travellers travelled on the roof
or in open "waggons." At the other end of the scale of luxury were
"glass coaches"--_i.e._, carriages with plenty of windows. Tickets
are "passes" or "check tickets," and it is strictly enjoined that
"the check ticket given to the passenger on payment of his fare will
be demanded from him at the station next before his arrival at London
or Birmingham, and if not then produced he will be liable to have the
fare again demanded." As to fares, we learn from the "Guide" that
they fluctuate according to day or night or the number of passengers
in a carriage. The fare from London to Birmingham was thirty-two
shillings and sixpence first class, but if six travelled inside by day
the tariff was reduced to thirty shillings, and a similar reduction
for second-class passengers. Now that the season-ticket system is so
widespread and familiar, the reader learns with some amazement that "An
annual subscription ticket from London to Brighton and back is £100."
Here are some further extracts from the "Guide":--
"Passengers are especially recommended to have their names and address
or destination written on each part of their luggage, when it will be
placed on the top of the coach in which they ride.
"If the passenger be destined for Manchester or Liverpool, and has
booked his place through, his luggage will be placed on the Liverpool
or Manchester coach, and will not be disturbed until it reaches its
destination.
"Where the space is dotted the trains call; where a blank, thus ----,
they do not." (Here is an example of this new arrangement, which, it
must be confessed, is a little revolutionary of the accepted method.)
"Infants in arms, _unable to walk_, free of charge.
"A passenger may claim the seat corresponding to the number on his
ticket, and when not numbered he may take any seat not previously
occupied.
"Preserve your ticket until called for by the company's servant."
(Fancy the passengers of 1904 requiring to be curbed in their
propensity for throwing their tickets out of the window!)
"Do not lean upon the door of the carriage."
[Illustration: "WHERE THE SPACE IS DOTTED THE TRAINS CALL: WHERE A
BLANK, THUS ----, THEY DO NOT."]
But by far the most surprising injunction to us nowadays, when the tips
of railway porters show a tendency to expand instead of diminish, is
this: "No gratuity, under any circumstances, is allowed to be taken by
any servant of the company."
How incomprehensible to us nowadays, when not even Mr. Beit, Mr. Astor,
or Mr. Carnegie owns his own railway vehicle: "Gentlemen riding in
their own carriages are charged second-class fares."
How "Bradshaw" has grown from that day! It began with thirty odd pages;
it is now some twelve hundred. The weight of the first little "Guide"
was a couple of ounces--it now tips the scale at a pound and a half.
And think of the immense labour involved in the production of each
monthly issue. It taxes all the resources of a large staff of editors
and printers--for are not "perpetual and minute changes taking place
in the hours and places," which "have to be introduced often at the
last moment"? Every single page has literally to be packed to bursting
with type, not merely with words and numerals, but with characters
and spaces--altogether three thousand to the page, or equivalent to
a dozen ordinary octavo volumes. Every change, however trifling,
inaugurated by the traffic superintendent of the smallest railway has
here to instantly set down. New trains must be crowded in somehow into
an already overcrowded page for there must be no "over-running." No
wonder, then, that if "Bradshaw's Guide" is difficult to compile it is
often equally difficult to understand. It has been called "a recondite
treatise on the subject of railway times." From the earliest day its
method has elicited the severest criticism from the wits. George
Cruikshank and other wits called it an "Aid to Bedlam." Mark Lemon
wrote innumerable skits in _Punch_, which his friend Leech illustrated.
In one of these (May 24th, 1856) we have nearly two pages devoted to
"Bradshaw--a Mystery," in which two lovers, parted by distance, seek
to unite by means of the "Guide." They are utterly unable to discover
when Orlando's train should depart and arrive. Both are plunged into
the madness of despair. At last blind chance favours the lovers, and
the fair one confesses:--
"Bradshaw" has nearly maddened me.
ORLANDO: And me.
He talks of trains arriving that ne'er start;
Of trains that seem to start and ne'er arrive;
Of junctions where no union is effected:
Of coaches meeting trains that never come;
Of trains to catch a coach that never goes;
Of trains that start after they have arrived;
Of trains arriving long before they leave.
He bids us "see" some page that can't be found.
Henceforth take me not "Bradshaw" for your guide.
(_Curtain._)
[Illustration: AN ILLUSTRATION BY LEECH FOR "BRADSHAW: A MYSTERY," IN
"PUNCH."]
[Illustration: GOLDEN BARS]