A striking suggestion of the extension of railway communication into a
"system," as connecting lines are now called, will be found in Sir
Richard Phillips's _Morning's Walk from London to Kew_, published in
1813. On reaching the Surrey Iron Railway at Wandsworth, Sir Richard
records: "I found renewed delight on witnessing, at this place, the
economy of horse labour on the Iron Railway. Yet a heavy sigh escaped
me, as I thought of the inconceivable millions which have been spent
about Malta, four or five of which might have been the means of
extending _double lines of iron railway_ from London to Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Holyhead, Milford, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Dover, and Portsmouth! A
reward of a single thousand would have supplied coaches and other
vehicles, of various degrees of speed, with the best tackle for readily
turning out; and we might, ere this, have witnessed our mail coaches
running at the rate of 10 miles an hour, drawn by a single horse, or
_impelled 15 miles an hour by Blenkinsop's steam-engine_. Such would
have been a legitimate motive for overstepping the income of a nation;
and the completion of so great and useful a work would have afforded
rational ground for public triumph in general jubilees!"
The writer of these penetrative remarks lived until 1840, so that he had
the gratification of witnessing a triumph akin to his long-cherished
hope.
------------------