posting race-horse van was a luxury in which only the wealthiest could
indulge to a limited extent, but now the owner of a string of thoroughbreds,
or a single plater, can train in the South or the North, and in four and
twenty hours reach any leading course in the kingdom; carrying with him, if
deemed needful, hay, straw, and water.

As we move slowly off toward Camden Station, by the fourth of the eighteen
passenger trains which daily depart from Euston, and emerging with light
whirl along within sight of rows of capital houses, whose gardens descend to
the edge of the cuttings, we are reminded that under the original act for
taking up Euston, it was specially provided, at the instance of Lord
Southampton, that no locomotive should be allowed to proceed further to the
south than Camden Town, lest his building land should remain neglected garden
land for ever. This promise was accepted with little reluctance by the
company, because in 1833 it was popularly considered that the ascent to reach
Camden Town could not be easily overcome by a heavily loaded locomotive.
Consequently a pair of stationary engines were erected at Camden Town, and a
pair of tall chimneys to carry off their smoke and steam.

But the objections in taste, and difficulties in science, have vanished. On
this line, as on all others, tenants are readily found for houses fringing a
cutting; locomotives run up even such ascents as the Bromsgrove Lickey,
between Worcester and Birmingham, with a load of 500 tons. So ten minutes
have been saved in time, and much expense, by doing away with the rope
traction system. The stationary engines have been sold, and are now doing
duty in a flax mill in Russia, and the two tall columns, after slumbering for
several years as monuments of prejudices and obstacles overcome, were swept
away to make room for other improvements.

It is, however, very odd, and not very creditable to human nature, that