whenever a railway is planned, the proprietors are assailed by unreasonable
demands for compensation, in cases where past experience has proved that the
works will be an advantageous, and often an ornamental addition.

In 1846 a Sheffield line was vehemently opposed by a Liverpool gentleman, on
the ground that it would materially injure the prospect from a mansion, which
had been the seat of his ancestors for centuries. The tale was well told,
and seemed most pitiful; an impression was produced on the committee that the
privacy of something like Hatfield, or Knebworth, was about to be infringed
on by the "abominable railway." A stiff cross-examination brought out the
reluctant fact, however, that this "house of my ancestors," this beautiful
Elizabethan mansion had been for many years let as a Lunatic Asylum at 36
pound per annum.

In another instance a railway director sold a pretty country seat, because
the grounds were about to be intersected by a railway embankment; two years
after the completion of the railway he wished to buy it back again, for he
found that his successor, by turfing and planting the slope, had very much
increased the original beauty of the gardens.




CAMDEN STATION.


But thus gossiping, we have reached Camden Station, and must take advantage
of an unusual halt to look into the arrangements for building waggons and
trucks, and conveying coals, merchandise, goods, and all live stock included
between pigs and bullocks.