The result was a marvellous increase, which has been progressing ever since.

A regular trade is now carried on between London and the most remote parts of
the kingdom in every conceivable thing that will bear moving. Sheep have
been sent from Perth to London, and Covent Garden has supplied tons of the
finer description of vegetables to the citizens of Glasgow; every Saturday
five tons of the best fish in season are despatched from Billingsgate to
Birmingham, and milk is conveyed in padlocked tins, from and beyond Harrow,
at the rate of about one penny per gallon. In articles which are imported
into both Liverpool and London, there is a constant interchange, according to
the state of the market; thus a penny per pound difference may bring a
hundred chests of congou up, or send as many of hyson down the line. All
graziers within a day of the rail are able to compete in the London market,
the probability of any extraordinary demand increases the number of beasts
arriving weekly at Camden Station from the average of 500 to 2000, and the
sheep from 2000 to 6000; and these animals can be brought from the furthest
grazing grounds in the kingdom without any loss of weight, and in much better
condition than the fat oxen were formerly driven to Smithfield from the rich
pastures round Aylesbury, or the Valley of the Thames.

Camden station, under the alterations effected in 1848-9, has a double line,
for goods waggons only, 2,500 feet in length, entirely clear of the main
line. The length of single lines, exclusive of the main line, exceeds twelve
miles.

To describe it in detail would be a very unsatisfactory task; because, in the
first place, it can ill be understood without a map, and in the next, changes
are constantly taking place, and still greater changes will be forced on the
company by the increase of goods traffic, which, great as it is, is only in
its infancy. Even now freights are paid to the London and North Western for