This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. RAILWAY ADVENTURES AND ANECDOTES: EXTENDING OVER MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS. EDITED BY RICHARD PIKE. THIRD EDITION. * * * * * “The only _bona fide_ Railway Anecdote Book published on either side of the Atlantic.”—_Liverpool Mercury_. * * * * * LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. NOTTINGHAM: J. DERRY. * * * * * 1888. NOTTINGHAM: J. DERBY, PRINTER, WHEELER GATE AND HOUNDS GATE. PREFACE. Although railways are comparatively of recent date we are so accustomed to them that it is difficult to realize the condition of the country before their introduction. How different are the present day ideas as to speed in travelling to those entertained in the good old times. The celebrated historian, Niebuhr, who was in England in 1798, thus describes the rapid travelling of that period:—“Four horses drawing a coach with six persons inside, four on the roof, a sort of conductor besides the coachman, and overladen with luggage, have to get over seven English miles in the hour; and as the coach goes on without ever stopping except at the principal stages, it is not surprising that you can traverse the whole extent of the country in so few days. But for any length of time this rapid motion is quite too unnatural. You can only get a very piece-meal view of the country from the windows, and with the tremendous speed at which you go can keep no object long in sight; you are unable also to stop at any place.” Near the same time the late Lord Campbell, travelling for the first time by coach from Scotland to London, was seriously advised to stay a day at York, as the rapidity of motion (eight miles per hour) had caused several through-going passengers to die of apoplexy.