The Irish express mail completes the journey from London to Holyhead (263 miles), with three stoppages only, for passenger accommodation, in 6 hours 40 minutes, or at the rate of 38½ miles an hour. For a short run, involving only one stoppage for the engine to take water, the most rapid on the narrow gauge[47] in England is between London and Dover, by the South-Eastern Railway, 88 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes, 42 miles an hour. But on Australian mail nights (the 26th of each month), the Post Office employs, in addition to the ordinary “down” mail, a special one for the conveyance of such bags and boxes as can be got ready by 7 p.m. This train travels between London and Dover in 1 hour and 45 minutes. There is one stop for water. The rate of speed, including the stop, is a little over 50 miles an hour, excluding it, the rate is 54. There is a train on the Great Western, which although not carrying mails, is the fastest in England. It completes the distance from London to Exeter, 194 miles, with 4 stops, amounting to 20 minutes, in 4½ hours; or at the rate of 43 miles an hour. A little more than a quarter of the time occupied by the “Quicksilver” Mail in the olden days; but the “Quicksilver” only went over 160 miles, the roadway distance between London and Exeter, or 24 miles less than by the Great Western and Bristol and Exeter Railways. The grandest exceptional run ever made on railways was on the 5th January, 1862, the occasion being, when answers were brought to the despatches sent to Washington, requiring the surrender of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, who had been taken out of the “Trent,” Royal West India Mail Steamer, by orders of Commodore Wilks. The steamer arrived at Queenstown at 10·5 p.m.: at 11·28 p.m., Irish time,[48] the special train started from Cork, and accomplished the journey to Dublin (166 miles) in four hours and three minutes; or at the rate of 41 miles an hour, including stoppages. The mail steamer “Ulster” arrived at Holyhead at 8·15 a.m. The special train started at 8·28, and it is from this point that the most remarkable part of the express journey was accomplished. The run from Holyhead to Stafford, 130½ miles, occupied only 145 minutes, being at the rate of 54 miles an hour, and although so high a rate of speed was not attempted over the more crowded parts of the line approaching London, the whole distance from Holyhead to Euston was performed by the London and North-Western Company in exactly five hours, or at a speed of 52¾ miles an hour—a speed unparalleled for so long a distance on a line crowded with traffic. By means of the invention for supplying the tender with water from a trough _in transitu_, respecting which details will be given in a subsequent page, the engine was enabled to run from Holyhead to Stafford without pulling-up to take water. This is the longest run ever made by an engine without stopping; but the engines of the Irish Limited Mail