This is probably the earliest Bicycle seen in England; it was made in 1868 by Mr. W. F. Martin.] [Sidenote: Modern Locomotion.] First, as to locomotion: when Sir Walter Scott was writing the opening chapters of the "Heart of Midlothian," in 1818, he referred to the wonderful development of facilities for travel, and may have thought he was exceeding the limits of the probable when he penned the sentence: "Perhaps the echoes of Ben Nevis may soon be awakened by the bugle, not of a warlike chieftain, but of the guard of a mail coach." Scott was by no means deficient in imaginative power, but the maximum speed he can have contemplated was ten miles an hour, for the standard of speed in those days was the pace of a horse (we still reckon the strength of our engines at so many "horse" power). What would he think now, were it possible for him to take his seat in a luxurious saloon and be whirled round the flanks of Ben Nevis, along the West Highland Railway? Eleven years after the publication of the "Heart of Midlothian" a competition of locomotives was held on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and the prize was taken by Messrs. Stephenson's "Rocket." Weighing 7 tons 9 cwts., this engine was able to draw a load of 9 tons 10 cwts. at an average speed of thirteen miles an hour. One of the first-class express engines on the London and North-Western line at the present day weighs 77 tons 2 cwts., and draws a load of 160 tons, at an average speed of forty-seven miles an hour. [Sidenote: The Bicycle.] But it is not only by steam that the standard of speed in locomotion has been displaced. The invention and constant improvement of the bicycle has not only caused the rise of a most important industry in their manufacture (about half a million cycles are being turned out of the factories annually, representing a value of at least £5,000,000), but it has supplied a means of locomotion of incalculable convenience to persons of all classes and of both sexes. This invention must be reckoned a great boon, not only as a means of recreation to persons in crowded towns, to whom the cycle affords easy access to the country, but also to working-men living at a distance from their employment. [Sidenote: Motor Carriages.]