In dealing with the British nation, it is an axiom among those who have most deeply studied our noble character, that to keep John Bull in beaming good-humour it is absolutely necessary to keep him always _quite full_. The operation is very delicately called “_refreshing him_;” and the London and North-Western Railway Company having, as in duty bound, made due arrangements for affording him, once in about every two hours, this support, their arrangements not only constitute a curious feature in the history of railway management, but the _dramatis personæ_ we are about to introduce form, we think, rather a strange contrast to the bare arms, muscular frames, heated brows, and begrimed faces of the sturdy workmen we have just left. The refreshment establishment at Wolverton is composed of-- 1. A matron or generallissima. 2. Seven very young ladies to wait upon the passengers. 3. Four men and three boys do. do. 4. One man-cook, his kitchen-maid, and his two scullery-maids. 5. Two housemaids. 6. One still-room-maid, employed solely in the liquid duty of making tea and coffee. 7. Two laundry-maids. 8. One baker and one baker’s-boy. 9. One garden-boy. And lastly, what is most significantly described in the books of the establishment-- 10. “An odd-man.” “Homo sum, humani nihil à me alienum puto.” There are also eighty-five pigs and piglings, of whom hereafter. The manner in which the above list of persons, in the routine of their duty, diurnally revolve in “the scrap-drum” of their worthy matron, is as follows:--Very early in the morning--in cold winter long before sunrise--“the odd-man” wakens the two house-maids, to one of whom is intrusted the confidential duty of awakening the seven young ladies exactly at seven o’clock, in order that their “première toilette” may be concluded in time for them to receive the passengers of the first train, which reaches Wolverton at 7h. 30m. A.M. From that time until the departure of the passengers by the York Mail train, which arrives opposite to the refreshment-room at about eleven o’clock at night, these young persons remain on duty, continually vibrating, at the ringing of a bell, across the rails--(they have a covered passage high above them, but they never use it)--from the North refreshment-room for down passengers to the South refreshment-room constructed for hungry up-ones. By about midnight, after having philosophically divested themselves of the various little bustles of the day, they all are enabled once again to lay their heads on their pillows, with the exception of one, who in her turn, assisted by one man and one boy of the establishment, remains on duty receiving the money, &c. till four in the morning for the up-mail. The young person, however, who in her weekly turn performs this extra task, instead of rising with the others at seven, is allowed to sleep on till noon, when she is expected to take her