erton, where we had to wait ten minutes while the engine was
changed. An enterprising person who owned a small plot of land
adjoining the station, had erected thereon a small wooden hut, where,
in winter time, he dispensed to shivering passengers hot elderberry
wine and slips of toast, and in summer, tea, coffee, and genuine
old-fashioned fermented ginger-beer. It was the only "refreshment
room" upon the line, and people used to crowd his little shanty,
clamouring loudly for supplies. He soon became the most popular man
between London and Birmingham.

Railway travelling then was in a very primitive condition. Except at
the _termini_ there were no platforms. Passengers had to clamber from
the level of the rails by means of iron steps, to their seats. The
roof of each of the coaches, as they were then called, was surrounded
by an iron fence or parapet, to prevent luggage from slipping off.
Each passenger's personal effects travelled on the roof of the coach
in which he sat, and the guard occupied an outside seat at one end.
First-class carriages were built upon the model of the "inside" of the
old stage coaches. They were so low that even a short man could not
stand upright. The seats were divided by arms, as now, and the floor
was covered afresh for each journey with clean straw. The second-class
coaches were simply execrable. They were roofed over, certainly;
but, except a half-door and a low fencing, to prevent passengers from
falling out, the sides were utterly unprotected from the weather. As
the trains swept rapidly through the country--particularly in cuttings
or on high embankments--the wind, even in the finest weather, drove
through, "enough to cut your ear off." When the weather was wet, or it
was snowing, it was truly horrible, and, according to the testimony
of medical men, was the primary cause of many deaths. There were no
"buffers" to break the force of the concussion of two carriages in
contact. When the train was about to start, the guard used to cry out
along the train, "Hold hard! we're going to start," and 'twas well he
did, for sometimes, if unprepared, you might find your nose brought
into collision with that of your opposite neighbour, accompanied by
some painful sensations in that important part of your profile.

I arrived at Coventry station at midnight. A solitary porter with
a lantern was in attendance. There was no lamp about the place. The
guard clambered to the roof of the carriage in which