ooms, where the evidence occupied
thirteen days, and counsels' speeches several more, the two projects were
stubbornly fought out. Great Western witnesses came forward to aver
that, owing to the haste with which the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway
had been projected, Oswestry had been left too much in the lurch, and the
time was now come for reconsideration of its claims to be brought on to
the main line. Mr. Sergeant Wheeler, with all the command of forensic
eloquence, drew visions of the Shropshire market town as "a great central
place of meeting for the people all round." All that was necessary was
to build a line from Oswestry to Rednal, and then the projected branch
from Rednal to Ellesmere, and Rednal itself might become a second Rugby
or Crewe; who could tell? As to the continuation of such a line from
Ellesmere to Whitchurch, true, Paddington was not enthusiastic, but when
they found that that was the price demanded for any measure of local
support, they were ready to pay it.

In Oswestry there was, naturally enough, a general approval of any step
which would place the town on the Great Western main line, and no small
point was made of the fact that it would be better to have one station
than two. Moreover, Mr. R. J. Croxon. whose words were weighted with the
influence of a family solicitor, private banker and town clerk, was of
opinion that, apart from anything else, to carry a line, as Mr. Whalley
proposed, for two miles by the side of the turnpike to Whittington would
be "very dangerous to people driving along," and the attention of the
Trustees ought to be called to it. But, unfortunately for Mr. Croxon and
those who shared his fears in this regard, it was the business of the
local surveyor to examine the plans, and he was "engaged on the other
side." Thus even among Oswestrians was opinion divided between the rival
routes, and men like Alderman Thomas Minshall and Alderman Peploe
Cartwright, who had stood shoulder to shoulder in the fight for
independent interests in the making of the Oswestry and Newtown Railway,
were now inclined to regard each others' sympathies with some suspicion.

Further down the proposed line the weight was thrown rather more
decisively in favour of the Whalley scheme. Whitchurch had petitioned
against the Great Western proposals, though Captain Cust, who gave
evidence for the larger company, was moved to dismiss this effort as the
work of "Captain Clement Hill and lot of rag