d when, not only Mr. Whalley and Mr. Johns, with their
enthusiasm, but Mr. George Owen, with his plans in his pocket, came
before them to show how the thing could be done, at a cost of some 60,000
pounds, enthusiasm rose high.

The meeting, however, was not "like Bridgnorth election, all on one
side." Mr. A. C. Sheriff, of Worcester, manager of the West Midland
Railway, existent, so far, merely on paper, was there too, only he had no
plans in his pocket, and little more than vague notions in his head.
"If" they did make a second tunnel, out of the Tanat Valley, then
Llanfyllin should certainly be brought on to their main line, which would
carry the farmers straight into Shrewsbury market. The farmers, however,
did not want to go to Shrewsbury market. They wanted to go to Oswestry
and Welshpool, and it was by Llanymynech that their way lay. So it
scarcely needed Mr. Abraham Howell's warning to avoid the "shoals and
pitfalls" which threatened any deviation from the branch line scheme.
"Great companies," cried the redoubtable lawyer, "have been the bane of
Montgomeryshire," and Llanfyllin shouted back that they would have none
of them, whether they found they could tunnel out of the Tanat Valley or
not. Besides, "if" the West Midland could not put Llanfyllin on the main
line--and a very big "if" it seemed--then, Mr. Sheriff admitted, it would
not touch the town at all.

So, sweeping aside all "ifs" and "buts," Llanfyllin voted for the
Llanymynech branch. Whether it might be worked as an independent
undertaking or as part of the Oswestry and Newtown Company's concern,
mattered comparatively little. In either case, Mr. Savin was ready to
guarantee a dividend of 4.5 per cent., and Mr. Whalley had so much
confidence in the firm of contractors that he would back the guarantee
with his own name. Big companies should have no blighting and delaying
influence on their little valley. Like the other local companies to
which Mr. Howell alluded as examples of self-reliance, they would "trust
to their own exertions," and since, as somebody said, the Oswestry and
Newtown Railway was already a concrete fact, and no mere hypothetical
proposition, it was agreed to "join heart and hand" with the company. A
resolution to that effect was proposed by Mr. C. R. Jones, seconded by
Mr. John Jones--two names long intimately associated in close comradeship
with the public life of Llanfyllin--and carried unanimously; a similar
conclusion b