of the cuttings, we are reminded that under the original act for
taking up Euston, it was specially provided, at the instance of Lord
Southampton, that no locomotive should be allowed to proceed further to the
south than Camden Town, lest his building land should remain neglected garden
land for ever. This promise was accepted with little reluctance by the
company, because in 1833 it was popularly considered that the ascent to reach
Camden Town could not be easily overcome by a heavily loaded locomotive.
Consequently a pair of stationary engines were erected at Camden Town, and a
pair of tall chimneys to carry off their smoke and steam.

But the objections in taste, and difficulties in science, have vanished. On
this line, as on all others, tenants are readily found for houses fringing a
cutting; locomotives run up even such ascents as the Bromsgrove Lickey,
between Worcester and Birmingham, with a load of 500 tons. So ten minutes
have been saved in time, and much expense, by doing away with the rope
traction system. The stationary engines have been sold, and are now doing
duty in a flax mill in Russia, and the two tall columns, after slumbering for
several years as monuments of prejudices and obstacles overcome, were swept
away to make room for other improvements.

It is, however, very odd, and not very creditable to human nature, that
whenever a railway is planned, the proprietors are assailed by unreasonable
demands for compensation, in cases where past experience has proved that the
works will be an advantageous, and often an ornamental addition.

In 1846 a Sheffield line was vehemently opposed by a Liverpool gentleman, on
the ground that it would materially injure the prospect from a mansion, which
had been the seat of his ancestors for centuries. The tale was well told,
and seemed most pitiful; an impression was produced on the committee that the
privacy of something like Hatfield, or Knebworth, was about to be infringed
on by the "abominable railway." A stiff cross-examination brought out the
reluctant fact, however, that this "house of my ancestors," this beautiful
Elizabethan mansion had been for many years let as a Lunatic Asylum at 36
pound per annum.

In another instance a railway director sold a pretty country seat, because
the grounds were about to be intersected by a railway embankment; two years
after the completion of the railway he wished to buy it back again, for he
found that his successor, b