eds to the Eastern coast
of Norfolk and Lincoln. At Rugby commences one of several roads to the
North, either by Leicester, Nottingham, and Lincoln, or by Derby and
Sheffield; and at Rugby, too, we may either proceed to Stafford by the direct
route of the Trent Valley, a line which is rendered classical by the memory
of Sir Robert Peel, who turned its first sod with a silver spade and honoured
its opening by a celebrated speech; or we may select the old original line
through Coventry, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton, passing through a network of
little railways leading to Warwick and Leamington, the result of unprofitable
competition. A continuation of the Trent Valley line intersects the Pottery
district, where the cheapest Delft and the most exquisite specimens of China
ware are produced with equal success; and thus we reach Liverpool and
Manchester by the straightest possible line.

At Stafford we can turn off to Shrewsbury and Chester, or again following the
original route arrive at Crewe, the great workshop and railway town of the
London and North Western. Crewe affords an ample choice of routes--1st, to
Leeds by Stockport (with a branch to Macclesfield) and Huddersfield, or from
Leeds to York, or to Harrogate, and so on by the East Coast line through
Durham, Newcastle, and Berwick, to Edinburgh; 2dly, direct to Manchester;
3rdly, to Warrington, Newton, Wigan, and the North, through the salt mining
country; and, 4thly, to Chester. At Chester we may either push on to Ireland
by way of the Holyhead Railway, crossing the famous Britannia Tubular Bridge,
or to Birkenhead, the future rival of Liverpool.

At Liverpool steamers for America warranted to reach New York in ten days are
at our command; or, leaving commerce, cotton, and wool, we may ride through
Proud Preston and Lancaster to Kendal and Windermere and the Lake district;
or, pressing forward through "Merry Carlisle," reach Gretna at a pace that
defies the competition of fathers and guardians, and enter Scotland on the
direct road to Glasgow, and, if necessary, ride on to Aberdeen and Perth.

A short line from Camden Station opens a communication with the East and West
India Docks and the coast of Essex, and another, three miles and a half in
length, from Willesden Station, will shortly form a connexion with the South
Western, and thereby with all the South and Western lines from Dover to
Southampton.

The railway system, of which the lines above enumerated f