at a distance
from a station. After a railway had been once opened, not a landlord
would consent to have the line taken from him. Owners who had fought the
promoters before Parliament, and compelled them to pass their domains at
a distance, at a vastly-increased expense in tunnels and deviations, now
petitioned for branches and nearer station accommodation. Those who held
property near towns, and had extorted large sums as compensation for the
anticipated deterioration in the value of their building land, found a
new demand for it springing up at greatly advanced prices. Land was now
advertised for sale, with the attraction of being "near a railway
station."

The prediction that, even if railways were made, the public would not use
them, was also completely falsified by the results. The ordinary mode of
fast travelling for the middle classes had heretofore been by mail-coach
and stage-coach. Those who could not afford to pay the high prices
charged for such conveyances went by waggon, and the poorer classes
trudged on foot. George Stephenson was wont to say that he hoped to see
the day when it would be cheaper for a poor man to travel by railway than
to walk, and not many years passed before his expectation was fulfilled.
In no country in the world is time worth more money than in England; and
by saving time--the criterion of distance--the railway proved a great
benefactor to men of industry in all classes.

It was some time before the more opulent, who could afford to post to
town in aristocratic style, became reconciled to railway travelling. In
the opinion of many, it was only another illustration of the levelling
tendencies of the age. It put an end to that gradation of rank in
travelling which was one of the few things left by which the nobleman
could be distinguished from the Manchester manufacturer and bagman. But
to younger sons of noble families the convenience and cheapness of the
railway did not fail to recommend itself. One of these, whose eldest
brother had just succeeded to an earldom, said one day to a railway
manager: "I like railways--they just suit young fellows like me with
'nothing per annum paid quarterly.' You know we can't afford to post,
and it used to be deuced annoying to me, as I was jogging along on the
box-seat of the stage-coach, to see the little Earl go by drawn by his
four posters, and just look up at me and give me a nod. But now, with
railways, it's different. It's true