hire cheese; and both lived merrily on,
quite unconscious of the change that their farm was about to undergo.
The eyes of engineers were on it: it was placed, as an Irishman would
say, "very convanient" for railway purposes and after a few years had
rolled away, it became the great workshop of the Grand Junction Line,
and the point where the main line to Birmingham received its tributaries
from the north and west. Several thousands of people were brought here;
the company laid out streets and built houses; shops were opened;
churches and schools erected; a market-place provided; a Mechanics'
Institution established; many hotels built, one of which was destined
to lodge royalty for a night; and a town was erected with a rapidity
unexampled even in America.

The general appearance of Crewe is very pleasing. The streets are wide,
and well paved; the houses are very neat and commodious, usually of two
stories, built of bricks, but the brick concealed by rough-cast plaster,
with porches, lattice-windows, and a little piece of garden-ground
before the door. The greater part of these houses belong to the company,
and are let to the men at rents from 2s. 9d. per week upward. The
accommodation is good, and it would be difficult to find such houses at
such low rents even in the suburbs of a large town. Water is plentifully
supplied by public pumps, and the town is well lighted with gas. The
names of the streets are expressive: some are called after the towns to
which their direction points--such as Liverpool, Chester, Sandbach, &c.;
others from the works to which they lead--such as Forge-street; and
others from well-known but very modern names--such as Prince
Albert-street. The placards on the walls, however, seem somewhat out of
place in a railway town, as nearly all have relation to sales of cattle,
timber, &c, indicating clearly enough that Crewe is but a mechanical
settlement in an agricultural district. The market-place is spacious,
and roofed over; the church is a handsome edifice of stone; and the
Mechanics' Institution a fine building with a large lecture-room (used
also as a town-hall), a good library and news-room, and commodious
class-rooms. These were all built by the company; and indeed the
completeness of every thing connected with the town gives evidence of
such an amplitude of means possessed by its founders, as seldom, if
ever, fall to the lot of private individuals.

The most interesting objects, however, about