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LONDON TO OXFORD.

THE London and North-Western Railway, with its numerous branches, forms one of the great arteries of communication with the North. The metropolitan terminus is at Euston Square.

This station, including its dependency, Camden Town, which is also the terminus of the Blackwall branch line, is the greatest railway area in England, or perhaps in Europe. It is the principal gate through which flows and reflows the traffic of a line which has cost more than twenty-two millions sterling; which annually earns more than two millions and a half for the conveyance of passengers, merchandise, and live stock; and which directly employs more than ten thousand servants, besides the tens of thousands to whom, in mills or mines, in ironworks, in steamboats and coasters, it gives indirect employment. What London is to the world, Euston is to Great Britain: there is no part of the country to which railway communication has extended, with the exception of the Dover and Southampton lines, which may not be reached by railway conveyance from Euston station.

At the hour mentioned, the Railway passenger-yard is vacant, silent, and as spotlessly clean as a Dutchman's kitchen; nothing is to be seen but a tall soldierlike policeman in green, on watch under the wooden shed, and a few sparrows industriously yet vainly trying to get a breakfast from between the closely packed paving-stones.

It is so still, so open; the tall columns of the portico entrance look down on you so grimly; the front of the booking-offices, in their garment of clean stucco, look so primly respectable that you cannot help feeling ashamed of yourself, so early and so lonely. Presently, hurrying on foot, a few passengers arrive; a servantmaid carrying a big box, with the assistance of a littlegirl; a neat punctual-looking man, probably a banker's clerk on furlough; and a couple of young fellows in shaggy coats, smoking,—who seem by their red eyes and dirty hands, to have made sure of being up early by not going to bed. A rattle outside announces the first omnibus, with a pile of luggage outside and five inside passengers, two commercial travellers, two others who may be curates or schoolmasters, and a brown man with a large sea-chest. At the quarter, the scene thickens; there are few Hansoms, but several night cabs drive up, a vast number of carts of all kinds, from the costermonger's donkey to the dashing Whitechapel.

There is very little medium in parliamentary passengers about luggage,—either they have a cart-load or none at all. Children are very plentiful, and the mothers are accompanied with large escorts of female relations, who keep kissing and stuffing the children with real Gibraltar rock and gingerbread to the last moment. Every now and then a well-dressed man hurries past into the booking-office, and takes his ticket with a sheepish air, as if ashamed of what he was doing. Sailors arrive with their chests and hammocks. The other day we had the pleasure of meeting, in the same carriage, a travelling tinker, with the instruments of his craft neatly packed; two gentlemen, whose closelycropped hair and pale plump complexion betokened a recent residence in some gaol or philanthropic institution; an economical baronet, of large fortune; a

This station was an after-thought, the result of early experience in railway traffic. Originally the line was to have ended at. Camden Town, but a favourable opportunity led to the purchase of fifteen acres, which has turned out most convenient for the public and the proprietors. It is only to be regretted that it was not possible to bring the station within a few yards of the New Road, so as to render the stream of omnibuses between Paddington and the City available, without compelling the passenger to perspire under his carpetbag, railway-wrapper, umbrella, and hat-box, all the way from the platform to the edge of Euston Square. The great gateway or propylæum, of which our first plate presents a view, is very imposing. It cost thirty thousand pounds; and had the architect been permitted to carry out his original design, no doubt it would have introduced us to some classic fane in character with the lofty Titanic columns. But, as is very common in this country, the spirit of the proprietors evaporated with the outworks; and the gateway leads to a square courtyard and a building, the exterior of which may be described in the language of guide books when referring to something which cannot be praised, as "a plain, unpre-half-pay officer, with a genteel wife and twelve children, tending, stucco structure," with a convenient wooden shed in front, barely to save passengers from getting wet in rainy weather. The great Waiting Hall which has recently been erected is a most magnificent room, and worthy of the great railway to which it is the vestibule. Euston Station, to be viewed to advantage, should be visited by the gray light of a summer or spring morning, about a quarter to six o'clock, threequarters of an hour before the starting of the parliamentary train, which every railway, under a wise legislative enactment, is compelled to run once a-day from each extremity."

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on his way to a cheap county in the north; a party of seven Irish, father, mother, and five grown-up sons and daughters, on their way to America, after a successful residence in London; a tall young woman and a little man, from Stamford, who had been up to London to buy stone bottles, and carried them back rattling in a box. In a word, a parliamentary train collects, -besides mechanics in search of work, sailors going to join a ship, and soldiers on furlough,—all whose necessities or tastes lead them to travel economically, among which last class are to be found a good many Quakers. It is pleasing to observe the attention the poor women, with large

country. Having, of course, broken his oath, he bestowed the castle on his half-brother, Robert Moreton, Earl of Cornwall. King John strengthened the castle, which was afterwards besieged by the Dauphin of France. When Edward III. created the Black Prince Duke of Cornwall, the castle and manor of Berkhampstead were bestowed upon him "to hold to him, and the heirs of him, and the eldest sons of the kings of England, and the dukes of the said place;" and under these words have they been held through civil wars and revolutions, and changes from Plantagenet to Tudor, from Tudor to Stuart, with the interregnum of a republic, an abdication, and the installation of the Brunswick dynasty. The castle is now vested in Albert Prince of Wales.

to the Conquest, Watford formed part of the Cashio; | rule according to the ancient laws and customs of the and under that appellation it was given to the abbey of St. Albans. When this venerable abbey was dissolved at the Revolution, it was given to John Lord Russell. Watford was afterwards presented, by James the First, to the Egerton family. In 1760 it was sold to the then Earl of Essex, in whose family it is still vested. Cashiobury Park, which immediately adjoins the station, is the principal seat of this family, and the favoured resort of pic-nic parties, who have here a magnificent and well-wooded domain for their rambles. The park is four miles, or thereabouts, in circumference, and presents some exceedingly rich scenery, greatly enhanced by some noble timber trees. On its skirts are some beautiful examples of the English rural residence clustering with roses and honeysuckles in their season.

Kings Langley is about four miles from Watford, and, though the parish is small, it was once a place of some historical importance. Here was a palace, in which Henry III. resided, and a celebrated priory, in which Piers Gaveston, a favourite of Henry II., was buried. In the church, the bodies of Richard II. and Edmund of Langley, fifth son of Edward III., were interred. Near Kings Langley we pass the Booksellers' Provident Retreat, erected on ground given by Mr. Dickinson, the great paper maker, who has seven mills on the neighbouring streams, and shortly after we reach Boxmoor, only noticeable as the first station opened on the line.

The next station is Berkhampstead. Cowper the poet was born here; his father was rector of the parish. Berkhampstead Castle is part of the hereditary property of the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. At this castle William the Conqueror, after the battle of Hastings, met the Abbot of St. Albans with a party of chiefs and prelates, who had prepared to oppose the Norman, and disarmed their hostility by swearing to

The Chiltern Hills, including the Chiltern Hundreds, the only office under the Crown always open to the acceptance of all, without distinction of parties, lies within a short distance of Berkhampstead. Ashdridge Park, formerly the seat of the Duke of Bridgewater, the originator and author, with the aid of Brindley and Telford, of our great canal system, lies about a mile to the eastward. The scenery of the park and gardens is fine. The house is modern.

Tring station, a mile and a half from the town, may be reached from London, 31 miles, in less than an hour by the express train, and the traveller arrives in as wild a district as any in England. This station is the highest point on the line, being 420 feet above the sea, 300 above Camden Town, and 52 above Birmingham. Three miles north of Tring lies the town of Ivinghoe, which possesses a large cruciform church, with an old sculptured timber roof, and contains a tomb with a Norman- French inscription. According to some it was the tomb of Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, and brother of King Stephen. Two miles from Tring we pass from Hertfordshire into Bucks.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

THE surface of this county is rich and varied, the river Colne bounding a portion of it on the east, while the Thames separates it from Berkshire and Surrey. On the south are the Chiltern Hills, already mentioned. These are a range of hills of small elevation, composed of chalk and flints. The soil being very shallow, and the ground elevated, the flints help to keep the surface moist. The prolific Vale of Aylesbury occupies the centre of the county, furnishing a rich pasturage for vast quantities of cattle; its fertile plains being chiefly employed for dairy and grazing purposes. The more northern parts of the county are diversified by gentle sand-hills, extending into the neighbouring county of Bedford.

The first station of importance in this county is Aylesbury, which is connected by a short branch line. This ancient town stands on a hill; but the loss of the

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coaching trade, by the substitution of the railroad, has proved a serious blow to the leading interests of the town.

The rivers flowing through Bucks are the Ouse and the Thame. The Ouse enters the county on the west side, passes Water Stratford, and pursues its devious course to the town of Buckingham; then winding to the north, through a rich tract of meadow land, it passes Stony Stratford, Newport Pagnel, and Olney. Here turning suddenly to the east, it leaves the county near Brayfield.

"Slow winding through a level plain
Of spacious meads, with cattle sprinkled o'er,
Conducts the eye along its sinuous course,
Delighted."-Cowper,

The Thame rises near the borders of the county in
Hertfordshire, and flowing through the Vale of Ayles-
bury from east to west, receives the waters of several
smaller streams, and enters Oxfordshire near Thame.

Buckingham, which gives its name to the county, is of great antiquity, being mentioned as the spot near to which the Romans, under Aulus Plautius, surprised and routed the Britons under Caractacus. It has also borne its part in the civil wars which have devastated the country, having been ravaged by the Danes in 941, and again in 1010. In 1724 the town was nearly destroyed by fire, when out of three hundred and eighty-seven houses, one hundred and thirty-eight were entirely consumed.

The most northern town in Bucks is the town or hamlet of Olney, intimately associated with British literature from its having been the residence of Cowper the poet. It consists of one long street, the houses built with stone, but formerly covered with thatch, which is supposed to have contributed greatly to a fire which consumed forty-three dwelling houses in the year 1786. The residence of Cowper was about a mile from the town; and many of the descriptions in his poems are known to have been derived from the surrounding seenery.

"Fast rooted on their banks

Stand, never overlooked, our fav'rite elms
That screened the herdsman's solitary hut;
While far beyond, and overthwart the stream
Which, as with molten glass, inlays the vale,
The sloping land recedes into the clouds;
Displaying on its varied side the grace

Of hedge-row beauties numberless, square tow'r,
Tall spire, from which the sound of cheerful beils
Just undulate upon the list'ning ear,"

In some succeeding lines the poet surveys the sheepfold, the hay-stack, and the woodland, concluding his description thus :

"O'er these, but far beyond (a spacious map
Of hill and valley interpos'd between)
The Ouse dividing the well-watered fand,
Now glitters in the sun, and now retires
As bashful, and yet eager to be seen."

Passing from the Aylesbury branch, and gliding out of the deep cutting over a fine open country, we soon arrive at Leighton Buzzard station, and see in the distance the lofty octagonal spire of its venerable cruciform church. The town is about half a mile from the station. The cross stands in an open area in the centre of the market-place, and is twenty-seven feet high above the basement, which is raised by rows of steps about five feet. At Leighton Buzzard a branch line of seven miles communicates with Dunstable, which is situated in the centre of the Dunstable Chalk Downs, where the celebrated Dunstable larks are caught, which are made mention of in one of Miss Edgeworth's pretty stories. The manufactures are whiting and straw hats. Of an ancient priory, founded in 1131 by Henry I., and endowed with the town, and the privileges of jurisdiction extending to life and death, nothing remains but the parish church, of which the interior is richly ornamented. Over the altar-piece is a large painting representing the Lord's Supper, by Sir James Thornhill, the father-in-law of Hogarth. In a charity school, founded in 1727, forty boys are clothed, educated, and apprenticed. In twelve almshouses twelve poor widows are lodged; and in six houses near the church, called

the Maidens' Lodge, six unmarried gentlewomen live and enjoy an income of £120 per annum.

At Bletchley, the church (embowered in a grove of yews, planted perhaps when Henry VIII. issued his decrees for planting the archer's tree) contains an altar tomb of Lord Grey of Wilton, A.D. 1412. The station has now become important, as from it diverge the Bedford line to the East, and the lines to Banbury and Oxford to the west. A few miles from Bletchley is a forgotten but once celebrated spot, Denbigh Hall. From this spot passengers were conveyed across the country while the tunnel was forming, and travellers had thus an opportunity of comparing the respective comforts of coach and railway travelling. Past it the traveller now whirls without notice; yet it is worthy of remembrance, because it affords a name and date for tracing the march of railway enterprise.

Wolverton, which is near six miles north of Bletchley, is the central manufacturing and repairing shop for the locomotives of the line, and is the first specimen of a railway town built on a plan to order. The population consists entirely of men employed in the company's service, as mechanics, guards, enginemen, stokers, porters, labourers, their wives and children, their superintendents, a clergyman, schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, the ladies engaged on the refreshment establishment, and the tradesmen attracted

to Wolverton by the demands of the population. Here may be seen collected together in companies, each under command of its captain or foremen, in separate workshops, some hundreds of the best handicraftsmen that Europe can produce. Machinery, while superseding, has created manual labour. In a steam-engine factory machinery is called upon to do what no amount of manual labour could effect. To appreciate the extraordinary amount of intellect and mental and manual dexterity daily called into exercise, it would be necessary to trace the origin, progress to construction, trial, and amendment of a locomotive engine. But such a history would be a book itself. After seeing the operations of forging or of casting, we may take a walk round the shops of the turners and smiths. In some, Whitworth's beautiful self-acting machines are pianing, or polishing, or boring holes, under charge of an intelligent boy; in others lathes are ranged round the walls, and a double row of vices down the centre of the long rooms. Solid masses of cast or forged metal are carved by keen and powerful lathe-tools like so much boxwood, and long shavings of iron and steel are swept off as easily as deal shavings from a carpenter's plane. The whole work of this vast establishment is carried on by dividing the workmen into small companies, under the superintendence of an officer responsible for the quantity and quality of the work of his men.

The two important lines leading from Bletchley station-the one into Bedfordshire and the other into Oxfordshire-here present the opportunity of observing the chief attractions of these two important counties.

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