arrived at Penzance at 8.20 P.M. instead of 6.57 P.M. It returned at 9.10 P.M. empty with two engines and picked up all broad gauge coaches which for any reason had previously been left behind, for Swindon, and the work of conversion was immediately proceeded with. This empty train, which was the very last broad gauge train to run, we can in fancy liken to the few remaining men of a defeated army leaving the territory in sorrow, upon a capitulation being arranged after a long and dogged resistance. The other broad gauge trains ran as usual as far as Plymouth up to 5 P.M., but the 9 P.M. mail was narrow gauge, as arrangements had been made with the London and South-Western for the Great Western up and down mail trains to run over the former from Exeter to Plymouth on the nights of May 20 and 21 down, and 22nd and 23rd up. A special steamer carried the mails from Plymouth to Falmouth, calling at Fowey, leaving Plymouth at 5.50 A.M. on 21st and 22nd, and returning at 3.30 P.M. the same afternoons. The sea journey occupied about four hours. The mails were distributed by road to the various places in West Cornwall from Falmouth.

No general goods trains were run west of Exeter between May 17 and 24. All the other stations between Exeter and Penzance were cut off from the rest of the country during the time of the conversion, and Cornwall was at the mercy of any foreign foe that cared to take advantage of its isolation from the rest of the kingdom. Happily none did so. Even the anarchists did not try the experiment of an ideal state in the Royal Duchy.

On the night of Thursday, May 19, the writer was one of a small crowd of some seventy broad gauge enthusiasts who gathered on the Paddington departure platform to see the last broad gauge mail start. The train consisted of (in the following order) parcels van, two Post Office sorting vans, "sleeper" break van, third class, first and second composite, and two break vans-nine in all, all convertible, save one break van and the two passenger coaches. The famous "Dragon" drew the train away, amidst the silence of the crowd, who afterwards expressed regret to each other that the end of the broad gauge had come.

The old Great Western servants, when the narrow gauge was first introduced on their system, spoke of the intruder with contempt, as the following verse shows :—

When narrow with broad first began to entwine,

A grey-headed driver was killed on the line;

His last feeble whisper was caught by his mate,

"Thank God, 'twas broad gauge, where I met with my fate."

The Great Western main line consists of the following, formerly independent railways: London and Bristol, Bristol and Exeter, South Devon (Exeter to Plymouth) and Cornwall (Plymouth to Penzance), the latter has only recently been secured by the Great Western, although for several years previously they have leased it from the Cornwall Railway Company.

And so ends the Broad Gauge. Hereafter many wonderful legends will be told of its might, while future students of railways will turn from the monotony of the standard gauge to read with pleasure the "Battle of the Gauges." In October 1891 the last "first and second only" train on the Great Western Railway was abolished, and the "Flying Dutchman" carried third-class passengers for the first time; the "Dutchman" is the direct successor of the original Exeter express, which was the first train that ever ran at modern express speed, and for many years it was the fastest train in the world.

In closing, we venture to introduce a few remarks from the "Funeral Sermon" (as he called it) of the Broad Gauge, made at the last general meeting of the company, on February 11, 1892. The chairman said

With regard to the gauge he need not tell them a long story. It was unfortunately left to the Board of 1892 to carry out the abolition of the broad gauge on their system. It was a matter of regret that the time had nearly arrived when that should be done; but they had for many years past made preparations for that which they knew was imminent. The alteration at Exeter from the broad to the narrow gauge was a very large and serious operation, and involved a great deal of preparation. . . . More than three-fourths of their passenger stock was already constructed, so as to be ready to be convertible from the broad to the narrow gauge. He was of opinion that the broad gauge would have been more suited to the comfort of the travelling public, who now required dining and sleeping saloons and other luxuries such as could be obtained at West End clubs.

The following is an extract from an article in the Railway Herald by a London and South-Western Railway official. His opinion is worth considering, seeing that that line is in competition with the Great Western, and he would have opportunities of comparing the two systems, while natural esprit de corps would not allow him to unduly depreciate his own line:

I consider myself that the broad gauge is capable of great things, and I am only sorry to think that in the interest of railway passengers it has not become universal in preference to the narrow gauge. At the present time, when traffic is so greatly on the increase, and the demand for improved carriages is heard on every side, the extra width of the broad gauge coaches would have been found of great advantage, and I think the carrying capacity of railway rolling stock might be better increased by having more room in the width rather than length of the coaches. I maintain, therefore, that a broader gauge would prove more econo

mical in the long run as it is certainly much more comfortable; and it offers facilities under an enterprising management for the construction of cars of the American principle which the narrow gauge cannot approach. I quite think that if a more go-a-head company had had the management of the broad gauge track, they would not now be on the point of abolishing it altogether. I have met with and spoken to a great many travellers in my time, and I have invariably heard from them that the broad gauge is far and away the most comfortable carriage to ride in, and I am sure numbers regret its abolition. The Midland is, I think, the company that would have given the broad gauge a trial, but any of the Northern lines would have done it more justice than that sleepy giant, the Great Western Railway.

Now the broad gauge is abolished the Great Western will be under the disadvantage of meeting the London and South-Western Railway on an equal footing, as in Devonshire and westward there still lingers a suspicion that the narrow gauge is not safe, and now, having only the narrow gauge, travellers will naturally patronise the quicker and nearer route, and the London and South-Western is both to many important places. Therefore, if the Great Western wishes still to lead in the West, since it cannot shorten the distance, the speed must be increased, so as to be level with its rival in the time taken between competitive points.

G. A. SEKON.

73

TOWN LIFE

UNDER THE RESTORATION.

TH

HE representation of places and people, whether we chance to be well acquainted with them, or whether we chance to be strangers to them, is almost certain to prove attractive. For one reason, the renewal of our own impressions, or the comparison of them with those of others, is well calculated to afford us considerable gratification. For another, we gladly embrace all the opportunities which present themselves of increasing the stock of knowledge which we possess respecting man and nature. In the case of foreign impressions, the invigorating air of youth breathes over us again from the new points of view, and in the freshness of emotion under which we regard objects which have long been as familiar to us as the clothes that we wear. Nor is it novelty alone, seeing that curiosity co-operates with reason. Great communities, as well as private individuals, are often equally inquisitive to know what their neighbours think and say respecting them. To men, individually, one of the greatest benefits to be derived from foreign travel is the tendency that it has to remove the film of vulgar and local prejudice by which their vision so often becomes obscured. The migration of an entire community is impossible, but the visits of educated and impartial strangers may, so far as this is concerned, prove equally effectual, premising that the people will be disposed to give careful consideration to what they may have to say upon its manners, its customs, and its institutions. During the eighteenth century Britain was constantly visited by foreigners, and of these upwards of sixty published elaborate accounts of their sojourns among us, thus providing the student of the social condition of England during that eventful period with an inexhaustible storehouse of facts. It is to be wished that the same could be said of the second half of the seventeenth century. But it cannot. There was no lack of foreign visitors to our shores during that time, but they either did not see fit to record their experiences in print, or if they did, they have not

survived to us. The number of those who actually published accounts of their perambulations through the land we live in between the accession of Charles II. in 1660 until the close of the seventeenth century, so far as we have been able to ascertain, does not amount to more than a dozen all told, and all their performances, without exception, are meagre and unsatisfactory to the last degree. Hence the student who desires to view the social condition of "this happy breed of men, this earth, this England," during that period, is deprived of those aids which lie so plentiful to his hand when he sits down to study the social condition of England during the succeeding century. He must either abandon the idea altogether, or set himself diligently to peruse the dramatic literature and other forms of light literature which the age produced, the journals, and other recondite sources of information, in order to familiarise himself with national manners and morals. He must become a veritable Autolycus-a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles, if he desires to behold "the very age and body of the times, his form and pressure."

Life in the English capital under the sway of Charles II. was a curious compound, and ranged from the grave to the gay, from the lively to the severe. It was by no means easy work. Seldom was the pursuit of pleasure attended by so much labour, seldom was the business of enjoyment found to be so exhausting. Daily life commenced very early and ended very late, and was perpetually renewed with unceasing regularity. The people of rank, from whom, indeed, the rest of society were content to take their ideas of what was fashion and what was not, rose very late in the day, although, probably, not much more so than their successors do in this latter quarter of the nineteenth century. Attire presented a most formidable obstacle. Moderns can have no conception, or at the best a very imperfect one, of the time which a fashionable beau consumed in dressing himself for the day, nor of the numerous articles of which his attire was composed. That contrast of colour between male and female apparel which is now so conspicuous, then hardly existed; and rank, wealth, and pretension were consequently distinguished only by costly and elaborate attire. This remark must not be understood to apply to the dandies and beaux who represented at successive periods the extremes and the eccentricities of fashionable costume. Any indications of that neutral dress, dissimilar neither as regards shape nor colour, which practically places noblemen on a par with tradesmen, were entirely absent. Modes of attire were in common vogue which survive only in the court dress, in the civic pageantry, in the bright coats worn by huntsmen, and in the gorgeous hues of military uniforms.