A Railway Foundling Vol 1 Of 3 Classic Reprint PDF Download

Excerpt from A Railway Foundling, Vol. 1 of 3 It is with sincere pleasure that I commend to the perusal of that happily increasing class of readers who wish to combine the instructive with the entertaining, a story which, while it fulfils all the requirements of picturesque fiction, and dwells upon the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears of humanity, possesses additional and exceptional value, inasmuch as it presents a graphic picture, drawn by the hand of an expert, of the habits and manners, the lights and shadows, and the peculiar characteristics of railway life in England. That life has been created, so to speak, within the memory of persons still living; and it is half with amusement and half with astonishment that the younger generation will read the account given by Henry Crabb Robinson, in his diary, so recently as 1833, of his first railway journey from Liverpool. "There were five carriages," says the diarist, "in which were placed open seats for the traveller, four and four facing each other; and, besides, there was a close carriage and also 'a machine' for luggage. The fare was four shillings for thirty-one miles. On setting forth, there was a slight jolt, arising from the chain catching each carriage; but, once in motion, the train proceeded as smoothly as possible. The engine produced little smoke or steam. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.