EARLY LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES PAGE 277, 278, 279 Trevithick's tram locomotive had a single horizontal cylinder 8 in. diameter and 54 in. stroke, enclosed in the boiler, 6 ft. long by 4 ft. diameter; the whole weighed five tons in working order. It failed because the tram lines were not strong enough. The illustration is from a model made at the L. & N. W. R. works at Crewe. Blenkinsop's engine (from a photograph of a model) was made in 1812, and was the first which was financially successful. It had two cylinders (of 8 in. diameter and 20 in. stroke) set in such a way as to avoid difficulties in starting; the carrying wheels were 42 in. in diameter, and the weight five tons. "Puffing Billy," built in 1813 at Wylam, had two cylinders of 9 in. diameter and 36 in. stroke. and worked till 1862. The "Locomotion," the first engine of the Stockton and Darlington line, had two cylinders of 10 in. diameter and 24 in. stroke; the speed was eight miles per hour, and the weight, in working order, 6 tons. The engine stands on a model of George Stephenson's first railway bridge. The "Rocket" was built by R. Stephenson & Co. to compete at the famous locomotive trial on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. October 6-13, 1829; she then attained 29 miles per hour, but on the opening day ran (with Huskisson after his accident) 36, and some years afterwards 53, miles per hour. She ceased running in 1844. The firebox and smokebox are inaccurately reconstructed, and the cylinders were more sharply inclined and higher, while the travelling wheels were higher. The cylinders are 8 in. diameter and 17 in. stroke: the drivers are 56 in. in diameter. The boiler pressure was 50 lb., and the whole engine and tender weighed, when working. less than 7 tons. The "Sanspareil," built for the same competition by T. Huckworth, of the Stockton and Darlington line. had then smaller cylinders and wooden spokes to the wheels. She worked till 1844 as a locomotive, and was then used as a colliery pumping engine till 1863. The cylinders were 7 in. diameter and 18 in. stroke, the coupled wheels 4 ft. 6 in. in diameter, and the engine, without the tender, weighed about 43 tons when at work. The "Novelty," by Braithwaite and Ericsson, was stoked through a central flue in the vertical part of the boiler, the air being forced into the fire by a bellows worked by the engine. She carried a water-tank below and coke in baskets upon her own truck. The two cylinders were vertical, 6 in. diameter and 12 in. stroke, the drivers 4 ft. 2 in. in diameter. The Sanspareil" and "Novelty" both broke down at the trial. The escape flue of the latter for the gases and smoke was lengthened, as shown in the sectional plan. The Sanspareil's" boiler had an internal return flue projecting beyond the boiler on the firegrate side and enclosed in a water-jacket, extending the heating surface. EARLY ENGLISH ROLLING STOCK On the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1833. ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL, AFTER J. C. HORSLEY, R.A GREAT WESTERN ENGINES. The North Star," the first engine of the line, was built in 1837 by R. Stephenson & Co., and remained in use till 1870. She had a pair of inside cylinders 16 in. diameter and 18 in. stroke, and single driving wheels 7 ft. in diameter. The wheels were not originally coupled. The "Vulcan," built in 1837 by the Vulcan Foundry Co.. had single driving wheels 8 ft. in diameter, and a pair of inside cylinders 14 ft. in diameter and 16 in. stroke. The Firefly," built in 1840, had driving wheels 7 ft. in diameter, and a pair of inside cylinders 15 in. diameter by 18 in. stroke. The "Iron Duke," built at Swindon in 281 282 283 1847, had cylinders 18 in. in diameter by 24 in. in stroke, with single driving wheels 8 ft. in diameter. For many years this was the regular G.W.R. type of broad-gauge engine. PRIMITIVE THIRD-CLASS CARRIAGE The Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway, authorised by Parliament in 1832 and opened in 1834, was intended chiefly to bring sand for manure from the Camel estuary to Bodmin. Built for £2,300 a mile, it was bought by the L. & S.W.R. during the "battle of the gauges in 1845 to prevent its becoming part of the G.W.R. system, but it remained absolutely isolated from the English railway system till the G.W.R. opened a branch to Bodmin in 1889. One passenger train ran each way on alternate days. Since 1892 it has formed part of the L. & S.W.R. system. To its long isolation the survival of this primitive form of carriage is due. The line is of interest to the student of railway archæology. (Acworth, Railways of England, 1900, pp. 219, 321.) KING HUDSON'S LEVÉE In 1845" Hudson numbered the Prince Consort among his acquaintances, and the aristocracy crowded his parties," and his admirers presented him with £16,000 as a testimonial. He was charged with issuing shares secretly, giving them away to influential persons, and with borrowing freely from some of the companies which he controlled. He was compelled, accordingly, to resign the chairmanship of several in 1849, but his collapse was less complete than is sometimes supposed, and he sat as M.P. for Sunderland (to the development of which town he largely contributed) from 1849 to 1859. He had been Mayor of York, and was instrumental in making it a railway centre. The Midland, the Eastern Counties (now the G.E.R.). and the various lines now comprised in the N.E R., were those with which he was chiefly concerned. He died in 1871. LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN RAILWAY ENGINE, 1885. One of Webb's compound engines; the outside cylinders are high pressure and act on the rear driving wheels, while a single lowpressure cylinder inside receives their exhaust steam, and acts on the axle of the front drivers. The reversing gear, seen passing behind the front driver, acts on the high and low pressure simultaneously, but arrangements are provided for separate adjustment, and in starting the engine "can work non-compound." The drivers are each 6 ft. 3 in. in diameter. SWING, THE RICK-BURNER. From a pamphlet professing to be the autobiography of a small farmer, turned out of his farm by a new landlord to make room for a fox-covert, convicted improperly of poaching, and then driven from his cottage by the parson's demand for tithe. The picture represents the parson subsequently refusing him alms. "Swing" was the alias adopted by the rick-burners, but the hero of the pamphlet, who bears the same name, is only one by accident, and the moral of it is that the real authors of the outrages are landlords and parsons. PAGE 286 287 289 291 LORD ALTHORP, FIRST EARL SPENCER, BY SIR M. A. SHEE, P.R.A. 293 295 299 LORD ASHLEY, SEVENTH EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, AFTER J. SLATER 301 TRADE UNION CARDS PAGE 304, 306 From a large collection made by Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb and presented to the London School of Economics. ROBERT OWEN, AFTER W. H. BROOKE FEARGUS O'CONNOR THE FINANCIAL RECOVERY AFTER 1836 Green was a famous aeronaut. THE LOCK-UP HOUSE, BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK From the first edition of Charles Dickens's earliest work, "Sketches by Boz," 1836, illustrating a passage in the life of Mr. Watkins Tottle, when arrested for a debt of £33 10s. 4d. Mr. Tottle, however, does not appear in the picture. The fast and vulgar youth in front of the fireplace is explaining that he is only there because he obliged a friend by putting his name to bills, and that he expects to get out directly. The hardened debtors whom he addresses receive his assurances with incredulity, and agree that they would have a better opinion of him "if he'd say at once, in an honourable and gentlemanly manner, as he'd done everybody he possibly could." DRESS WITHOUT ART. to face The walking dress comprises a brown satin cape with velvet sleeves and loose hanging sleeves of satin over them, and a bonnet of cherry velvet. The examples of morning dress comprise (1) a dress of green cashmere with cambric collarette, and pink velvet puffings in the hair; (2) a green velvet dress with worked lawn cuffs and chemisette, a cap trimmed with terry velvet, an embroidered cashmere shawl, and a brown velvet bonnet with a bird of paradise plume. The vividness of the colours is noteworthy. MR. PERKINS DISCOVERED IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS From the first edition (1841) of "Comic Tales and Sketches, edited by Michael Angelo Titmarsh," Thackeray's early nom de guerre. The drawing illustrates "The Bedford Row Conspiracy." The attachment is objected to by the lady's relatives. She has been feeding the bears at the Zoological Gardens on a Sunday, and has been assisted by her lover, unwittingly, to jump down from the parapet in full view of a group of her aunt and cousins, with a footman and a French governess, "who had all been for two or three minutes listening to the billings and cooings of these imprudent young lovers." CHILDREN IN 1836, BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK From the first edition of "Sketches by Boz," appended to an article on "Hackney Coach Stands." "The smart servant girl with the pink ribbons, at No. 5, opposite, suddenly opens the street door, and four small children forthwith rush out and scream Coach!' with all their might." QUEEN ADELAIDE, BY SIR W. BEECHEY, R.A. THE QUEEN RECEIVING THE EUCHARIST AT HER CORONATION After the Lords had done homage, and the Queen had been acclaimed by the assembly, "the Archbishop of Canterbury went to the altar. The Queen followed him and, giving the Lord Chamberlain her crown to hold, knelt down at the altar: the Gospel and Epistle of the Communion Service having been read by two bishops, the Queen made her offerings and received the sacrament, kneeling on her faldstool by the chair. Afterwards she put on her crown, and with 305 309 313 317 318 319 320 321 323 her sceptre in her hands, took her seat again on the throne while the archbishop concluded the service." (Annual Register, 1838.) The coronation took place on June 28, 1838. DUEL BETWEEN THE DUKE of WellinGTON AND LORD WINCHILSEA THE HORSES' PETITION FOR THE OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH THE GENERAL POST OFFICE IN 1832 PUNCH'S ANTI-GRAHAM WAFERS On June 14, 1844, Mr. T. S. Duncombe, M.P., presented a petition from W. T. Linton, Mazzini, and others, stating that their letters had been opened. Sir James Graham, Home Secretary, admitted that he had authorised this under a statute of Queen Anne. He had really acted at the request of Lord Aberdeen, the Foreign Secretary, who wished to oblige certain foreign Governments, but he was made the scapegoat. This sheet appears to have been sold separately from Punch, and is referred to in the number of July 6, 1844. Attempts were made to abolish the power of opening letters, but it still exists, and is believed to have been used during the Irish troubles in 1881-1882. THE SCENE OF THE DISRUPTION, ST. ANDREW'S CHURCH, EDINBURGH The formal disruption took place on the day of opening of the General Assembly, May 18, 1843. After the usual opening ceremonies, the High Commissioner's levée and the sermon in the High Church, the assembly proceeded to St. Andrew's Church, where their sittings for business were held. The Moderator, Dr. Welsh, read a long protest against the power exercised by the Civil Courts to override the Church Courts, and withdrew from the assembly, followed by the "Non-Intrusionists." The system of patronage which had led to the secession was altered in 1874. FATHER MATHEW, BY EDWARD DANIEL LEARY SCENES FROM IRELAND DURING THE FAMINE. PAGE 324 325 327 329 332 335 338 339, 340 These illustrations are from sketches by Mr. James Mahoney of Cork, the special artist of the Illustrated London News. They appeared on February 13 and 20, 1847. The boy and girl at Cahera are searching for a potato. The degree of distress and mortality may be gathered from an extract which is appended, from a letter by Dr. Crowley of Cork stating that he and another doctor had been themselves compelled to bury a body, dead eleven days, in a kitchen garden. The hut in the old chapel yard (7 ft. by 6 ft.) originally built to shelter those who watched to prevent body-snatching, and surrounded by recent graves, served as a refuge for six members of one family named Barrett, who had been evicted from their cabin. They were suffering from malignant fever and starving. Between Clonakilty and Skibbereen the artist met "a funeral or a coffin every hundred yards." LORD GEORGE BENTINCK 344 LORD PALMERSTON, BY W. BARRAUD LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE, BY G. F. WATTS, R.A. "GENERAL FÉVRIER" TURNED TRAITOR The Emperor Nicholas had said in reference to the war, "Russia has two generals in whom she can confide-Generals Janvier and Février" (January and February). He was taken ill of influenza on February 14, 1855, and, exposing himself unwisely at a review, died on March 2. If anyone wants to see the effect of war upon the minds not of soldiers in the field, but of civilians at home, let him turn to John Leech's celebrated cartoon" [here shown], “brilliant in conception, admirable in execution, savage in sentiment, and odious in result" (H. W. Paul, History of Modern England, I. 391, note). LOBD LAWRENCE, BY G. F. WATTS, R.A. The magazine, which was entrusted to the guardianship of Nana Sahib, who was supposed to be friendly, was in the N.W. corner of the military lines. The entrenched camp improvised by Sir Hugh Wheeler was some six miles lower down the river to the S.E. The British retired hither before the soldiers definitely mutinied. Nana Sahib seized the magazine with its stores of artillery, besieged the camp, an utterly ineffective stronghold, for seventeen days, June 7-24, 1857, and induced the British to surrender, promising boats to convey them to Allahabad. When they had gone aboard, June 27, the boats were fired on, the men killed, and the women and children (about 80 in all) carried back and confined, with other British captives, in a small house near the Assembly Room, between the native city and the river, where they suffered from cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery, and were compelled to grind corn for the Nana's household. When Havelock defeated the Sepoy force at Cawnpore, the Nana gave orders that the prisoners, in all some 200, should be killed (July 15). The Sepoys, and butchers from the bazaar, carried out the order, and the victims, some not yet dead, were cast down a well at the back of the house (Kaye, Sepoy War in India, II., Bk. V., c 2, 3). THE SEIZURE OF THE CONFEDERATE ENVOYS. The two envoys, Mason (to England) and Slidell (to France), had run the blockade at Charleston, reached Havana, and taken passage thence for St. Thomas, en route for Southampton, by the R. M.S. Trent. On November 8, in the Bahama Channel, the Trent was stopped by the U.S. corvette San Jacinto under Captain Wilkes, which, after twice firing to stop her, sent a boat aboard to demand a list of passengers, and to seize the envoys and their secretaries. This was refused, but the identity of the party was admitted. Slidell appealed to the protection of the British flag, and Captain Williams, the mail agent, formally protested against the outrage as the representative of the Queen. The San Jacinto, however, sent out three more boats and lay within 200 yards of the Trent, exposing her to a broadside. Resistance, therefore, was useless; and after a painful scene caused by the efforts of Miss Slidell to block the door of her father's cabin, the envoys and their secretaries were removed. [Account by the purser of the Trent, Illustrated London News, Nov. 6, 1861.] The envoys were confined in Fort Warren, Boston Harbour, and the seizure was received with enthusiasm in the United States. It was, however, absolutely indefensible, and after British troops had been hurried to Canada in winter, and preparations had been made for war, the envoys were quietly put aboard a British man-of-war, and brought to England in the early days of 1862. PAGE 345 349 351 354 355 358 |