various fines, and there are many types of engines on the same system all constructed to serve particular needs and purposes.
As to the speed of trains, I have mentioned 80 miles an hour being exceeded, and on several occasions 78 miles or more has been recorded. On certain favourable lengths of line, speeds of 70, 73 and 75 miles an hour are often made, but such speeds involve needless risk, and are to be deprecated. Europe's fastest trains have a sort of understood maximum of sixty miles an hour. Drivers need nerves of warriors to bear the strain of ever increasing power and weight whilst maintaining speed. There was keen zest about railway races in 1885 to 1888, when they came to an end. The G.N. East Coast express left King's Cross at 10 a.m, on August 31st of 1888, and arrived at Edinburgh at 5.27 p.m, having taken the 400 miles in 7 hours and 27 minutes. On the following day racing to the North was discontinued. But forty years earlier, on May 11th of 1848, the Bristol express, G.W.R., ran from Paddington to Didcot, 53½ miles, in a running time of 47 minutes from start to stop, an average of 68 miles an hour, with J. Almond as driver.
The block system of signalling, invented by Mr. (afterwards Sir) William F. Cooke, and established in 1865, made a greatly needed improvement in railway working, contributing enormously to the safety of travelling and the confidence of drivers. I have already indicated how rapidly speed developed from Stephenson's modest guarantee of ten miles an hour up to seventy miles an hour within twenty years, and all this was taking perceptible effect in public life. It made possible the great success of the Exhibition in 1851, when more provincials visited London than in any year up to that time. It made possible also the cheap excursion to distant places, one of the priceless boons that railways presented to the nation's workers. It gave suddenly a new perquisite to health, education and entertainment. With excursions one naturally links the name of Cook. Thomas Cook was born at Melbourne, Derbyshire, on November 22nd, 1808, and at the age of ten years was earning a penny a day at gardening. His first organised cheap trip was to convey a Sunday School party from Leicester to
