THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.

187 to Bristol in June, 1841. The Box Tunnel, which is 3,168 feet long, is on this line. Branches to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Oxford, and other places, and several leased lines, are included in the appendages of the Great Western Railway. Among the leading stations may be named Windsor, Reading, Oxford, Swindon, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bath, Bristol, Bridgewater, Taunton, and Exeter.

The Great Northern, the most recently constructed of the metropolitan railways, "is an amalgamation of the London and York and Direct Northern,"* and was incorporated about 1846, for a line from London to York through Peterborough, Newark, and Retford, with a loop line from Peterborough through Boston and Lincoln, reuniting with the chief line at Retford. Its proposed length was 275 miles, which extensions recently granted have augmented to 335 miles. Several leased lines belong to this company, which is still increasing its acquisitions. In 1850 this line was opened from London to Peterborough, the metropolitan station, only a temporary one, being in Maiden-lane, King's-cross. The permanent London terminus is to occupy that extensive and commanding site of ground at King's-cross facing the New-road, which was lately covered by the Fever and Small Pox Hospitals. The buildings are in progress, and another year will, probably, witness their completion.

Before dismissing the subject of railways, we must add a few statistics, which show not only the vast amount of traffic which they absorb, but also their rapidly-increasing popularity. In the year ending the 30th of June, 1850, there were in the United Kingdom 6,308 miles of railway in operation; over this distance had travelled, by the first class carriages, 7,734,728 passengers; by the second class, 24,226,669; by the third class, 15,547,749; by the Parliamentary class, 19,249,974; and by the mixed trains, 81,055; making an astounding total of 66,840,175 railway passengers in the course of the year. It is worthy of

* Railway Manual.

notice that the travellers in 1850 nearly doubled in amount those of 1845, the number recorded for that year, closing at the 30th of June, being only 33,791,253. The entire receipts from passengers of every description for the year 1850 were £6,465,575: 11s. 10d.; and from goods, cattle, mail, and similar sources of revenue, £5,942,276: 18s. 8d., yielding a total of £12,407,852: 10s. 6d.; the receipts for the year 1845 being £6,209,714.

Notwithstanding the vast augmentation in the rate of transit which railways have accomplished, and the increased facilities of commerce which they undoubtedly afford, by many they are still deemed to be in their infancy, and we are taught to look forward to an era compared with which, the present feats of railway speed will appear as tardy as the movements of the York coach a century back seem to the existing generation. That the railway system is remote from perfection cannot be doubted, when accidents fraught with fearful sacrifice to life and limb are of frequent occurrence, even on the best regulated lines. It will be a great point when railway travelling has attained a high character, as well for safety as for speed; when the inmate of a railway carriage can have no possible misgivings of a safe arrival at his destination. When this state of things shall come to pass, it may be considered as the golden epoch of railways, which it is to be hoped will, in the course of time, achieve the noblest objects of civilization, by promoting not only commercial but social intercourse among all nations of the earth.

CHAPTER XV.

THE CITY COMPANIES AND THEIR HALLS.

In ancient times the city of London had only one collective trading company, distinguished as the guilda mercatoria, but as the population increased, and the trades became more numerous, distinctive companies were formed, and charters of incorporation obtained, by which exclusive privileges were conferred on the freemen. The city guilds, or companies, though branches of the corporation, have, individually, a separate government, and enjoy peculiar liberties and advantages in virtue of their charters. The affairs of the various companies are under the direction of a master, warden, assistants, clerks, and other officials. To the greater part of these companies a hall is attached, for the transaction of business and for the occasional celebration of banquets, festal entertainments which are still tenaciously observed by the citizens. The city dinners are characterised by some remarkable observances. At many of them the loving-cup makes the circuit of the guests. A cup and cover elaborately chased, either of gold or silver, is placed before the Lord Mayor, or master, while the master of the ceremonies, in a stentorian tone, exclaims, "The master bids you all welcome, and greets you all in the loving-cup." The beverage in these costly vessels is spiced wine, and as each receives the cup his next neighbour rises, removes the cover, and holds the cup till the quaffer has finished, when the like friendly office is rendered to himself. For the maintenance of these festivals, funds are expressly set apart, and the late Mr. Thwaites, wishing to perpetuate good-fellowship, bequeathed £30,000 to the company of Clothworkers, one moiety for charities, and the other to be appropriated to feasting.

Of the ninety-one city companies which London could once enumerate some few are extinct, and others are with

out liveries and halls. Twelve are styled, par excellence, the great companies, and the following is their order of precedence:-Mercers, Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Merchant Tailors, Haberdashers, Salters, Ironmongers, Vintners, and Clothworkers.

The Mercers' Company was incorporated in the seventeenth year of the reign of Richard II., but had previously existed by prescription. Several sovereigns and princes, and many illustrious noblemen have belonged to this company, as well as sixty-two lord mayors, including Whittington and Gresham. The armorial bearings of the Mercers are represented by a bust of the Virgin Mary, sculptured over the gateway of their hall in Cheapside. It was anciently the custom when a member of this company was raised to the civic chair to have, as a part of the city pageant to Westminster, a chariot richly decorated, in which was seated a beautiful young girl, most magnificently attired, with her hair streaming in ringlets over her neck and shoulders, and a crown upon her head. When the festivities of the day closed she was rewarded with a liberal benefaction, and the costly garments in which she personated a queen. At the banquets of this company a song was formerly sung, in which the priority of the guild was exultingly alluded to. The opening verse will convey the spirit of this composition:

"Advance the Virgin,-lead the van,

Of all that are in London free,

The mercer is the foremost man
That founded a society.

Of all the trades that London grace,
We are the first in time and place."

The hall of the Mercers in Cheapside stands upon the site of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acons. This hospital was founded by Thomas Fitz-Theobald de Helles, and his wife Agnes, the sister of Thomas à Becket, and upon the very spot where that proud but unhappy prelate was born, and it was named Acons after the supposed birthplace of à Becket's mother. On the suppression of religious

THE GROCERS' COMPANY.

191

houses the hospital was purchased by the Mercers, and converted into a chapel for the company. The edifice was consumed by the fire of 1666, and the existing hall and chapel rose in its place. To this wealthy association belong a moiety of the Royal Exchange and Gresham College, St. Paul's and Mercers' Schools, Whittington's College at Highgate, Trinity Hospital at Greenwich, Stepney Hospital, the patronage of the Golden Lectureship (filled by the Rev. H. Melville), and other valuable appointments.

Grocers' Hall is in Grocers' Hall court, Poultry, its rear stretching to Princes-street, and agreeably shaded by lofty trees. It covers the site of the mansion of the Lords Fitzwalter. The present edifice has been new-fronted and beautifully ornamented. Among the portraits which decorate the hall are those of the Earl of Chatham and the right hon. William Pitt, who were both members of this company. The term grocer was originally used to distinguish a dealer in goods in gross quantities in opposition to the mere retailer. The more ancient designation of this company was that of the pepperers, on account of pepper being the chief article in which a grocer dealt.

"Mercibus hic Italis, mutat sub sola recenti

Rugosum piper et pallentis grana cymini."*

The fraternity were first incorporated as grocers by the charters of Edward III. in 1345. A pepperer was still not unseldom a separate business, and conducted as such till 1559. In that year a quantity of pepper having been seized in a Spanish vessel, was purchased from the queen by certain exclusive dealers in that article. The grocers endeavoured to undersell the pepperers by importing pepper on their own account, which caused the latter to petition the queen that no pepper might be imported for three years, which would enable them to keep their engagements with her majesty; and to induce her to comply with their prayer, they promised not to raise the price of pepper above three shillings in the pound.

* Persius.