TALBOT2240

Newark ¹
7^th October 1831

My Dear Mother

Rainy weather and the lateness of the season made me turn south. I have stopped here and sent a note over to Lady Bromley’s ² to see if she is at home, intending if she is to spend a day there and then go on to London. I mean to stay a few days in Town therefore write to me there & tell me who you have at Lacock, and who you expect, and when. I hope Caroline ³ got my letter from Buxton. ⁴ I have since that made a little tour in Yorkshire but was much disappointed in the scenery of Craven which did not appear to be anything very remarkable. But the most interesting thing I saw was the Liverpool Railway – I took a trip there from Manchester and back, the distance is 31 miles, we accomplished it in 1 hour 18 minutes & a half. We were a company of six treble bodied coaches, in all eighteen vehicles, dragged by one engine. We measured 93 feet in length from the front of the first carriage to the rear of the last. There is only one stoppage allowed [illegible deletion] on the road, at Newton, just to refresh the engine – People who wish to stop at any other place are obliged to go in what are called the second class trains – Otherwise the great speed would be of no use if the time were to be wasted in taking up & setting down passengers.

If you lean back in the corner of the coach & shut your eyes, the impression is that you are not travelling very fast, there is so little jolting. Nothing can feel safer than this mode of conveyance, the carriages being always quite upright, & not swaying from side to side as on a common road. 24 miles an hour is the rate they keep up without inconvenience, sometimes quicker when going down hill, sometimes much slower when ascending one; for the engine is very sensible to a hill even of the smallest dimensions & would stop still, long before it became sensible to the eye that the ground had ceased level. I hope you are amusing yourselves at Lacock

Yours aff^ly
Henry

[address panel:]
Lady E. Feilding
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts