The Innocent Railway


(Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway)

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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North British Railway, a railway whose name was first applied only to the line from Edinburgh to Berwick, and now Forming the largest Railway organisation, as regards mileage, in Scotland. The earliest sections of the North British railway, as now consolidated, were the Monkland and Kirkintilloch, the second railway in Scotland, opened in 1826, and the Ballochney. opened in 1828, which, with the Slamannan, opened in 1840, were amalgamated as one line in 1848, were afterwards amalgamated with the Edinburgh and Glasgow, and came to the North British in 1865, as subsequently noticed. Amore direct portion of the original North British was the Edinburgh and Dalkeith, which ranks as- the fifth railway in point of time in Scotland, and which. was opened in 1831. This line obtained some celebrity under its title of the 'Innocent Railway,' given to it by Dr Robert Chambers in one of his essays, indicating its safety and slow-going character as compared with lines on which locomotives were used. `In the very contemplation of the innocence of the railway you find your heart rejoiced. Only think of a railway having a board at all the stations forbidding the drivers to stop by the way to feed their horses!' This railway, running from Edinburgh to Dalkeith and Dalhousie, with branches to Leith and Fisherrow, was 17 ½ miles in length. Prior to its absorption by the North British in 1845, it was used chiefly for the conveyance of coals and farm products, but had also a regular service of passenger omnibuses, drawn by horses. The branch to Leith, and a part of the branch to Fisherrow, have been put out of use, and form wooded mounds that may some day puzzle the antiquary. The next portion of the system was the Edinburgh and Glasgow, opened in 1841, and amalgamated with the North British in 1865, having previously absorbed the Edinburgh and Bathgate line (authorised in 1846) and the three early railways previously named. In 1842 the Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton railway was opened, and this was amalgamated with the Edinburgh and Northern on the opening of that line from Burntisland in Fife to Perth and Tayport (for Dundee) in 1847, the latter being absorbed in the North British in 1862, and being known as the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee for the intervening fifteen years. The railway which gives its title to the system was opened in 1846, and consisted of the main line, 58 miles in length, and the branch to Haddington, 5 miles. In the previous year the powers of the Edinburgh and Hawick Company had been acquired before any steps at construction were taken, and this line (of which the utilised section of the `Innocent Railway' formed a part) was opened as an integral portion of the North British. By the formation of the Border Union railway, Hawick to Carlisle and the Border Counties, Hexham in Northumberland to Riccarton (forming a junction there with the preceding), and by the construction of many branches, and the absorption of many lines independently constructed, the North British became the large organisation embraced under that name.

The company, as consolidated, serves the whole of the SE of Scotland from the Tay to the Tweed, and stretches to several westerly points, besides holding in the N a half share of the Dundee and Arbroath railway, the lines by the coast to Montrose and Bervie, and running powers to Aberdeen. Its southern termini are Berwick, Hexham, Carlisle, and Silloth, and the other terminal points to which it reaches are Airdrie, Wishaw, Hamilton, Glasgow, Helensburgh, Larbert, Perth, and Bervie. Besides this there are a number of branch and cross lines that fill up the scheme, such as the branches to Kelso (where the Berwick branch of the North-Eastern railway is joined), to Langholm, Jedburgh, and Selkirk; the line from Newtown St Boswells to Earlston and Duns, through Berwickshire to Reston on the main line; the branches to Gretna, Port Carlisle, and Silloth; and the line running from Galashiels to Innerleithen and Peebles, with branch to Dolphinton, and returning to main line at Eskbank. There are also short lines to Penicuik, Roslin, and Polton; to North Berwick, Haddington, Macmerry, Musselburgh, and Fisherrow harbour; and the connecting link between South Leith and Portobello. Those branches are all S of the Forth, in connection with the main and Carlisle lines. Edinburgh forms a central point in the system, at which all the main lines converge. Westward, the lines are to Glasgow, to South Queensferry (soon to form a part of the main route N on the completion of the Forth Bridge); branches from the main Glasgow line to Bo'ness, Grangemouth, and Larbert, from the last of which the Company holds running powers to Perth; and the southern route to Glasgow (formed out of the Bathgate railway and late westward continuations), with lines through the coal districts of Airdrie and Slamannan. The company possesses a half share of the City of Glasgow Union railway, and is now (1884) constructing a suburban connection in Glasgow, largely underground, the object of the latter being both to promote local city traffic and to obtain a quicker route from Helensburgh, etc., to the chief station in the city. The lines running immediately out of Glasgow are those to Helensburgh, Maryhill, Strathblane, Killearn, etc. The latest addition here is the line to Aberfoyle, through the `Rob Roy' country. A branch runs from Dumbarton to Balloch (Jamestown) on the shore of Loch Lomond, and there joins the Forth and Clyde line, from Balloch through the Buchanan country to Stirling, made in 1854, and leased to the North British in 1871. The company owns the line from Stirling to Dunfermline and Thornton (with branch to Cambus and Alva), also from Alloa by Dollar and Kinross to Ladybank, the main route from Burntisland to Perth and Tayport (for Dundee), the East of Fife line from Thornton to Anstruther, a branch from Leuchars to St Andrews, a branch from the same junction to Newport to join the Tay Bridge, and a line between Newport and Tayport. The Anstruther and St Andrews railway, when complete, will give railway communication to Crail and the East Neuk of Fife. From the scattered nature of the numerous branches, the working of the line is of an involved and intricate nature, and although the mileage of line is the largest in Scotland, the revenue of the railway is less than that of the Caledonian railway. The railway, at the beginning of 1884, consisted of 425 ½ miles of double line, 570 miles of single line, 32 miles of the Union Canal (which had been purchased by the Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1848), and ferries over the Forth at Queensferry and Burntisland, and over the Tay from Tayport to Broughty Ferry, about 8 miles in all. In addition to this the company work other lines of 57 ¼ miles, and run trains over 122 ½ miles of `foreign' railways, making a total of over 1200 miles of public communications directly or partly in the control- of the company. At January 1884 the capital expenditure of the company amounted to £32, 533, 313, consisting of shares £24, 456, 525, debenture stocks £6,145, 933, loans £1, 686,691, premiums received on issue of stock £231, 040, and balance due £13,122. The remarks made on the capital of the Caledonian Railway Company (vol. i., p. 219) apply equally to this account of capital, and need not be repeated. The actual money spent on the North British railway probably does not amount to thirty millions.

In the half-year last reported the company carried 827, 804 first class, 354, 525 second class, and 8,085,066 third class passengers, making, with 7988 season tickets, a total of 9, 275, 383 passengers, yielding, with mails and parcels, a revenue of £489, 697. The goods and mineral traffic, with live stock, yielded a revenue of £835, 801, giving a total revenue of 1 1/3 million of money for the half-year. This traffic required the services of 573 locomotive engines, 1754 passenger vehicles, 32, 062 waggons of various kinds, besides steamers at Burntisland, Queensferry, and Tayport, to conduct the ferry traffic. Including the steamer passages, this plant traversed, in the passenger department, 2, 407, 293 train miles, and in goods service, 3, 273, 276 train miles, being a total of 5, 901,177 miles. The revenue earned amounted to 54.94d. per train mile, the rate being 45.99d. in the passenger traffic and 61.99d. in the goods traffic. The affairs of the company are administered by a board of thirteen directors.

The outline of the railway given in the foregoing brief narrative of its origin and extent shows that the company commands a large and important district. As a local line it has entire control of the counties of Berwick, Roxburgh, Haddington, Edinburgh, and Fife, and it competes with the Caledonian for through or local traffic at the principal places in Scotland. Owning the shortest and most level route between Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as a subsidiary route by Bathgate and Coatbridge, it offers the best means of communication between these cities, but under an arrangement made when the Tay Bridge was projected, the traffic between these places is divided between the companies in fixed proportions without reference to the actual number carried by each. As regards London, the North British forms an integral part of the East Coast route by York, Newcastle, and Berwick, completed in 1850 when the Queen opened the Victoria bridge at Berwick; and the `Flying Scotsman' between Edinburgh and London, performing the distance between the cities in 9 ½ hours, is one of the fastest trains in the world. Through the line viâ Hawick to Carlisle, the North British also forms a part of the Midland route to England; the trains northward from London, etc., forking at Carlisle, westward by the Glasgow and SouthWestern, and eastward by the North British. Through Fife, besides a monopoly of local service, the company maintains trains to Perth and the north, the ferry, however, rendering this route but little favoured by through travellers. A better competition with the north is maintained by a special service of trains to Perth viâ Stirling, under the running powers conferred on the company when the Scottish Central, the neck of the railway system of Scotland, was absorbed in the Caledonian. In the same way, a rival service is maintained to Aberdeen over the Dundee and Arbroath and Arbroath and Montrose lines, with running powers beyond, the last secured to the company on the absorption of the Scottish North -Eastern by the Caledonian. The rivalry of the two companies is, in brief, the principal feature of Scottish railway organisation, the public reaping the benefit in numerous and rapid trains, and keen competition for goods and mineral traffic - a rivalry not always beneficial to the shareholders, but of late years having been modified to their manifest advantage. In the construction of the North British, there have been many considerable engineering works, including the great bridges over the Tay and the Forth to be subsequently noticed. The original line, Berwick to Edinburgh, presents no extensive works, though offering to the traveller some highly picturesque glimpses as it touches the sea near Berwick and at Dunbar, and passes the defile of Peasebrig. The Border Counties line, from Hexham in Northumberland to Riccarton (with branch to Rothbury and Morpeth), takes the traveller through a district of great interest, and climbing over the Cheviot Hills crosses the Border at a high elevation. From Carlisle northward to Hawick the line is not important in any engineering sense, but in the ascent and descent of the watersheds and the passage of Whitrope tunnel the line shows gradients and curves which rendered the use of `bogie' engines a matter of necessity in working the fast express trains. The summit-level at Falahill is frequently in winter the scene of obstructions from snow drifts. As this line passes through the Scott country and the scenes of Border story, it attracts large numbers of visitors annually, especially to Melrose (for Melrose and Dryburgh Abbeys and Abbotsford), Kelso, Jedburgh, etc., also to Selkirk, Innerleithen, and Peebles for angling in St Mary's Loch and the many fine streams throughout the district, and on the local lines to Roslin Chapel, etc. Between Edinburgh and Glasgow, the main line is a notable and costly engineering work, it having been made before the power of locomotives to overcome gradients and curves was properly understood. It includes two extensive stone viaducts over the Almond and Avon, and the cuttings and tunnel near Winchburgh were made at immense cost. The trains suffer from delay in entering Glasgow by a very long tunnel with an incline so steep that it must be worked by a rope and stationary engine. To overcome this delay as regards the Dumbartonshire and local Stirlingshire traffic, the suburban route in Glasgow already described was projected. The Edinburgh and Glasgow line passes close to Linlithgow, a favourite resort to visit the royal palace there,- but in too many places, particularly at Falkirk, the line avoids the towns, partly from the desire to make straight as well as level runs on the railway, and partly from the idea in those early times that the vicinity of a railway was not desirable. The town of Falkirk is best reached by the Grahamston station on the Larbert junction line, the station being actually in the town, while that on the main Glasgow line is about 2 miles distant. At Cowlairs the company maintains large engineering and carriage building works, where about 2000 persons are employed. The Fifeshire section of the system is devoid of engineering importance, but at the ferry between Granton and Burntisland there is an ingenious contrivance perfected by Sir Thomas Bouch in 1851, under which goods trains are shipped and unshipped at any state of the tide on large steamers built for the purpose. A movable platform, level above and diagonal below, is raised or lowered on a sloping face to the necessary level, and from it flying booms in pairs carry the rails forward to meet the stern of the vessel. The steamers used are large and broad, and are built with separate engines for each paddle, so as to leave the centre of the deck free to receive waggons on several lines of rails over its whole length. The movable platform is raised or lowered by steam, and the waggons, in trains of five or six, are run on and off by chains worked by the stationary engine. The first vessel, the Leviathan, built by Napier of Glasgow, is still in use, but other and larger 'floating railways' have since been built. With the exception of such slight accidents as are perhaps inevitable in working such a system, it has been used daily in all weathers, and with unqualified success during the whole period since it was constructed. A project to adapt the same system at Queensferry was made in 1861 by Bouch, but was not carried out, and then efforts were directed towards bridging the two rivers. Those works are so intimately associated with the engineer who first devised them that their story may best be told in the words of the memoir of that distinguished engineer, published by the Institution of Civil Engineers after his death in 1880:-

'After the floating railway, already described, had come into operation, Mr Bouch's attention was drawn to the desirability of having a more direct connection between the north and south of Scotland, by carrying uninterrupted railway communication across the two estuaries of the Forth and the Tay. Taking the Forth first, besides laying out the scheme for a railway ferry at Queensferry, he projected the Glasgow and North British railway, plans for which were lodged in l864, and in which it was proposed to cross the estuary by a fixed bridge. This was proposed to be 3 miles long, and was to extend from the south side to a point called the Stacks, about a mile above Charleston on the Fife shore, the piers consisting of wrought-iron cylinders supported on a wide base on the silt bottom of the river. An experimental pier for this bridge was prepared and partly sunk to its- place, attracting much attention amongst professional men at the time. The bridge was to have been 125 feet above high-water level, and five of its spans were to have been 500 feet each, to cross the fairway of the river. After considerable progress had been made with the experimental pier, the project was abandoned, on the failure of Mr Hodgson's policy as chairman of the North British railway. The question of bridging the Forth was, however, not lost sight of by Mr Bouch, who in 1873, after the Tay Bridge had been begun, projected a design of a much bolder character. He removed the point of crossing to Queensferry, where the width was much reduced, but the depth much increased. Taking advantage of the island of Inchgarvie, in the middle of the estuary, as a foundation for a central pier, he proposed to cross the deep-water channels on each side by two spans of 1600 feet each, elevated 150 feet above high-water line. Each span was to be supported by suspension chains, having a deflection of 375 feet, the stiffening necessary for railway traffic being provided by tie-rods and strong lattice girders. The piers were formed of cast-iron columns, strongly braced, and their total height from the foundation was upwards of 600 feet. The advantages promised by this scheme were so great that the several railway companies, both English and Scotch, who were interested in the traffic on the eastern side of the kingdom, eagerly professed their willingness to support it, if it were practicable: but on account of the unexampled boldness of the design, they stipulated that it should be submitted to the opinion of some of the highest engineering authorities in the kingdom. Accordingly a committee of four eminent engineers, Sir John Hawkshaw, Messrs W. H. Barlow, G. P. Bidder, and T. E. Harrison, was appointed for the purpose; and at their suggestion an elaborate investigation of the proposed design, in full theoretical and practical detail, was undertaken by Mr W. H. Barlow and Dr Wm. Pole, assisted on some points by the Astronomer Royal, Sir G. B. Airy. Their report was given on the 30th June 1873, and it was so favourable that the four referees pronounced an unqualified approval of the plan. They said: 2 It affords us great satisfaction to be able to give our sanction to a work of so imposing a character, and to express our high approval - of the skill, scientific research, and practical knowledge which have been brought to bear upon the elaboration of this interesting work."

' Some years elapsed, in consequence of financial difficulties, before the scheme took a practical shape, but in 1878 a company was formed, the contracts for the Forth Bridge were let, and on the 30th September in that year the works were formally begun.

' Although Mr Bouch had, as early as 1849, expressed his determination to bridge both estuaries, it was not till 1863 that the first proposal for a Tay Bridge was made public, and not till July 1870 that the bill for this purpose received the royal assent. As originally designed, the Tay Bridge differed in some of its details from the scheme ultimately carried out. As eventually built, the bridge was within a few yards of 2 miles long: it consisted of eighty-five spans, namely, seventy-two in the shallow water on the north and south sides varying from 29 to 145 feet; and thirteen larger spans over the fairway channel, two of these being 227 feet, and eleven 245 feet wide. The rails rested on the upper members of the girders generally, but on the lower members of the thirteen large spans. The system of wrought-iron lattice girders was adopted throughout, Mr Bouch adhering to the form of construction which had been successfully employed in other works designed by him. The piers were originally intended to be of brickwork, but after the fourteen nearest the south shore had been thus erected, the fifteenth showed a failure of the anticipated foundation, which led to the abandonment of brick and the introduction of iron. In the lesser piers the group of pillars consisted of four of 12 inches diameter, and for the larger spans six pillars were used, disposed in two triangular groups of three each, and stiffened with cross bracing. After many vicissitudes and delays caused by unexpected difficulties in carrying out the work, the line was completed continuously from shore to shore on the 22nd of September 1877, after which date there was a heavy ballast traffic across the river, testing the carrying power of the bridge in a satisfactory way. The inspection of the work by Major-General Hutchinson, R.E., on behalf of the Board of Trade occupied three days, and on the 31st of May l878, the bridge was opened with much ceremony and rejoicing, the engineer being presented with the freedom of the town of Dundee. Traffic on the bridge was at once begun, and a direct service of trains from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Aberdeen was organised, saving much time and inconvenience by the abandonment of the ferry crossing and the double change of conveyance it involved. The improvement was fully appreciated by the public, and in June 1879 the Queen crossed the bridge on her journey southwards from Balmoral. As a mark of royal approval of the striking achievement of the engineer, the Queen commanded the attendance of Mr Bouch at Windsor, and on the 26th of June 1879, he received the honour of knighthood.

' The traffic was continued uninterruptedly till the evening of Sunday the 28th of December 1879, when a violent hurricane arose, and during the passage of a train from Edinburgh across the bridge, the central portion fell into the river, carrying with it the entire train and its load of about seventy passengers, all of whom lost their lives. An inquiry was instituted by the Board of Trade into the circumstances of the accident, the evidence showing much conflict of opinion as to its cause. There could be no doubt, however, of the almost unprecedented violence of the gale, and Sir Thomas Bouch strongly held the opinion that under this force some part of the train had left the rails, which he considered would amply account for the disaster. He had for some time not been well, and under the shock and distress of mind caused by the casualty his health more rapidly gave way, and he died at Moffat on the 30th of October 1880. In his death the profession has to lament one who, though perhaps carrying his works nearer to the margin of safety than many others would have done, displayed boldness, originality, and resource in a high degree, and bore a distinguished part in the later development of the railway system.

' One unfortunate effect of the disaster was to paralyse the operations that had been favourably going on to. wards the larger project of crossing the estuary of the Forth. The public had, for the moment, lost faith in large iron bridges; the Board of Trade made larger demands of security, and the Forth Bridge Company, rather than persevere in so bold a scheme in the face of a temporarily unfavourable phase of public opinion, resolved to abandon the undertaking, or at least to wait till a more convenient season for its further prosecution.'

Within two years of the fall of the Tay Bridge the North British Railway Company obtained an act authorising the construction of a new viaduct, differing in many points of detail from the original structure. Starting from nearly the same points N and S, the new bridge stands about 50 yards W of the old. In the number and arrangement of spans it is identical, and in the method of sinking the foundations and bringing up the structure above high -water mark the process is the same. It differs (1st) in being a double instead of a single line, by which the lateral stability and carrying capacity are increased; (2d) in the upper structure being in solid plates of malleable iron, instead of groups of cast-iron columns; and (3d) in being less in elevation above high water o. s. t. The reduction in the height caused an obligation to be imposed on the company to tow all vessels proceeding to Perth or elsewhere above bridge. The engineer of this bridge is Mr Barlow, and its estimated cost £800,000.

Although under the Act of 1878 the Forth Bridge was formally begun as already stated, no steps were taken to carry on the work, and the destruction of the Tay Bridge caused the scheme as designed by Sir Thomas Bouch to be abandoned, and a new design to be prepared. This was done by Mr Fowler, who made several very important alterations, although, as before, the two spans of 1600 feet crossing the fairways of the river, remain necessary features of the design. As in the case of the Tay Bridge, the structure provides a double line, and in the wider spans these are built independently and separated by a distance of 100 feet, with lateral bracings connecting them, so that additional stability- is thus secured. The bridge is approached by a long viaduct of 30 spans on the lattice girder principle, and in the two main spans the suspension -principle has been abandoned, those spans being instead constructed in a semi-circular form below on the cantilever principle. In this case also a reduction in height was authorised by the Act, and from the careful tests taken, and the determination of the board to make a structure immovable by any hurricane within experience, the bridge possesses high elements of stability. Although this structure has been noticed under the North British Railway, it does not belong to that company, being independently promoted under a guarantee for traffic and dividend to which the Great Northern, Midland, North-Eastern, and North British Railways are parties. The North British is charged with the duty of working the bridge and its connecting lines at 50 per cent. of the gross traffic, while the various companies, besides a guarantee for the dividend, are bound to direct a stated amount of traffic to the bridge.

Another work of engineering importance is the bridge over the Esk at Montrose. This bridge as designed by Bouch failed, owing to the bad foundation furnished by the ' back-sands, ' and considerable expense was incurred in erecting a new lattice girder bridge, which was opened in 1882. A fine iron bridge, designed by Bouch, crosses the Dryden burn on the Edinburgh and Rosslyn line, and the bridge crossing the Tweed below Melrose, carrying the railway to Earlston, is an imposing stone structure, and as it carries a single line only it appears very slender owing to its great height, and having shown some indications of yielding at one end, the piers have been strongly re-inforced there.

The character of the traffic borne by the North British railway is much diversified. As a passenger line it ranks first in Scotland, a larger proportion of its revenue being derived from this source than is the case with its great rival line the Caledonian. It is the sole means of railway communication over a very large district, and in the denser parts of the country it maintains a lively competition with the other lines. In mineral traffic it has connection with docks or harbours at Leith (by two lines), Bo'ness, Burntisland, Charleston, Glasgow (by the Stobcross docks), Silloth, etc. It has considerable fish traffic from Dunbar, Eyemouth (to which a railway is about to be made), Granton, Anstruther, etc. Its tourist district embraces the Scott country, and such interesting historical places as Lochleven, Dunfermline, Falkland, St Andrews, and Linlithgow. Its importance as a part of the shortest and swiftest route from Edinburgh to London, and as the best line from Edinburgh to Glasgow, has already been adverted to, and over both those lines it conducts an important part of the postal service. The history of the North British has been one of many vicissitudes. In Mr Richard Hodgson it possessed a man of great energy and foresight, and his endeavours to realise a gigantic and well compacted system plunged the company into serious financial difficulties, which formed the subject of a special investigation in 1867. It is one of the features of the later history of the company, that most of Mr Hodgson's ideas have since been carried out. By great boldness he secured the access to Carlisle from Hawick, which, had it fallen into the hands of the Caledonian, would have made the now picturesque and favourite ' Waverley Route ' a cul de sac. On Mr Hodgson's downfall the company secured a man of no less ability and courage in Mr Stirling of Kippendavie, who, for fifteen years, ruled the destinies of the railway. It was under his direction that the company pushed into the great Lanarkshire coalfield by the ' Coatbridge undertaking, ' which made the Edinburgh and Bathgate railway a through line, and by special lines running to Hamilton, etc. The Glasgow connection was strengthened by the construction of the Stobcross docks and connecting lines, while northward the construction of the Forth and Tay Bridges, the acquirement of one-half of the Dundee and Arbroath, the new railway to Montrose, and the purchase of the Bervie line indicate a policy pointing to a direct route to Aberdeen and the north, entirely independent of those ' running powers ' from Larbert to Perth, and from Arbroath to Aberdeen, already held as the fruits of keen parliamentary strife. At the beginning of 1879 the company seemed to be approaching an end of its difficulties, but the fall of the Tay Bridge, and the consequent loss of traffic and money, caused the fortunes of the company again to droop. A revival speedily followed, however, and in the spring of 1883 the ' ordinary ' stock obtained a dividend of 5 per cent., a rate which had not been paid since 1848, and which was in 1884 increased to 5½ per cent. During thirteen of the intervening years no dividend was paid on that stock, although as a rule all the ' preference ' dividends have been fully paid. In 1848, it may be stated, the entire capital receiving dividend was £1, 080, 000, while in 1884 the capital was over thirty-two millions, the ' ordinary ' capital above referred to as then receiving 5½ per cent. being over four millions and a half. a part of the recent policy of the company has been to encourage the formation of local lines, and after their into the system under terms more or less favourable. Under various heads throughout this work (Border Counties Railway, Berwickshire Railway, etc., etc.) will be found particulars of a number of railways which have been in this way amalgamated with the North British.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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