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| London Bridge, 1858 |
"Once I found myself racing north alone with an elderly
spinster of forbidding aspect. She had long since left the “springs of fifty
years” behind. She was gaunt, grey, and bony, She wore gleaming spectacles. She
was like the elderly Englishwoman dear to Parisian caricature. And the first words
she uttered of sepulchral tones were these: “I always travel in a ladies’
compartment when going even the shortest journey, for you never know what might
happen!” This prudent spinster, it will be seen, was gifted with that priceless
possession, a vivid imagination. With her, I remember, I was moved to formulate
my views as to the Ideal Train. I argued that the whole classification of
passengers required immediate rearrangement. There should not only be separate carriages
for children, but compartments for the newly-wed, for men who smoke inferior
cigars, for schoolboys, for people who want to discuss their private affairs,
for folks recovering from dangerous illnesses, for ugly people, for “engaged”
couples – or those who ought to be – for young ladies who giggle (there is no
form of nerve-torture to compare to this on a long journey), and for people who
regard railway travelling as an excuse for gnawing chicken-bones, drinking,
potent-smelling liquors, and strewing themselves and everybody else with
crumbs."
Miss Hepworth
Dixon, Ladies Pictorial, August 1896
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