‘The most humorous piece of writing in the world is to be
seen on the South-Western Railway between Fulwell and Twickenham. It is on a
board, and the quaint, incisive words are, “Speed not to exceed ten miles an
hour.” Even people with urgent appointments, the keeping of which means life
and death as they dodder up to town at the old Thames Valley speed of four and
a half miles an hour, have to shriek with laughter when they read Archibald
Scott’s great joke. People tell with bated breath how there was once and
engine-driver, appropriately termed Dare Devil Dick, who got six miles an hour
out of Thames Valley train, and was seen by a directors, and was sacked for
furious driving, and was hired by the Midland and sacked for slowness, and now,
having qualified on the S.W.R., is earning an honest livelihood by driving a
hearse.’[1]
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[1] The
Sporting Times, Saturday, 29 October 1881, p. 1
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