Another particular in which the tramroads differed from the railways of to-day is that the latter are the principal means for the land conveyance of goods, whereas the tramroads were regarded not as principal but as auxiliary agencies for transportation. In the later years of the eighteenth century, when the early tramroads were coming into notice in certain localities, the canals and the ordinary roads were claiming more and more attention, since these were considered as the permanent routes along which the conveyance of goods should be effected. It was but natural, therefore, that the new facilities of transport should be thought of, not as displacing in any sense the existing modes of conveyance, but as accessories to them. Canal companies considered the tramroads as valuable additions to their facilities, for by means of them trade and communications could be effected with districts that would otherwise be inaccessible. There were canals that were constructed through territory to tap the coal resources of that region; but either because they could not economically reach the source of the coal on account of its height above a water supply, or because, if they did reach it, the operation of the canal was too expensive to be remunerative, these canals were impotent to supply the necessary facilities for the development of this mineral wealth. In such places, the use of a tramway would enable such materials as coal, stone and iron-ore to be brought down to a lower level, where the canals could do the effective service that they were designed to fulfil in carrying these things thence to the places of manufacture. In fact, at the end of the eighteenth century, and even during the early part of the nineteenth century, tramways were regarded as strictly tributary to the canals; for in many petitions to Parliament, asking for authority to construct canals, there were also requests for the privilege of making collateral cuts, "with proper railways and other roads to communicate with these canals1." In most of these cases, the tramway was to reach some pleasing astonishment." The expense of construction of these roads varies according to circumstances. It is seldom less than one thousand pounds per mile, and sometimes exceeds that sum. The cars weigh not less than three and a half tons. They are drawn by a single horse, and the driver stands on a kind of footboard behind, and can instantaneously stop the car by means of a lever and a drop, which falls between the wheels, and suspends their motion. In places where the declivity is more rapid than usual, the horse is taken out, and the car impelled forward by its own weight. For description of the waggons used, see Wood, op. cit., pp. 76-80; and other data regarding the formation and operation of these roads are given in Cumming, Rail and Tram Roads.

1 See, for example, J., H. of C., Mar. 11, 1789, regarding railways and roads to lead to the Cromford Canal; J., H. of C., Feb. 9, 1791, regarding railways and roads to connect with the Hereford and Gloucester Canal; J., H. of C., Dec. 20, 1792, for railways and roads to connect with the proposed Grand Junction Canal; J., H. of C.,

high and broken land where there were considerable amounts of mineral resources and where a canal would have been impossible or unprofitable. From the above we can see that the tramways and roads were closely associated in their relation with the canals; but the fact that tramways were occasionally constructed to terminate at a certain bridge or a certain turnpike road is still stronger evidence that the iron roads were closely associated with the ordinary roads and subsidiary to them2,-in other words, the tramways were collecting and distributing agencies for products carried along the great highways of the kingdom.

In England, Wales and Scotland, these tramroads were in some parts fairly numerous, and most of them were only short lines, branching off from the navigable rivers and canals to the different mines. The majority of those in the United Kingdom were in the extensive mining districts south of the Severn, including South Wales; in the coal districts near Newcastle and Sunderland along the rivers Tyne and Wear; in the coal and other mining areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as of Derbyshire and Staffordshire; in the mining regions of the county of Salop and adjacent parts of the Severn valley; in the mining sections near Glasgow, and in the coalfields of Midlothian and

Jan. 31, 1793, regarding railways and roads to connect with the Stratford-on-Avon Canal; J., H. of C., Feb. 11, 1793, for railways and roads to connect with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. See also Pitt, Agriculture of Leicester (1809), p. 313, and Dickson, Agriculture of Lancashire (1815), p. 613, both of which show that by means of these iron roads coal and iron were brought down from the pits to the canals by a cheap and very convenient way, and that the tramways were primarily regarded as subservient to the canals, even down to the first quarter of the nineteenth century. That railways were not much thought of apart from canals, is shown also by Communications to the Board of Agriculture, 11, p. 478, and Transactions of the Highland Society, vi, pp. 10-11. For details of this close relation between tramroads and canals, see the pamphlets of C. E. Stretton given in bibliography.

1 There were many of these early tramroads in southern Wales, where there are mines of coal and iron; also in Lancashire, Derbyshire and the Newcastle region, as well as in Scotland. Anderson, Recreations in Agriculture, IV, p. 198, urged the construction of railways where canals were not possible, and showed (ibid., Iv, pp. 199-201) to what extent railways had already been constructed in the Midlands of England and what a great increase in carriage had been effected by them. Communications to the Board of Agriculture, 11, p. 477, shows the utility of the railways in extending the influence of canals for ten to twenty miles on each side of the latter, and also into the mountainous sections where canals were almost impracticable. See also Hassall, Agriculture of Monmouth (1812), p. 105, containing an account of the iron railways of that county and their effects.

2 J., H. of C., Feb. 15, 1826, petition for a railway or tramroad from the Grosmont railway at Llangua (co. Monmouth) to Wye Bridge, in the city of Hereford; J., H. of C., lxxxv, p. 59, petition for the Leicester and Swannington railway or tramroad.

Fife, where they were found in great numbers but on a small scale1. These roads in South Wales, and in the counties along the Severn valley, were chiefly inclined planes with various slopes, on which one horse could easily take down thirty to forty tons together with the weight of the waggons, but it required three or four horses to bring the empty waggons up again, and even then the up-grade work was the heavier. There were, however, a few inclined planes on which the loaded waggons in descending brought up the empty ones, but this method was employed only in cases where the declivities were very great. In the county of Salop and adjoining mineral areas of the west of England, and in Wales, these iron roads increased considerably in number in the first quarter of the nineteenth century3; and it can be justly claimed that this district may boast of being the place where the inclined plane was first used to introduce railways in aid of inland navigation and for the development of the wealth of the country. The tramroads in the coalfields of Northumberland and

1 Scott, in Transactions of the Highland Society, vi, pp. 11-15, gives the names of the many tramways or railways, in 1824, in the Severn valley, in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, and in the coal counties of Northumberland and Durham, as well as those in Scotland. Regarding the difficulties and dangers connected with carriages moving up and down these inclined planes, see Wood, Practical Treatise on Railroads, pp. 86-103.

* That is, from six to eighteen inches in the yard. The lengths of these inclined planes varied from 100 to 600 yards at one place. On inclined planes, see Scott, in Transactions of the Highland Society, vi, pp. 15-30, who goes into this subject very fully. This double railway was in use in Shropshire, for instance, in the railway connexions of the Ketley and Shropshire Canals (Plymley, Agriculture of Shropshire (1803), pp. 291 ff.). See also Scott, op. cit., vi, pp. 8-9.

3 As late as 1790, there was hardly a single railway in all South Wales; while in 1824 the aggregate extent of rail and tramroads in the counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan and Carmarthen alone was thought to exceed 400 miles (Cumming, Rail and Tram Roads, p. 27).

♦ The history of the great Sirhowy tramway, in the county of Monmouth, may enable us to see more clearly the relation of these early roads to the development of the wealth of the country through which they passed; and we have chosen this one because, in point of magnitude, it was one of the greatest. It extended from Pilgwelly, near Newport, to the Sirhowy and Tredegar Iron Works (24 miles), whence it was continued five miles further to the Trevil Lime Works, in Brecknockshire, along with a branch westward to the Rumney and Union iron works. This railway was constructed at the suggestion of Mr Outram. On being consulted by the Monmouthshire Canal Company, as to the best means of supplying that canal with water, of which there was such a great scarcity that trade was suffering severely, Outram recommended a few reservoirs to be made, but more particularly a tramroad, to run parallel with the Crumlin line for eight or nine miles out from the town of Newport. In order to ease or take away part of the trade from the canal, this line was to pass through Tredegar park, the property of Sir Charles Morgan; and it was finally arranged between Sir Charles, the Monmouthshire Canal Co., and the

Durham were many and important, and were used not only in carrying the coal from the mouth of the mine to the river, but in bringing it from the interior of the mine to the entrance. It is in connexion with these colliery roads that we get some very important advances in the practical application of steam to locomotion on rails. Apart from these tramroads leading to coal and other mineral supplies, the only important tramroad made during these first two decades of the nineteenth century was the Surrey Iron Railway, from Croydon to Wandsworth1, which was authorized in 1801. It was to be of advantage to a very populous agricultural country through which it was to be built, by opening up cheap and easy communication for carrying coal, corn, merchandise, and, in fact, commodities of all kinds; in other words, as we have already noted, this was doubtless the first attempt to construct a public railway for the carrying of miscellaneous products.

In all these cases the introduction of the tramway was for the purpose of facilitating the carriage of commodities, especially of heavy commodities like coal, and thereby reducing the cost of carrying these along the highways that were then and there available. Experiments

Tredegar Iron Works Co., that he should make one mile, which was in his park, the Monmouthshire Canal Company to make eight miles, and the Tredegar Iron Works Company to make the remaining fifteen miles, each to take tonnage on its respective part of the road. The road was completed about 1804, and also a turnpike by the side of it for about seventeen miles, at a total cost of about £74,000, or about £3000 per mile. About £40,000 of this sum was spent by the Canal Company in building a bridge and making some very deep and expensive cuttings; while the Tredegar Iron Co. completed nearly double the distance at a cost of £30,000. Sir Charles Morgan spent £4000 upon one mile, but he too had some deep cuttings and a double road to make. Notwithstanding the expense, this road, in 1824, paid the proprietors thirty per cent., by reason of having a considerable trade upon it in coal and iron, which paid the same tonnage as upon the canal. For the first nine miles out of Newport (the parts made by the Canal Company and Sir Charles Morgan) it was a double road: one for the loaded waggons to come down, and the other for the empty ones to return; and on the Tredegar Iron Company's part (fifteen miles) it was a single road, with frequent places for teams to turn out and pass. The whole length of the road for twenty-four miles was an inclined plane, averaging about oneeighth of an inch in the yard, or a little more; but the Tredegar Iron Company's part was of somewhat greater declivity than the rest. The coal and iron were conveyed on it in waggons, each carrying about forty-five to fifty hundredweight, exclusive of the waggon; and a team of four or five horses would draw about fifteen of these waggons down with ease. The waggons were variously constructed, according to the fancy of the parties, some of wood, some wholly of iron. The width of the road was four feet two inches, and it was laid down with cast-iron plates, three feet long, fastened to the sleepers by a pin passing through the rail, and into a hole bored in the stone block four to five inches deep, and there secured with lead (Cumming, Rail and Tram Roads, pp. 25, 26, 28-30).

1 J., H. of C., Feb. 27 and Mar. 5, 1801, LVI, pp. 112-13.

had been conducted to show how much more effective was the work of a horse when drawing upon a railway than upon the ordinary roads, and important results had been obtained. For example, in 1799, on a railway at Measham, the declivity of which was five-sixteenths of an inch in the yard, one horse drew nineteen waggons, which with their loading amounted to thirty tons, and was not subjected to extraordinary work in doing so. At a later time, on the same road, one horse drew down a load amounting in all to thirty-five tons; while up the grade or ascent he drew five tons with ease1. From the facts which were being demonstrated, it was becoming more evident that there were possibilities in this method of conveyance which were not fully realized; that, instead of being confined to the operations of mining, it was also fitted to take an important place in the conveyance of all kinds of products and merchandise, and to facilitate the interchange of traffic from one centre to another. But it was recognized that if tramways were to be used for general traffic, where there was carriage of goods each way, the more the line approximated to a perfect level the better it would serve the purposes for which it was intended2. While most people regarded the railways as useful in the limited sphere in which they had been employed, there was but an occasional individual, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, who contemplated a broader field of service for them. There were at that time at least two who foresaw the general extension of railways over England; and one of these proposed that all the railroads constructed should be owned by the state and free to all so that each could use his own waggons upon them3.

But tramroads or railways for general purposes could have but partial success until some other than horse-power could be employed*; 1 Communications to the Board of Agriculture, II, pp. 475-6.

2 Statement of Robert Stephenson, in Transactions of the Highland Society, VI, p. 136.

3 Sir Richard Phillips, after witnessing the economy of horse-labour on the Surrey Iron Railway, thought that such lines should be extended from London to the principal places of the kingdom (Stretton, A Few Notes on Early Railway History, p. 5). Dr James Anderson, in his Recreations in Agriculture, IV, pp. 204 ff., 214, pointed out the advantages of carrying railroads from London to every other part of the country and recommended that they be owned by the public. In 1818, the scientific men of the country were offered a reward for the advancement of the railway system; and a piece of plate of fifty guineas value was to be given for the best essay on the construction of railroads for the conveyance of ordinary commodities. See this advertisement in Transactions of the Highland Society, vi, pp. 3–4; and the essays sent in are printed immediately following these pages.

• Cumming, Rail and Tram Roads, p. 33, in speaking of the Surrey Iron Railway, says: "But it must be observed, that rail-ways, as hitherto worked by horses, generally speaking possess very little, if any, advantage over canals." The fact is,