stood.  Lord Fitzwilliam compelled the Company to put the line by the side of the Syston and Peterborough Railway, where it is now.  There were some amusing incidents connected with the Syston Railway.  It was strongly opposed by Lord Harborough, and there were riots and fights between his men and the surveyors of the line.  I will say no more about the railway system.

The communications with Peterborough would be very incomplete if one forgot the river, because the river in those days was very necessary to the comfort of the town.  I daresay now, if I were to quote Cowper’s lines:

Nen’s barge-laden waves,

people might say they did not think the load is very heavy.  But before the construction of the railway, and for some year’s afterwards, barges were found in very great abundance.  We derived our whole coal supply from the river, and it was our great channel for carrying corn and timber.  The importance of the Nene to the counties through which it passed was very great.  Amongst other things was a Packet called “Simpson’s Packet,” and another belonging to Messrs. James and Thomas Hill, which conveyed light goods and passengers between Peterborough and Wisbech.  I recollect the old gentleman who commanded the packet held a very high rank in the Navy indeed.  He was a wooden-legged old gentleman, very much respected, and known by the name of Admiral Russell.  He was commander of the Packet for many years.  I do not know who succeeded him, but someone who did not attain so high a rank.

There was a joke against Mr. Whalley, M.P., that he promised to make Peterborough a Seaport.  If the projected scheme had been fairly carried out according to the original intention of the promoters, there would not have been a deal of money wasted.  Some think even now it should not be given up altogether, if only for the purpose of preventing the railway companies from putting too high prices on the carriage of goods in cases where speed of transit is not essential.  Goods used to be brought from Wisbech in lighters, and it was a serious thing in frosty weather, because all our coals were brought by the river, and when the frost lasted long there was danger of a coal famine.

Now I may mention about the postage.  When I first knew Peterborough the postage of a letter to London was 8d.  A little further on it would be 10d., and go on, until it came to about 1s. 4d.  When you were going to London in those days you would receive visits from your friends, who would ask you to take letters for them and put them in the 2d. Post in London, and sometimes it happened that these letters were found in your coat pocket when you got home again!  The postage of a ½oz. letter was 8d., but if you cut the sheet of paper in two and used one-half as an envelope, the postage was 1s. 4d.  If you divided the sheet of paper again and wrote a cheque on one quarter of it, and the receipt to be signed and returned on the other and put them into the other half sheet, the postage was again doubled.  When I was at school my eldest brother, in a fit of benevolence, sent me 2s. 6d. in a letter, and I was delighted until I was told the postage was 2s. 8d.  The matron, however, found a way out of it.  She put the 2s. 8d. down to the governor’s account, and I had the half-crown.

These rates of postage were very heavy, but Members of Parliament had the privilege of what was called “franking” letters.  They were continually being applied to for these franks.  They were only allowed, however, to send a certain number of letters, and you always ran the risk of having a bill sent in from the Post Office to the person having the privilege of “franking,” and they would send a footman to you, and you would then have to pay your share.  This privilege of franking was abused, and one would hear that so and so had franked a ham, and one person was said to have franked a piano!  Whether this was the truth or not I do not know, but it shows the advantage of getting rid of exceptional privileges.

A few words about the government of our City.  When I first came to the Town, the principal governor, the one who made the greatest impression on my youthful imagination, at all events, was the Beadle.  He was a very important personage.  His principal duty was to see the tramps out of the town.  He could not arrest them, but had to “fidget” them out.  He was always chosen with special reference to his age and infirmity.  He had a long robe, a mace, and a cocked hat.  He looked very imposing, almost like Old Scarlett in the Cathedral put into a long coat, a pair of knee breeches, and a cocked hat.  He was paid in this way: At the Quarter Sessions he waited upon the Magistrates with a bill: “A man and a woman sent out Stamford Road,” “Two tramps and a child, Lincoln Road,” and so on.  As we say educationally, he was paid by results.  He was allowed so much according to his services.  He was the principal officer of the place, and was appointed by the Feoffees.

About the year 1857 we were protected by Parish Constables, and I think the principal duty of the constable was to report himself at the Quarter Sessions.  We had two gaols—we could not do with one!  One of these was that in the Minster Precincts, recently vacated by the School of Art.  The other stood upon what is now the site of the Cumbergate Almshouses.  The one in the Minster Yard was maintained by Lord Exeter as Lord Paramount.  The other one, I think, was paid for by the Magistrates.  In 1840 we got an Act of Parliament for a new gaol, and it was brought about in this way: In about the year 1838 or 1839 a person walking through the Minster Yard saw a head pop up out of the pavement, a body followed, walked off, and was never heard of again.  The man had simply undermined the foundations of his cell with a knife or bone and disappeared!  He was the first that discovered that way of escape!

About the same time in Peterborough was a family named Rogers.  They were the black sheep of the place.  The head of the family was known as Jimmy Rogers, and he took it into his head to dine one day upon sheep’s head and pluck which he stole from a butcher’s shop.  He was ordered to be put into the Feoffees’ Gaol.  He picked his way out, and this thief of the district and his family disappeared and never came back again.  It was thought to be time we had a gaol, and the present building on the Thorpe Road was erected.

You must not think that we had no amusements.  We used to have a theatre on the site where the Corn Exchange now stands, and a very good theatre it was.  A very good company used to come for about three months in the summer, and a very good entertainment was afforded.  The Bishop and his Lady of those days used to make a point of attending during the season, and it was quite the thing to go to the theatre.

The Fairs were very important in those days.  The importance must not be judged by what is seen of them now.  Bridge Fair was then most important.  It shows the antiquity of the fairs that they had a special Court.  All fairs and markets of any antiquity had this Court which was to do justice between man and man in any disputes arising at the fairs.

We had two Balls regularly, one for the National School and one for the Infirmary.  When political feeling ran high one Party would go to the National School Ball and the other to the Infirmary Ball.  At other times each party would go to both.

Peterborough was one of the last places in which Sedan chairs flourished.  They went on until some time after the railways were established, which altered everything.  The men were too much occupied to be able to