he Manchester,
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (now the Great Central), of which the
redoubtable Mr. (afterwards Sir) Edward Watkin was then the lively
general manager.

A different man to his predecessor was Mr. Wainwright. Unlike Mr.
Johnstone he was modern and progressive. _He_ never scorned delights or
loved, for their own sake, laborious days; pleasure to him was as welcome
as sunshine; and work he made a pleasure.

As I have said, no general manager's _office_ existed. Of systematic
managerial supervision there was none. What was to be done? Something
certainly, and soon. Mr. Wainwright concurred in a suggestion I made
that I should visit Derby, see the general manager's office of the
Midland there, and learn how it was conducted. This I did. E. W. Wells,
a principal clerk in that office, who was married to my cousin, showed
and told me everything. I returned laden with knowledge which I embodied
in a report and my recommendations were adopted. Several clerks were
appointed and the general manager's office, of which I was chief clerk,
soon became efficient.

Wells afterwards became Assistant General Manager of the Midland, and
Frank Tatlow, my cousin and brother of Wells' wife, is now its General
Manager, in succession to Sir Guy Granet. I am not a little proud that
the attainments of one who bears the name of Tatlow, and is so nearly
related to myself, have enabled him to reach the topmost post on a
railway such as the Midland Railway of England. He commenced as a junior
clerk in the General Manager's office and worked his way step by step to
that eminent position. No adventitious circumstances helped him on.

I became fond of railway work, which it seems to me for interest and
variety holds a high place among all the occupations by which man, who
was born to labour, may earn his daily bread. My duties were certainly
arduous but intensely interesting. The correspondence with other railway
companies regarding agreements, joint line working, Parliamentary
matters, and many other important subjects, conducted as it required to
be, with skill, care and precision, was for me a liberal education. The
fierce rivalry which, in those days, raged in Scotland for competitive
traffic culminated often in disputes which could only be settled by the
intervention of the general managers, and these brought much exciting
work into the office. Again, the close and intimate relations between
the Midland and t