and the Company.

[Picture: Four General Managers. The late MR. GEORGE LEWIS, General
Manager and Secretary, 1864-1882. The late MR. JOHN CONACHER, General
Manager, 1890-1891, Secretary, 1882-1891. MR. ALFRED ASLETT, General
Manager and Secretary, 1891-1895. The late MR. C. S. DENNISS, General
Manager, 1895-1910, Secretary, 1900-1906]

Rare, indeed, is such an "incident" in the annals of any British Railway.
Much rarer, at any rate, than another cause for special managerial
anxiety, though not untinged with pride,--the conveyance of a Royal
passenger. In this respect the Company, particularly in more recent
years, has borne its full share of responsibility and sustained it with
adequate cause for self satisfaction. Queen Victoria, though she visited
North Wales in the eighties, travelled by another route, and the first
Royal train to pass over any part of the Cambrian system was that which
bore King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra, when Prince and Princess of
Wales, on their visit to Machynlleth and Aberystwyth, for the former's
installation as Chancellor of the University of Wales in the middle of
June, 1896, and on the same occasion another distinguished traveller
along the line from Wrexham to Aberystwyth was Mr. Gladstone.

Eight years later, in July 1904, the late King and his Consort journeyed
over the Mid-Wales section to Rhayader, to participate in the opening of
the Birmingham Water Works, and thence to Welshpool on their way to
London. On March 16th, 1910, King George, as Prince of Wales, passed
over the Cambrian on his way to Four Crosses, to perform a similar
ceremony in connection with the extension of the Liverpool Waterworks at
Lake Vyrnwy, and the longest of all monarchical tours over the system was
when, in the middle of July, 1911, King George, Queen Mary, and other
members of the Royal family proceeded from Carnarvon via Afonwen and the
Coast section to Machynlleth as guests at Plas Machynlleth, the following
day to Aberystwyth for the foundation stone-laying of the Welsh National
Library, and two days later, from Machynlleth to Whitchurch on their way
to Scotland.

The last Royal journey was a short one, again over the Mid-Wales section,
in July 1920, to enable the King to inaugurate the Welsh National
Memorial institution at Talgarth, on which occasion his Majesty was
graciously pleased to express high appreciation of the facilities ever
afforded by the Board and m