Owen, Mr. Piercy and others. In after years it was the habit of
their children to ask these gallant men whether they had "ever really
killed anyone" with their formidable swords, and some of them were wont
to answer that, perhaps not, but they had taken their part in the "battle
of Aberystwyth," a somewhat mysterious affair among the plum stalls in
the market-place, possibly still remembered by men well advanced in
years. In any case, we may be quite sure they would have acquitted
themselves worthily if called upon, and they did indeed provide an
inspiring note to all such ceremonial festivities. On this auspicious
day of the opening of the line, to Mr. Ashford, the trumpeter of the
Corps, fell the honour of sounding the first blast, and amidst the cheers
of the countryside, some 600 ladies and gentlemen fell to dancing "to the
music of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry and Militia Bands, and the capital
band of the Welshpool Cadet Corps, composed of the young gentlemen of Mr.
Browne's academy."

And so, at long last, trains were to run through from Oswestry to
Llanidloes. Six left Oswestry every weekday, the first timed to depart
at 7 a.m., passing all the intermediate stations (including Arddleen, now
added to the original five) to Welshpool without a stop, though this
"express" was taken off the daily list some months later, and only ran on
fair days. Four trains made the reverse journey from Llanidloes to
Oswestry; while two trains ran each way on Sundays--a more generous
service even than that afforded to-day! The Cambrian, as someone said,
might still be a child, but it was a rapidly growing child. The guiding
hand was at work, and additional limbs were shaping themselves, both at
the Newtown and Oswestry end of the system, with such rapidity that we
can best deal with them one by one.

[Picture: The late MR. WILLIAM MICKLEBURGH, in the uniform of the
Montgomeryshire Railway Volunteers; The late CAPT. R. G. JEBB, of
Ellesmere, a prominent promoter of the Oswestry and Whitchurch Railway
and one of the first passengers to travel on the line]

CHAPTER V. FROM THE SEVERN TO THE SEA.

"_Wales is a land of mountains. Its mountains explain its isolation
and its love of independence; they explain its internal divisions;
they have determined, throughout its history, what the direction and
method of its progress were to be_."--THE LATE SIR O. M. EDWARDS.

I.

So fa