out ever having
caught a glimpse of the most magnificent and beautiful spectacle which
nature presents to the eye of man, that of a glorious curving wave, a
quarter-of-a-mile long, as it comes swelling and breasting toward the
shore, till its soft green ridge bursts into a crest of snow, and settles
and digs along the whispering sands."

REMARKABLE ADVERTISEMENT.

The most astonishing kind of property to leave behind at a railway
station is mentioned in an advertisement which appeared in the newspapers
dated Swindon, April 27th, 1844. It gave notice "That a pair of bright
bay horses, about sixteen hands high, with black switch tails and manes,"
had been left in the name of Hibbert; and notice was given that unless
the horses were claimed on or before the 12th day of May, they would be
sold to pay expenses. Accordingly on that day they were sold.

--_Household Words_.

RAILWAY EPIGRAM.

In 1845, during the discussions on the Midland lines before the Committee
of the House of Commons, Mr. Hill, the Counsel, was addressing the
Committee, when Sir John Rae Reid, who was a member of it, handed the
following lines to the chairman:--

"Ye railway men, who mountains lower,
Who level locks and valleys fill;
Who thro' the _hills_ vast tunnels _bore_;
Must now in turn be _bored by Hill_."

SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE.

A certain gentleman of large property, and who had figured, if he does
not now figure, as a Railway Director, applied for shares in a certain
projected railway. Fifty, it seems were allotted to him. Whether that
was the number he applied for or not, deponent saith not; but by some
means nothing (0) got added to the 50 and made it 500. The deposit for
the said 500 was paid into the bankers', the scrip obtained, and before
the mistake could be detected and corrected--for no doubt it was only a
mistake, or at most a _lapsus pennae_--the shares were sold, and some
2000 pounds profit by this very fortunate accident found its way into the
pocket of the gentleman.

--_Herepath's Journal_, 1845.

LOUIS PHILIPPE AND THE ENGLISH NAVVIES.

Whittlesea Will, William Elthorpe, from Cambridgeshire, had a large
railway experience; during the construction of Longton Tunnel, he told me
the following story:--"Ye see, Mr. Smith (Samuel Smith, of Woodberry
Down), I was a ganger f