although his accents indicates
strongly his north country birth, his language has not the slightest
touch of vulgarity or coarseness. He has certainly turned my head. Four
years have sufficed to bring this great undertaking to an end. The
railroad will be opened upon the fifteenth of next month. The Duke of
Wellington is coming down to be present on the occasion, and, I suppose,
what with the thousands of spectators and the novelty of the spectacle,
there will never have been a scene of more striking interest. The whole
cost of the work (including the engines and carriages) will have been
eight hundred and thirty thousand pounds; and it is already worth double
that sum. The directors have kindly offered us three places for the
opening, which is a great favour, for people are bidding almost anything
for a place, I understand."

Even while Miss Kemble was writing this letter, certainly before it had
reached her correspondent, the official programme of that opening to
which she was so eagerly looking forward was thus referred to in the
Liverpool papers:

"The day of opening still remains fixed for Wednesday the fifteenth
instant. The company by whom the ceremony is to be performed, is
expected to amount to eight or nine hundred persons, including the Duke
of Wellington and several others of the nobility. They will leave
Liverpool at an early hour in the forenoon, probably ten o'clock, in
carriages drawn by eight or nine engines, including the new engine of
Messrs. Braithwaite and Ericsson, if it be ready in time. The other
engines will be those constructed by Mr. Stephenson, and each of them
will draw about a hundred persons. On their arrival at Manchester, the
company will enter the upper stories of the warehouses by means of a
spacious outside wooden staircase, which is in course of erection for the
purpose by Mr. Bellhouse. The upper storey of the range of warehouses is
divided into five apartments, each measuring sixty-six feet by fifty-six.
In four of these a number of tables (which Mr. Bellhouse is also
preparing) will be placed, and the company will partake of a splendid
cold collation which is to be provided by Mr. Lynn, of the Waterloo
Hotel, Liverpool. A large apartment at the east end of the warehouses
will be reserved as a withdrawing room for the ladies, and is partitioned
off for that purpose. After partaking of the hospitality of the
directors, the company will return to Liverpool in the same o