miscellaneous articles, the Great Northern and the Midland each
brought about 3000 tons of cheese, the South-Western 2600 tons, and the
London and North-Western 10,034 cheeses in number; while the
South-Western and Brighton lines brought a splendid contribution to the
London breakfast-table in the shape of 11,259 _tons_ of French eggs;
these two Companies delivering between them an average of more than three
millions of eggs a week all the year round! The same Companies delivered
in London 14,819 tons of butter, for the most part the produce of the
farms of Normandy,--the greater cleanness and neatness with which the
Normandy butter is prepared for market rendering it a favourite both with
dealers and consumers of late years compared with Irish butter. The
London, Chatham and Dover Company also brought from Calais 96 tons of
eggs.

Next, as to the potatoes, vegetables, and fruit, brought by rail. Forty
years since, the inhabitants of London relied for their supply of
vegetables on the garden-grounds in the immediate neighbourhood of the
metropolis, and the consequence was that they were both very dear and
limited in quantity. But railways, while they have extended the
grazing-grounds of London as far as the Highlands, have at the same time
extended the garden-grounds of London into all the adjoining
counties--into East Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, the vale of
Gloucester, and even as far as Penzance in Cornwall. The London, Chatham
and Dover, one of the youngest of our main lines, brought up from East
Kent in 1867 5279 tons of potatoes, 1046 tons of vegetables, and 5386
tons of fruit, besides 542 tons of vegetables from France. The
South-Eastern brought 25,163 tons of the same produce. The Great Eastern
brought from the eastern counties 21,315 tons of potatoes, and 3596 tons
of vegetables and fruit; while the Great Northern brought no less than
78,505 tons of potatoes--a large part of them from the east of
Scotland--and 3768 tons of vegetables and fruit. About 6000 tons of
early potatoes were brought from Cornwall, with about 5000 tons of
broccoli, and the quantities are steadily increasing. "Truly London hath
a large belly," said old Fuller, two hundred years since. But how much
more capacious is it now!

One of the most striking illustrations of the utility of railways in
contributing to the supply of wholesome articles of food to the
population of large cities, is to be found in the rapid growth of t