of certainty.

The commercial results of the Liverpool and Manchester line were so
satisfactory, and indeed so greatly exceeded the expectations of its
projectors, that many of the abandoned projects of the speculative year
1825 were forthwith revived. An abundant crop of engineers sprang up,
ready to execute railways of any extent. Now that the Liverpool and
Manchester line had been made, and the practicability of working it by
locomotive power had been proved, it was as easy for engineers to make
railways and to work them, as it was for navigators to find America after
Columbus had made the first voyage. Mr. Francis Giles attached himself
to the Newcastle and Carlisle and London and Southampton projects. Mr.
Brunel appeared as engineer of the line projected between London and
Bristol; and Mr. Braithwaite, the builder of the "Novelty" engine, acted
in the same capacity for a railway from London to Colchester.

The first lines constructed subsequent to the opening of the Liverpool
and Manchester Railway, were mostly in connection with it, and
principally in the county of Lancaster. Thus a branch was formed from
Bolton to Leigh, and another from Leigh to Kenyon, where it formed a
junction with the main line between Liverpool and Manchester. Branches
to Wigan on the north, and to Runcorn Gap and Warrington on the south of
the same line, were also formed. A continuation of the latter, as far
south as Birmingham, was shortly after projected under the name of the
Grand Junction Railway.

The last mentioned line was projected as early as the year 1824, when the
Liverpool and Manchester scheme was under discussion, and Mr. Stephenson
then published a report on the subject. The plans were deposited, but
the bill was thrown out through the opposition of the landowners and
canal proprietors. When engaged in making the survey, Stephenson called
upon some of the landowners in the neighbourhood of Nantwich to obtain
their assent, and was greatly disgusted to learn that the agents of the
canal companies had been before him, and described the locomotive to the
farmers as a most frightful machine, emitting a breath as poisonous as
the fabled dragon of old; and telling them that if a bird flew over the
district where one of these engines passed, it would inevitably drop down
dead! The application for the bill was renewed in 1826, and again
failed; and at length it was determined to wait the issue of the
Liverpool and Manche