umbers; Welshmen, Scotch, and North of England men;
stalwart fellows from York and places in a similar latitude. Yet,
notwithstanding all the building that has been going on, despite the
rush of building societies and private speculators, the cry is
still, 'More bricks and mortar,' for there exists an enormous amount
of overcrowding. The high rents are almost prohibitory, and those
who take houses, underlet them and sublet them, till in six rooms
three families may be living. The wages are good, ranging from 18s.
for common labourers to 30s., 36s., 40s., and more for skilled
mechanics, and the mode in which they live affords an illustrative
contrast to the agricultural population immediately surrounding the
place. As if to complete the picture, that nothing might be wanting,
a music-hall has been opened, where for threepence the workman may
listen to the dulcet strains of 'London artistes' while he smokes
his pipe.

Can a more striking, a more wonderful and interesting spectacle
be seen than this busy, Black-Country-looking town, with its
modern associations, its go-ahead ways, in the midst of a purely
agricultural country, where there are no coal or iron mines,
where in the memory of middle-aged men there was nothing but
pasture-fields, furze, and rabbits? In itself it affords a
perfect epitome of the spirit of the nineteenth century.

And much, if not all, of this marvellous transformation, of this
abounding life and vigorous vitality, is due to the energy and the
forethought, the will of one man. It is notorious that the Swindon
of to-day is the creation of the companion of Brunel at the lunch in
the furze-bushes. Sir Daniel Gooch has had a wonderful life.
Beginning literally at the beginning, he rose from stage to stage,
till he became the responsible head of the vast company in whose
service he had commenced life. In that position he did not forget
the place where his early years were passed, but used his influence
to enrich it with the real secret of wealth, employment for the
people. In so doing, time has proved that he acted for the best
interests of the company, for, apart from monetary matters, the mass
of workmen assembled at this spot are possessed of overwhelming
political power, and can return the man they choose to Parliament.
Thus the company secures a representative in the House of Commons.

Among the institutions which the railway company fostered was the
primitive reading-room which has been allud