ady for transmission to the steamer. Into the
tunnel through the

"... Cliff, whose high and bending head
Looks fearfully on the confined deep"--

known as the Shakespeare cliff, in consequence of that description in
"King Lear."

We quickly reach Dover, so well known as the resting-place of Queen
Elizabeth's "Pocket Pistol," twenty-four feet long, on which is the
legend--

"Load me well and keep me clean
And I'll carry a ball to Calais Green."

The train glides down the pier, the carriage-doors are opened, mail-bags
and muffled travellers are hurried on board. The lights are
extinguished, the engine retreats into the darkness, then we jump off
and go to bed.

Next time we meet our engine it is waiting for the Tidal train at
Folkestone. This train starts from Charing Cross and from Paris daily,
each way, at hours when the Channel passage can be accomplished at or
near high water. We shall soon have a still faster service, and eight
hours between London and Paris will be the usual time.

The run up to London need not be dwelt upon. The pace is not excessive,
but punctuality is well observed, and the train runs in safety. We
remember one bad accident, though, to the Tidal train.

It was at Staplehurst in 1865. The Whitsuntide series of accidents which
disfigured that holiday season was closed by the terrible catastrophe
that happened to the Tidal train on its way from Folkestone to London.
This train is an erratic one. It travels at different hours each week,
and changes daily. On the 9th June in that year (1865), the railway near
Staplehurst was under repair. The men were working, and had taken up two
rails when the Tidal train was seen approaching.

The foreman had mistaken the time. There was no chance of avoiding an
accident. The express came dashing into the gap, and eight carriages
were flung over a bridge into a little stream beneath. The engine and
the tender jumped the vacant space of rail, and ran into the hedge, but
the carriages toppled over, leaving only two of them on the line at the
back, and the engine and luggage vans in front. So the eight other
carriages hung down and crushed into each other. Ten persons were killed
and many injured.

In the train was the late Charles Dickens, who was travelling to London.
He had with him the MS. (or proofs) of a tale he was then engaged upon,
and in the preface to the work he mentioned the occurrence. He was most
useful to the injured passenge