Page:A century of Birmingham life- or, A chronicle of local events, from 1741 to 1841 (IA centuryofbirming02lang).pdf/618

574 dinner; and the enthusiasm of the people on the occasion was earnest and sincere. It is gratifying to know that from that day to the present time the noble lady, who at so young an age, had to occupy one of the grandest thrones in the world, and to discharge the highest duties which can ever fall to the lot of a human being, has grown in the love, the esteem, and admiration of all her subjects. For "children of our children" may truly say—

She wrought her people lasting good;

Her court was pure; her life serene;

God gave her peace, her land reposed;

A thousand claims to reverence closed,

In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen."

On Tuesday, July 4, was witnessed the exciting and important ceremony of

July 10, 1837.—At an early hour on Tuesday morning, the town of Birmingham was in a state of great commotion and excitement, owing to the public opening of the Grand Junction Railway. Soon after five o'clock the streets leading in the direction of Vauxhall, where the Company's temporary station is situated, were crowded with persons of all ranks anxious to be witnesses of the first public travelling on this most important line of railway communication.

On the Saturday and Monday preceding, six engines and a great number of carriages had arrived preparatory to the commencement of general business; and on the latter day another experimental trip was made by the Directors, bringing two carriages and thirty-six passengers, the whole distance from Liverpool to Birmingham (97¼ miles) in three hours and seventeen minutes. These performances increased the curiosity of the public, and coupled with the novelty of the sight in the midland counties, drew thousands of spectators to the neighbourhood of the railway station. The Company's intended station-house and warehouses, adjoining the London and Birmingham station in the centre of the town, are not yet built, the neighbourhood of Vauxhall is therefore occupied as a mere temporary station. By six o'clock in the morning, the bridge which crosses the railway at its entrance into the station yard, and indeed, every eminence that commanded the least view of the line, was covered with persons awaiting the starting of the carriages. The embankments of the several excavations, and even the valleys though which the railway alternately "winds its way" between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, were likewise covered with admiring spectators; indeed in the neighbourhood of Bescot Bridge, James's Bridge, and Willenhall, adjacent to the iron and coal districts, the crowd was. if possible, still more dense than in the suburbs of Birmingham.

At seven o'clock precisely, the bell rang, and the opening train, drawn by the Wildfire engine, commenced moving. The train consisted of eight carriages, all of the first-class, and bearing the following names; The Greyhound, the Swallow, the Liverpool and