like all the preceding ones, to a crowded assembly. These admirable lectures, which should be of enduring interest to all professing Christians, are placed in consecutive order in the Memoirs of the Rev. W. W. Hume, who was soon after to be the Incumbent of the new Magdalen church, both for the convenience of reading, and because they mainly in originated with him.
Cardinal Wiseman. as an apropos association with these lectures, it may be stated that Cardinal Wiseman revisited St. Leonards on the 23rd of April and sojourned for a short time at the Convent, and there administered the rite of Confirmation.
Railway Matters.
The first travellers on the Ashford and Hastings line were Mr. Tucker and family, who stayed for a few days had 107 Marina.
Opening of the Ashford Line. the opening of the Ashford branch to St. Leonards took place on the 13th of February — just seven years, to a day, after the meeting at Hastings to promote the same. On the preceding evening the crier was sent round to announce the opening on the following day, and when the morrow came, the Saint Clement’s church bells were rung in honour of the event. The first train left the St. Leonards station at 7.20, and exploded fog signals as a feu de joie. Six trains (3 each way) traversed the line during the day, variously timed to reach Ashford in about 1h. 20m. and London, on an average of about 4 hours. This was held to be a fair rate of travelling, considering that the distance between St. Leonards and London was 95 miles. Mr. Talbot was station-master at Hastings, for the South-Eastern Company, whilst Mr. Sutton was station-master at St. Leonards for the Brighton Company, whose trains at first did not run through.
The Companies in Collision. — When the South-Eastern Railway from Ashford was opened on the 13th of February it was understood that the South-Coast Company’s trains would run through from Bopeep to Hastings and vice versa. The Hastings station had been built for that purpose and arrangements had been made for such traffic with the “Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway Company”, which had afterwards changed its name to that of the “London, Brighton and South-Coast Company”. Taking advantage of this technicality, and refusing to acknowledge its rival by the latter name, the S.E. Company gave orders for the South Coast trains not to be admitted; so, when on the morning of the 14th, the first down train of the Brighton line arrived, it was stopped by the hoisting of danger signals, and had to be backed, with its passengers, to Bopeep. Communications passed between the officials of the two companies, and on the following day (Saturday) the Brighton trains ran through to the Hastings station agreeably with the original arrangement. Notice, however, was given that the line would be permanently blocked on Monday. In the mean time the Brighton Company had got -
