of in 1836. Then, they were quit of the brawling
exasperating swarm of youngsters, the scarcely
less tiresome elder girls, and the exacting
parlour-boarders, who, because their parents paid
fifty guineas per annum for their maintenance at
Rhododendron House, deemed it a prime article
in their creed to hold, in secret, if not openly,
Mrs. and the Miss Bunnycastles as the dust
beneath their feet. At supper-time, the school-
mistress and her daughters were relieved from
the presence of these superb ones of the earth
in short skirts and frilled trousers. At supper-
time, they were rid, too, of the teachers : amiable
and worthy young persons all of them, no doubt,
but wearisome on daily and unremitting acquaintance.
At supper-time, they could chat without
let or hindrance. They could run over the
occurrences of the day. They could dwell, now with
satisfaction, now with discontent, upon how
much their young charges paid, and how much
they ate. They could concoct letters of thanks
to complimentary parents, or of deprecation to
remonstrant ones. They could revolve plans of
scholastic aggrandisement, discuss points of
discipline, compare methods of instruction, grumble
at their lot in that luxuriousness of complaint
which is well-nigh akin to content, and gossip
about their neighbours. Thus, supper in the little
back parlour at Rhododendron House, combined
the gravity of a cabinet council with the hilarity
of a symposium.

INDIAN RAILWAYS.

SUPPOSING that for the future we have no
more mutinies and rebellions in India, the
progress of railway enterprise promises to provide
a complete system of railway communication in
that country. The days of palankeen travelling
have come to an end. The days of the
dâk are numbered. The iron horse on nearly
all main roads now supplies the place of the
cooley, the bullock, and the wretched posting
pony. Not only are the principal lines being
carried through to distant destinations, but cross-
lines, lightly constructed on the American plan,
are being rapidly run up, or, more correctly speaking,
run down, to connect them one with another,
and act as feeders to the great sources of traffic.
At the present time, the principal communications
are in the hands of three great companies
– the East Indian, the Great Indian Peninsular,
and the Madras. The course of the first –
which starts from Calcutta, and runs, with very
little interruption, to Delhi, whence it is making
a bold push for the Punjab, to join a line of
which part is in operation in that province –
has been already sketched in a former article.*
In a short time, however, the majority of
travellers from England will find it more convenient
to proceed to the north-west and central
provinces viâ Bombay, whence the Great Indian
Peninsular is already open for a considerable
distance towards Jubbulpore, where it is to join
a branch of the East Indian from Allahabad.
* See page 564 of the last volume.

Another line of the Great Indian Peninsular
is one in a south-eastern direction, from Bombay
to Madras. This is open as far as Sholapore.
Here it will break into two branches, one going
to Hyderabad (Hyderabad in the Dekhan, and
not to be confounded with Hyderabad in Scinde),
and the other to Bellary, where it will meet the
line from Madras. The line to Hyderabad is to
be continued in a direction due south, joining
the main line at Cuddapore. But this is not all
that railway enterprise is doing for Bombay.
The Great Indian Peninsular has also a line in a
direction due north, between Bombay, Baroda,
and Ahmedabad. This is already open for the
greater part of the distance, a slight gap which
remains being at the Bombay end, where some
unusual engineering difficulties prevail. From
the Jubbulpore line, also, there is a branch to
Nagpore, the seat of government of the Central
Provinces, and this is already partly completed.

Some of the works on the Great Indian
Peninsular line are of considerable importance and
magnitude. Among these, the most remarkable
is the passage through the celebrated Bhore
Ghaut, between Bombay and Poonah, on the line
to Jubbulpore. In a distance of fifteen miles,
the railway climbs an ascent of one thousand
eight hundred and thirty-one feet, the difficulties
in its course being overcome by such a series of
cuttings, tunnels, viaducts, and embankments,
as are not to be found within the same space,
we are assured by the official report, in any
other quarter of the world. The earthwork alone
necessary to effect these objects, amounts to
four and a half millions of cubic miles. Several
of the embankments exceed sixty feet in height,
and there is a cutting of one hundred and fifty
feet through solid rock. One of the viaducts is
one hundred and forty-three feet from the
surface. Some idea of the general nature of the
works may be formed from the fact, that their
construction occupied seven years and a quarter,
about four years being spent in preliminary
operations. The Bhore Ghaut, it appears, was
first made practicable for the passage of artillery
by the Duke of Wellington, when in command
of the forces in the Dekhan, who, with instinctive
foresight, saw the importance of improved
communication with Bombay; and about thirty-
three years ago Sir John Malcolm opened
the Ghaut for cart traffic. But it may be
doubted if either of those two great men ever
dreamed of the toilsome and difficult path
through which it was just possible to drag great
guns, or transport stores in rude native vehicles
drawn by oxen, being superseded by a royal
road in the shape of a railway.

A line called the Great Southern of India
Railway, is also open from the sea-coast south
of Madras, at Cauvery, to Trinchinopoly (famous
for cheroots), which will be joined by another
line, extending from a point almost at the
extreme south of the Peninsular, to Salem, on the
Madras and Beypore line. These all belong to
the Madras Railway Company. The Madras