Sir Leopold Kershaw is as great a man as ever; but he talks less about the equality and brotherhood of man.
_The Story of "Bradshaw."_
BY NEWTON DEANE.
"What books do you consult most?" a political adherent once asked John Bright in the midst of an arduous campaign. "The Bible and 'Bradshaw,'" was the reply of the great Quaker. To this another statesman added that both stood in equal need of commentators. "Bradshaw"--or, to give it its correct title, "Bradshaw's General Railway and Steam Navigation Guide"--is essentially a British institution, like the _Times_, football, _Punch_, and cricket. In common with all great institutions, it is a target for libel and detraction on the part of people who are a little difficult to please. Its very accuracy has been questioned. It has been said--by a succession of incorrigible humorists, including Charles Dickens--to have driven countless British lieges to lunacy. Our retreats for the insane are said to be invariably provided with a "Bradshaw ward," filled with the unhappy victims of the famous guide. But, seriously, "Bradshaw"--like the Bench of Bishops--can afford to be indulgent in the knowledge that it is indispensable. What should we do without "Bradshaw"? What if the portly brochure in the buff covers, that was born in the heart of England some sixty-five years ago, had never come into existence? True, Londoners have their "A B C," but London is only a tenth of the kingdom, and, besides, "Bradshaw" has all Europe for its province. Anyway, the origin and early progress of "Bradshaw" are interesting enough to be better known to the world.
[Illustration: GEORGE BRADSHAW.
_From a Water Colour Drawing._]
The name of the man who founded the celebrated guide was George Bradshaw. He was a Quaker, and a map-maker by calling. Before the days of railways he employed himself on maps showing the canals of Lancashire and Yorkshire. But by 1839 the kingdom was rapidly becoming intersected by that astonishing--but, when one comes to think of it, very simple--invention, the steel rail. The iron horse of Stephenson was prancing stertorously about between Manchester and Liverpool and Manchester and London and other cities. Passengers--who had hardly been taken into Stephenson's calculations at all when he inaugurated the first railway in 1825--were clamouring for transportation. A knowledge of train arrivals and departures was imperative.
[Illustration: "THE BRADSHAW RAILWAY GUIDE: OR, AIDS TO BEDLAM."
_From an Old Print._]
In the year of Queen Victoria's accession the only "guide" available for the patrons of the Birmingham and Liverpool--or, as it was called, the Grand Junction Railway--took the singular form of a large pewter medal, which the traveller could carry in his pocket. On the obverse of this metallic guide was inscribed:--
Grand Junction Railway. Opened July 4, 1837. The trains leave:--
BIRMINGHAM. Hour. Min. VII. 0 VIII. 30 XI. 30 II. 30 IV. 30 VII. 0
LIVERPOOL & MANCHESTER. Hour. Min. VI. 30 VIII. 30 XI. 30 II. 30 IV. 30 VI. 30
On the reverse:--
Time and Distance from Birmingham.
To. Miles. H. M. Wolverhampton 14½ 0 40 Stafford 29¼ 1 15 Whitmore 43¾ 1 55 Crewe 54 2 24 Hartford 65¾ 2 59 Manchester } Liverpool } 97¼ 4 30
Afterwards the railway companies--there were just seven of them--issued monthly leaflets on their own account. What a convenience to the travelling public it would be if someone would collect these leaflets and reprint them in the form of a little book or pamphlet! No sooner did the idea occur to Bradshaw than he acted on it. There is no doubt that had he delayed there were others ready to promulgate the notion. Indeed, one Gadsby, a Manchester printer, followed close at his heels, just missing priority by a few weeks.
[Illustration: THE COVER OF THE FIRST NUMBERS OF "BRADSHAW"--ACTUAL SIZE.]
It was towards the end of October, the "10th mo." of the Quakers, that the printing press at Manchester turned out the first "Bradshaw." It was a very modest, unobtrusive little volume, bound in green cloth, with a simple legend in gilt. It could be obtained of any bookseller or railway company for the sum of sixpence. It was not, however, as we may see, entitled "Bradshaw's Railway Guide"--that title was not to come till later. Here, too, is the "address" or introduction to the first "Bradshaw":--
"This book is published by the assistance of the several railway companies, on which account the information it contains may be depended upon as being correct and authentic. The necessity of such a work is so obvious as to need no apology; and the merits of it can best be ascertained by a reference to the execution both as regards the style and correctness of the maps and plans with which it is illustrated." For it must be borne in mind that Bradshaw was first and foremost a map-engraver, and was not likely to let such an opportunity for a display in public of his skill pass profitless by. We also give a reproduction of the first page of Bradshaw's effort. From this little book we learn that, like the French trams and omnibuses of to-day, there was one charge for inside and another for outside passengers, six shillings being the first-class fare between Liverpool and Manchester. Of the first "time-tables," only two copies of each variety--for there was a slight variation in the issues for October, 1839--are known to be in existence: two are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and two are in the possession of Bradshaw's successors, Henry Blacklock and Co., of Manchester, so that they are among the rarest editions extant.
Some two months later, on New Year's Day, 1840, Bradshaw brought out his little work in an amended form, with a brand-new title. This gave him further opportunities, in the course of its thirty-eight pages, for maps and letterpress, and to it he gave the title of "Railway Companion." It is really in size and type and style the same thing as the time-tables; but being sold at a shilling was continued distinct from the time-tables until it was merged into the "Guide" in 1848. There is some interesting, if somewhat startling, information in the "Companion." One can only gasp at being confronted by "A table showing the rate of travelling from one to four hundred miles an hour." These rosy anticipations have not yet been realized--not even in the velocity of the electric mono-rail.
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST COPY OF "BRADSHAW."]
How, it may be asked, did the railway companies of 1840 receive the first general railway guide? Odd to relate, not with any great favour. They even refused to supply their time-tables to Bradshaw when they ascertained the use to which that enterprising Quaker was putting them. "Why," they said, "if this fellow goes on in this way he will make punctuality a kind of obligation, with penalties for failure. Whereas at present, if the ten minutes past three train steams gently out at twenty minutes to four, or even four o'clock, we do not fall much in the esteem of the public, accustomed to the free and easy methods of the stage-coach."
But the Quaker was not thus to be repressed. He got hold of the time-tables somehow: he waited in person on the boards; afterwards he even purchased stock in the hostile railway companies, and the enterprise went on. But as yet the guides we have been describing were not regularly issued. They were mere fitful publications, and it was not until Adams, whom Bradshaw had secured as his London agent, urged upon him the necessity of a regular issue that the first monthly "Guide" made its _début_ in the world. This was on December 1st, 1841. The "Guide" differed from its predecessors in being bound in paper--not cloth--and in consisting of but thirty-two pages of printed matter. By this time, too, Bradshaw could announce that "This work is published monthly, under the direction and with the assistance of the railway companies, and is carefully corrected up to the date it bears; every reliance may, therefore, be placed on the accuracy of its details."
Moreover, it was dispensed in another and simpler form. The pages of which it was composed were arranged on a single large sheet or "broadside," "exhibiting at one view the hours of departure and arrival of the trains on every railway in the kingdom, and are particularly adapted for counting-houses and places of business." For this sheet only threepence was demanded, but if mounted on stiff boards the price was two shillings and ninepence.
In 1843 the railway mania, which afterwards enriched and beggared thousands, was advancing apace. There were in that year just forty-eight different railways in kingdom: and as the public were keenly interested in them we find, together with a slight alteration in the title of "Bradshaw" to the "Monthly General Railway and Steam Navigation Guide," more reading matter, and "a list of shares, exhibiting at one view the cost, traffic length, dividend, and market value of the same."