65

THE JOURNEY.

THE GRAND FACADE, at Euston Grove, constitutes the London terminus of this great national work; its centre consists of a stupendous Grecian Doric portico, perhaps the largest in the world, which faces an opening on the north side of Euston Square, and may be viewed from the City Road, from whence it has somewhat the appearance of the entrance gates to a Grecian city or temple. At the sides of the portico are lodges, which are used as offices for parcels, and beyond these are the side gates and terminal lodges.

This splendid erection cost the company 35,000l.; it was designed by Mr. Philip Hardwick, whose character as an architect had previously been stamped with some degree of eminence, as the designer of the Goldsmiths' Hall, the City Club House, and other buildings. The dimensions of the façade are— -the extreme height of the portico seventy-four feet; the extreme width sixty-eight feet; the height of columns forty-two feet; the diameter of columns eight feet six inches; centre space between the columns twenty-eight feet; height of each lodge thirty-one feet; width of each lodge twenty-eight feet; extreme width of frontage 313 feet six inches.

The building is composed of Yorkshire free-stone, fram the Bramley Fall quarries, and in its erection upwards of 75,000 cubic feet were consumed; some of the blocks of stone weighed above thirteen tons.

The gate, at the left side of a person, facing the building, used formerly to be the entrance through which the passengers passed; since the completion of the portico, however, this gate has been closed against the public, and the omnibusses and carriages enter under the centre of the portico, and the foot passengers at their right side on the causeway, between the pillar and wall. Policemen, in the dark green uniform of the company, are stationed about the entrances, and are always ready to give directions to any person needing them. On passing under the portico, a range of buildings is observable to the right, the upper part of which is used as offices for the secretary, and other functionaries, located at the London end of the line. Moving onwards, we

enter beneath a colonnade, and presently arrive at the booking offices, where a short time previously to the starting of a train, a number of persons will be found waiting to pay their fares. Behind a large counter are stationed a number of clerks, displaying the usual bustling, but still we may say a rather more methodical appearance, than their professional brethren at the coach offices; this latter semblance, doubtless, results from the system that is adopted; a rail in the office is so constituted as to form with the counter a narrow pass, through which only one individual can pass at a time, and into this the travellers go, and are thus brought, ad seriatim, before the booking clerk.

Into

this pass we enter, and wait patiently listening to the utterance of names of stations to which persons are going, such as Coventry, Tring, Birmingham, &c., till those before us are booked to their respective stations; when our turn comes, we mention the place we are going to, and the station nearest it is named, together with the fare to that station; this sum we pay, and receive a ticket which is forthwith stamped for us, on which the number of the seat we are to occupy, and all other necessary directions are printed. Ticket in hand, we proceed forwards through an entrance hall, and emerge beneath the spacious shedding, round which the traveller can scarcely cast a wondering gaze, when he is assailed by a policeman, who in a hurried tone cries "number of your ticket, sir;" having obtained a glance of the ticket, the official immediately points out its owner's seat in the train and then hastens away to perform similar duty to others. On coming out from the entrance hall, beneath the shedding, the terminus of the railway is seen; at each side is a parade, elevated to the level of the floor of carriages standing on the rails. The rails close to the parade on which we have entered, are called the down side, because they are used by the trains going down to the country; those close by the other parade constitute the road used by trains coming up to town, and hence are called the up side. When a train arrives, it stops close to the parade at the

up side, and the passengers step out upon it, and may, if they are disposed to ride to any part of the town, enter the omnibusses, cabs, or cars, that are waiting for them, or if they choose to walk, they can