To the schools we should like to have devoted a whole chapter now, but must reserve an account of one of the most interesting results of railway enterprise.

There is a literary and scientific institution, with a library attached.  Scientific lectures and scientific books are very little patronized at Wolverton; astronomy and geology have few students; but there is a steady demand for a great number of novels, voyages, and travels; and musical entertainments are well supported.

The lecture-room is extremely miserable, quite unfit for a good concert, as there is not even a retiring room, but the directors are about to build a better one, and while they are about it, they might as well build a small theatre.  Some such amusement is much needed; for want of relaxation in the monotony of a town composed of one class, without any public amusements, the men are driven too often to the pipe and pot, and the women to gossip.

In the summer, the gardens which form a suburb are much resorted to, and the young men go to cricket and football; but still some amusements, in which all the members of every family could join, would improve the moral tone of Wolverton.

Work, wages, churches, schools, libraries, and scientific lectures are not alone enough to satisfy a large population of any kind, certainly not a population of hard-handed workers.

* * * * *

Wolverton embankment was one of the difficulties in railway making, which at one period interested the public; at present it is not admitted among engineers that there are any difficulties.  The ground was a bog, and as fast as earth was tipped in at the top it bulged out at the bottom.  When, after great labour, this difficulty had been overcome, part of the embankment, fifty feet in height, which contained alum shale, decomposed, and spontaneous combustion ensued.  The amazement of the villagers was great, but finally they came to the conclusion expressed by one of them, in “Dang it, they can’t make this here railway arter all, and they’ve set it o’ fire to cheat their creditors.”

On leaving Wolverton, before arriving at Roade, a second-class station, after clearing a short cutting, looking westerly, we catch a glimpse of the tower of the church of Grafton, where, according to tradition, Edward IV. married Lady Gray of Groby.  The last interview between Henry VIII. and Cardinal Campeggio, relative to his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, took place at the Mansion House of this parish, which was demolished in 1643.

About this spot we enter Northamptonshire, and passing Roade, pause at Blisworth station, where there is a neat little inn.

BLISWORTH, NORTHAMPTON.

Miles.  Miles. 
            Blisworth. 34.5 Oundle.
  4.75 Northampton. 40.75 Wansford.
15.75 Wellingborough.  Stamford by Coach.
20 Higham Ferrers. 47.25 Peterborough.
26 Thrapston.