Darby is one of the oldest towns in the State, and contributes largely to the business of the road.  Mills were built here in 1696, and it was divided into Upper and Lower Darby in 1786.  The first of the new towns is Sharon Hill, where a large amount of land has been laid out in the rectangular method, and already many of the lots are sold to actual settlers:  a machine-shop has been established, and the railroad has built a very nice station for passengers.

Next to Sharon Hill comes Glenolden, where hill and dale, wood and meadow and a beautiful stream, offer all the picturesqueness that can charm an enthusiastic or artistic eye, together with good building-sites and every advantage that fertile and forest-clad land can give to one who would exchange the heat and pavements of a city for rural life.  From Glenolden it is but a short distance to Norwood and to Moore’s Crossing, where the company are erecting turnouts, engine-houses, etc., and from here, eight miles from the city, numerous trains will run to Philadelphia to accommodate the workingmen who, it is believed, will come out to live on these cool and breezy uplands.

[Illustration:  Crozer seminary.]

From Moore’s we soon get to Ridley Park, which was described at length in a former Number.  The two stations at Ridley are models of beauty in their way:  the principal station spans the road-bed, wide enough here for four tracks, and is probably the most picturesque in the country, as well as very convenient.  Crum Lynne Station is remarkable for the beautiful sculpture of the capitals of the pilasters to the architraves of the windows, the architect having designed each one for this building, using the flowers and fruits and birds and animals of the region for his ornamental work, instead of the usual cornice and frieze and capital of Grecian architecture.

But the train sweeps us away from Ridley limits, past Leiperville with its primeval railway, and on to Chester.  As we round the curve and rush through the woods we see on the left the broad river with its three-masted schooners, ships and steamers, and on the right the spires and houses of the town; and first and predominant the Military School of Colonel Hyatt.  This school was incorporated by act of Legislature in 1862, and is devoted to both civil and military education.  The studies and drill are so combined as to secure good mental and physical culture; and to ensure good military instruction the State and the United States have contributed arms of all kinds.  Scholars come from all parts of the country, and even the West Indies; and as the standard of scholarship is high, the graduates compare favorably with those from other institutions.