of the North British, Tom Robertson of the Highland, Irvine Kempt of the Caledonian, and A. G. Reid of the Great North of Scotland were worthy of Mathieson’s steel.  Usually Mathieson held his own.  Irvine Kempt I cannot imagine was as keen a fighter as the rest, for he was rather a dignified gentleman with fine manners.  To gain a few tons of fish from a rival route, by superior service, keen canvassing, or by other less legitimate means, was a source of fierce joy to these ardent spirits.  The disputes were sometimes concerned with through traffic between England and Scotland, and then the English railway representatives took part, but not with the keenness and intensity of their northern brethren, for the Saxon blood has not the fiery quality of the crimson stream that courses through the veins of the Celt.  Now all is changed.  Combination has succeeded to competition, alliances and agreements are the tranquil order of the day, and the Clearing House has become a Temple of Peace.

Between David Dickie, Goods Manager, and John Mathieson, Passenger Superintendent, as I have said, many differences arose.  I sometimes thought that Mathieson might well have shown more consideration to one so much his senior in years as Dickie was.  Poor Dickie!  Before I left Scotland he met a tragic death.  He was a kind-hearted man, a canny Scot, and died rich.

James Stirling was the Locomotive Superintendent.  He and Mathieson did not always agree, and the clash of arms frequently raged between them.  Mr. Wainwright’s suavity often, and not infrequently his authority, were required to adjust these domestic broils, but as all deferred to him willingly, the storms that arose were usually short lived.

In 1878 Mathieson and I took a short holiday together and crossed to Ireland.  It was our first visit to that unquiet but delightful country, in which, little as I thought then, I was destined a few years later to make my home.

It was in January, 1879, that the headquarters of the company were removed from the old and narrow Bridge Street Station to the new palatial St. Enoch, and there a splendid set of offices was provided.  This was another advantage much to my taste.  St. Enoch was and is certainly a most handsome and commodious terminus.  Originally it had one great roof of a single span, second only to that of St. Pancras Station.  Other spans, not so great, have since been added, for the business of St. Enoch rapidly grew, and enlarged accommodation soon became necessary.  In 1879 it had six long and spacious platforms, now it has twelve; then the number of trains in and out was 43 daily, now it has reached 286; then the mileage of the railway was 319, now it is 466; then the employees of the company numbered 4,010 and now they are over 10,000.  These figures exemplify the material growth of industrial Scotland in the forty years that have passed.  St. Enoch Station was not disfigured by trade advertisements, and it is