About the same time also interviews took place between the Midland and the London and North-Western, with the object of arranging an amalgamation of the two systems.  Some progress was made, but no formal engagement resulted, and so a very desirable union, between an aristocratic bridegroom and a democratic bride, remained unaccomplished.

Mr. Ellis was chairman of the Midland at this time and Mr. George Carr Glyn, afterwards the first Lord Wolverton, occupied a similar position on the Board of the London and North-Western.  Mr. Ellis had succeeded Mr. Hudson—­the “Railway King,” so christened by Sydney Smith.  Mr. Hudson in 1844 was chairman of the first shareholders’ meeting of the Midland Railway.  Prior to that date the Midland consisted of three separate railways.  In 1849 Mr. Hudson presided for the last time at a Midland meeting, and in the following year resigned his office of chairman of the company.

The story of the meteoric reign of the “Railway King” excited much interest when I was young, and it may not be out of place to touch upon some of the incidents of his career.

George Hudson was born in 1800, served his apprenticeship in the cathedral city of York and subsequently became a linendraper there and a man of property.

Many years afterwards he is reported to have said that the happiest days of his life passed while he stood behind his counter using the yardstick, a statement which should perhaps only be accepted under reservation.  He was undoubtedly a man of a bold and adventurous spirit, possessed of an ambition which soared far above the measuring of calicoes or the retailing of ribbons; but perhaps the observation was tinged by the environment of later and less happy days when his star had set, his kingly reign come to an end, and when possibly vain regrets had embittered his existence.  It was, I should imagine, midst the fierceness of the strife and fury of the mania times, when his powerful personality counted for so much, that he reached the zenith of his happiness.

[George Hudson:  hudson.jpg]

Whilst conducting in York his linendraper business, a relation died and left him money.  The railway boom had then begun.  He flung his yardstick behind him and entered the railway fray.  The Liverpool and Manchester line and its wonderful success—­it paid ten per cent.—­greatly impressed the public mind, and the good people of York determined they would have a railway to London.

A committee was appointed to carry out the project.  On this committee Mr. Hudson was placed, and it was mainly owing to his energy and skill that the scheme came to a successful issue.  He was rewarded by being made chairman of the company.

This was his entrance into the railway world where, for a time, he was monarch.  He must have been a man of shrewdness and capacity.  It is recorded that he acquired the land for the York to London railway at an average cost of 1,750 pounds per mile whilst that of the North Midland cost over 5,000 pounds.