Burns had awakened, and which never afterwards forsook me.
Great is my debt to Scotland and to Scotchmen.
Amongst the most prominent railway men I have met were Sir Edward Watkin,
Chairman of the South-Eastern Railway, and the following general
managers:--Mr. Allport, Midland, the exalted railway monarch of my early
railway days; Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Oakley, Great Northern; Mr.
Grierson, Great Western; Mr. Underdown, Manchester, Sheffield and
Lincolnshire; and Mr. (afterwards Sir Myles) Fenton, South Eastern. Of
Sir Edward Watkin a good story was told. When he was general manager of
the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (he was Mr. Watkin
then) many complaints had arisen from coal merchants on the line that
coal was being stolen from wagons in transit by engine drivers. Nothing
so disgraceful could possibly occur, always answered Mr. Watkin. Down
the line one day, with his officers at a country station, a driver was
seen in the very act of transferring from a coal wagon standing on an
outlying siding some good big lumps to his tender. This was pointed out
to Mr. Watkin, who only said--"The d---d fool, _in broad daylight_!" When
Mr.
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