In the autumn of 1889, in company with Mr. Jackson (afterwards Lord
Allerton), then Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Andrews and other
directors of the County Down, I visited Ardglass. Under the new Act the
Treasury, in connection with the projected railway construction, held the
purse strings, and the Treasury, so far as we were concerned, was Mr.
Jackson. We of the County Down were keen on getting the line sanctioned,
and were very anxious concerning Mr. Jackson's visit. He was a man who
drove a hard bargain, so it was said. Certainly he was an able man, and
I greatly admired him that day. Later in life, when he was Lord
Allerton, and Chairman of the Great Northern Railway of England, I met
him again and liked him well.
In 1889 there were no _light railways_ in Great Britain, or practically
none. Except in Ireland they are of modern growth. What really
constitutes a light railway it is not easy to say. Commonly it is
thought to be a matter of gauge, but that is not so. Mr. Acworth says:
"such a definition is in the nature of things impossible," but that, "a
light railway must be something simpler and cheaper than an ordinary
railway.
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