The London-Bridge Railway

The London-Bridge Railway. Fun (14 October 1865): 50. William S. Brunton (fl. 1859-71), artist; Dalziel, engraver. Courtesy of the Suzy Covey Comic Book Collection in the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. Click on image to enlarge it. —  George P. Landow]

This letter supposed from a semi-literate servant to her aunt begins as follows:

Dear Aunt Higgins—Goodness knose what you must all of thort not to see me before this, and if it was not for fear of giving you a turn, I shood of called direckly I come back; for back I am, thow expected no doubts to be a mangling korse [corpse] with railway wheels over me somewheres on that beastyall line, wich you never ketch me out for one of them exenrtions Agin, even when I have my full Monday, as missis won't let be offen.

Anna Maria recounts the terrible crush of passengers at the station and the way she ended up in a compartment with “a party of forin people” whose food she shares and with whom she shares her flask of hard liquor. Unfortunately the Florida page image is so blurred in places that I haven’t been able to transcribe it.



[You may use the image above without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of Florida library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]


Last modified 9 March 2016