‘Irishmen are proverbial for their inventive powers, and doubtless you will discover a way.—The new maid is a French girl, remember, the daughter of an old friend. Perhaps you would like to see her?’ With a gesture she indicated Lucrece, who came forward, turning to the Irishman with one of her most dazzling smiles. The feeling of bewilderment came on again.
‘She!’ he cried; ‘that beautiful young lady a servant?’
‘When she is plainly dressed, as suitable to her lowly station, she will appear different.’
‘Ah, you may pull the leaves from the flowers, but the beauty remains to them still,’ Varley replied, waxing poetical. ‘However, if it must be, it must; so I will do my best.’
Varley’s diplomacy proved successful, for, a week later, Lucrece was installed at Grosvenor Square.
MINERAL SUBSIDENCE.
The alarming subsidence which took place some time ago in Scotland, on the North British Railway near Prestonpans, and which was fortunately unattended with any accident, has doubtless added a fresh source of fear to the nervous railway passenger. That the permanent way of a railway for a distance of about fifty yards should suddenly sink to the extent of two feet is almost incomprehensible at first; and had this subsidence occurred whilst the train was passing, instead of immediately afterwards, the consequences might have been disastrous. It is the case, however, though it may not be generally known, that subsidences—fortunately only gradual, and comparatively inappreciable—are taking place over many of our railway lines, and that ‘minerals’ are actually being extracted from underneath nearly every line of railway under which there is any mineral to get.
The damage done to the line at Prestonpans was reported to have been caused by coal-workings which were there long before the railway was laid; but if it was caused by them at all, it was on account of their being influenced by the working of a seam of coal below them, which was going on at the time the subsidence occurred. It is the fact, however, that when a Railway Company acquires ground under its parliamentary powers, the minerals underneath the ground do not pass along with it. This may seem a little surprising at first; but it is not so when it is considered that very frequently the proprietor of the surface of the ground and the proprietor of the minerals underneath it are different persons. Of course the proprietor of an estate under no reservations is proprietor as high as he can get and as deep as he cares to go; but he may sell or lease the minerals and retain the surface, or vice versâ. Thus it is that a Railway Company has only, as it were, a right of passage over the surface; and that its right goes no deeper, except for the construction or up-keep of its lines. By Act of Parliament, however, the proprietor of minerals below any railway line, before proceeding to work them, must give notice to the Railway Company of his intention to do so, so as to give the Company an opportunity of buying him off, should it feel disposed. If it does not declare its option to purchase the minerals, the workings proceed, and the railway has to take its chance. The mineral owner will, however, be held liable, should any damage occur owing to improper working.
The subsidence of a railway line underneath which the minerals have been worked is as a rule very gradual, and extends over some length of time. Many railway passengers must have noticed the walls of waiting-rooms disfigured by ungainly cracks, the stone lintels displaced, the hearthstones awry, and many other signs, which are caused by the working of minerals underneath. Some station-masters can show you on the stone face of the platform the number of inches the line has sunk. As a matter of fact, were it not for the gangs of surfacemen the Railway Companies employ to watch any irregularities in their lines, in a very short space of time the permanent way would in many places probably represent something like the proposed line of the Undulating Railway, a fantastical scheme of long ago. The railway in Ayrshire which runs over the old workings of the famous Wishaw coal-seam, especially suffers in the way of subsidence; and some parts of the railway in the west of Fife are known to have gradually sunk to an extent of over ten feet.
But railway lines are not the only parts of the surface which are subsiding owing to the working of minerals. The whole surface of the land surrounding the many pits and mines which are continually belching forth their wagon-loads of coal or other mineral, is gradually subsiding as the extraction of the mineral proceeds; and damage amounting to thousands of pounds is annually being done to the surface and the buildings on it owing to mineral workings. As the period and extent of the subsidence and the damage following on it depend greatly on the method employed in working the coal, a word or two here on this subject may not be out of place.