The Wheel And England

Take the Qreat North road. Except upon market days, orie rnight have traveled any 50 miles along it betweeu Highgate and York without meeting 50 people. Towns which literally lived by the road had drifted into a helplessly somnolent condition, from which no apparent human agency could awaken them, and che stranger thereto was stared at as much as if he had been a highlander or an Iroquois in full warpaint. The highway itself, being of no particular valué to anybody since the Great Northern railway began to whirl the old patrons of the road along at 45 miles an hour, was allowed to decay, and in wet seasons or snowy weather was well nigh impassable. The rage for wheeling has produced a rapid transformation. Station yourself at any point yon like, and try to count the machines which pass on a fine Saturday afternoon during th course of an hour, and you will soon abandon the task as hopeless. Then, consider that every rider of every machine spends something during his trip, even if it be but the cost of a temperance drink. Consider that a very large number of Saturday riders sleep out and make good meals during their journey ; that they are constantly spending something over and above their actual traveling expenses ; that the wonderf ui extensión of our acquarntance with our own country resulting from these peaceful invasions of it by the inhabitants, not merely of the metropolis, but of every city and considerable town in the land, bas led to the refurbishiug up of such local lions as the castle, or the abbey, or the great Somebody's birthplace, orthe waterf all, or the view (the inspection of all of which means the expenditure of money), and an approximate idea may be gained of the influence upon national trade which this pastime alone exercises. -