They conceived the torrid Zone unhabitable, and so made frustrate the goodliest part of the earth. But we now know ’tis very well empeopled, and the habitation thereof esteemed so happy, that some have made it the proper seat of Paradise, and beene so farre from judging it unhabitable that they have made it the first habitation of all.

At length th' Almighty caſt a pitying eye, / And mercy ſoftly touch'd his melting breaſt: / He ſaw the town's one half in rubbiſh lie, / And eager flames give on to ſtorm the reſt.

It will be a tragedy if further enterprises of this kind—for example, the one proposed between South Wales, Bristol and the South Coast via Salisbury—are now deferred until they, too, are realised too late to make an impact on a public that is too firmly wedded to the roads to be wooed back to the trains.

Don't push so, 'Liza; you're a-knockin' my 'at off, yer silly kipper!'