From Ambleside I went with some friends to visit Dr. Nichol at
Glasgow. We took coach first, and then the railroad. For the sake of
economy we took a second class carriage. The second class carriages,
on the English railroad, are, in fact, boxes with small holes for
windows, from which you may, if you are not very short, see
something of the world you are flying through, but not much. Good,
honest, hard boards are on the floor, sides, tops, and seats; in
short, all around you. The backs are not slanted at all. You must
sit bolt upright, or not sit at all. Now and then, these vehicles
have a thin leather on the seats--not often.

Nothing can be more luxurious than a first class carriage. The
floors are nicely carpeted, the seats and backs are all stuffed;
each seat is a very nice easy chair. You can sleep in them almost as
well as in a bed; but these carriages are very expensive; and on
this account many of the gentry take those of the second class, hard
as they are.

We arrived at Glasgow at eight o'clock in the evening, and were
unfortunate enough to have a driver to the vehicle we took, who did
not know where the Observatory was. We knew that it was three miles
from the city, and not much more. We were advised by a gentleman,
who was in the same railroad box with us, to take a noddy, or a
minibus, to the Observatory. What these things were, of course, we
could only guess, and we did not care much, so we could only get out
of our wooden box. We came to the conclusion that we could
sympathize tolerably well with poor Box Brown.

We, as we had been advised, took a noddy. A minibus is only a small
omnibus. A noddy is a contrivance that holds four, and has a door at