One running theme of the 1830s was the sheer excitement of so many people about the possibilities of the rail network and the amount of time it could save them.
The Railway Times reprinted a news story that had been published in Aylesbury News in November 1837, although they must have got the omnibus to another nearby station (perhaps Tring railway station which had opened in October 1837) as the railway was another eighteen months from opening in Aylesbury.
“One day, last week, a gentleman of Aylesbury left the White Hart inn in an omnibus, at a quarter before seven o’clock, proceeded by the first train to London, attended Doctors’ Commons, proved a will, and returned to Aylesbury to dinner, without experiencing either personal fatigue or hurry, or even the inconvenience of postponing his dinner-hour. To men of business, a saving of time is a saving of property.”
This feels like a perfect example of the sort of thing that would have excited me, to be able to get a lunch in London without any “personal fatigue or hurry” and without having my evening meal late…