Pyall (Henry) after Thomas Talbot Bury.

plate 13 from ‘Coloured Views of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway’, originally published as 6 plates to commemorate the railway’s opening, but soon expanded to 13, such was the popularity George Stephenson’s feat of engineering, a reflection of the excitement at the brightening dawn of this new era of transportation, as the second significant railway to open after the Stockton to Darlington line, responding to increasing commercial and industrial demands for the more rapid movement of goods and materials, and being the first to be powered entirely by steam locomotives, apart from the short and steep incline through Wapping Tunnel, between Edge-Hill and Liverpool Docks, where a cable system was deployed, as  the subtitle of this plate indicates, it shows the scene where the convey of trains conveying the numerous dignitaries attending the opening ceremony and inaugural journey paused for the steam locomotives to take on more water, at which point the local MP, William Huskisson, walked across the line to speak to the Duke of Wellington, the prime minister, in the hope of rekindling amicable relations following his previous resignation from the cabinet, only to be struck by another arriving train, thereby becoming the first ever fatality in a rail accident,

original hand-coloured aquatint, heightened with gum-arabic, 225 x 260 mm. (8 7/8 x 10 1/4 in), pale even browning, some marginal creases,