"UP" TO LONDON

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 63, 11 September 1924, Page 6

"UP" TO LONDON

"DOWN" FROM LONDON

THE TRAVEL SENSE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Mr V p .LO^ DON, 2nd August, in "Th -£ ncr, s, on< in a !e«er appearing He si «fNe- V- ieaJalld social fu»ction. fort J? r '°m 4 *° Un' v<=rsity of Oxt t tJ iis r u, t!i up been a pup" ™ % Ttile° ad Wn the slunt Borl ,-vHUCnI hM only lo )ook at hw ii vnf r at a worldn S timo-table of mvpt I "cS J l° find-U»at there has "ever been .-my deviation from it Oxford and ,: Cambridge . are . two .of the, great and venerably centres of. learning that are on the "down" line from Lonmanj, that are on the "up" line f OT *Lo O . <to . i Hence those who. have. had. instilled into, their minds from' childhood the. shibboleths of, the orderly railway by them*— n° alternativ*e than to abide If a man feels too shy to say.that he is .going 'down" to Scotland, he can letaiii. possession of his composure by mercjy statmfe .that ho -as going- to Scotland—leaving out all the "ups'-and Uowi.^. -Hut it is an absolute .-"certainty he, will never arrive in' Scotland from liondon if he trie's to get there on i the up line—because all lines leading out of London are "clown" lines. It is equally certain that -any traveller whose Mecca is London will have to travel on the 'up!; line, whether .he joins his train at Oxford or Cambridge, at Aberdeen or Cardiff, at Dover or Plymouth. And the "down" line from any London terminus is the only, one that will take him. to-any one of those varying' points of the compass. To" ensure order there must be some ru]e of the road, and that has always been the recognised rule in the railway world—anything less well defined would cause no end of. confusion m the' intricacies of railway services, connections,, and time-tables. It is. responsible'- for the ,"up S " and downs," and those terms are in variably so vised. One cannot see why there should_be any: departure from tl " is we]l _ recognised and commonly accepted arrangement when-we-all travel- by air. London is the metropolis of the British Empire, and the1 present, generation should continue to come "up" to it from air places in the British Isles, whether by.rail or aeroplane. Mr. Grierson' refers - to- Birmingham and Manchester as "pleasure spots." Tliey are important centres of erudition andiindustry, but they, are not places on the list'of jaded holiday-seekers . who need respite from their daily toil. From Londonwe go "down" to both of these, while, from both all the London-bound-are: obliged to travel "up"—-just as they ar e from Oxford and Cambridge. - It_ is obvious that Mr. Grierson has in his mind the university phrase which indicates that a student is lea-ving . Oxford or Cambridge. When a graduate has completed his course he "goes down" —but' he does- not go down to Londonar anywhere; else. He simply "goes down," which means that he leaves the university. This has nothing to do with travelling by train or any other means of locomotion. . .