text:  "When we recollect " said Bob in a burst of poetical frenzy "the enormous population of the district the softness and geniality of the climate and the fairy aspect of its scenery--when we think of the varied traffic which now chokes up the ordinary avenues of industry--when we estimate the inexhaustible beds of ore and minerals absolutely heaving themselves from the ground as though to entreat the aid of man in adapting them to their proper destination;--when we consider all these things I say and finally combine them together fancy closes her astonished eyes and even imagination swoons!" I will not say that the writer of the Biggleswade prospectus was as soaring a genius as Bob; but he was quite enough of a Claude to seduce the investing public