In article ,
Peter Masson wrote:


"amogles" wrote in message
...
On 6 Jun., 16:58, john wright wrote:


"When there was only one line for the whole of London" What can that
refer to? Neither telephones nor rail lines makes much sense in this
context.

When the various "lines" that now form the London Underground were
built, they were separate railways and were referred to by their
names, ie C&SLR etc. I assume that the practice of calling them lines
must have come in when they were all part of London Underground. Does
anybody know when the term "line" first came into use in this context

'Line' to refer to a railway company was certainly in use by 1895: 'The

By the 1870s, when there was a popular music-hall song in northern pasts
to the effect that:

"He went to Bradford for to dine
By the Lancashire and Yorkshire line
He waited two weeks at bleak Low Moor
And when he complained the porter swore
That he should hace started the month before"

(culled from Ahrons, and certainly applying to the 'old' L&Y
of the pre-1880s period).

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting
money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair)