October 9th, 1872. Rain in the morning; fine from midday.

In the morning we packed and at half past ten left our hotel in Manchester to take the eleven o'clock train north to Scotland. The morning was overcast, with a steady drizzle. The mayor and the president of the chamber of commerce accompanied us to the station by carriage to see us on our way. As the train left the station, the wheels set off dozens of detonators which had been placed on the track to offer us a farewell salute and wish us a good journey.

About an hour and a half after we had left Manchester, the sky suddenly cleared. Throughout our tour of Britain it was usually overcast and rainy while we were in cities, but when we went out into the countryside the weather was always fine. One reason may be that because of the density of the population, so much coal is burned in the cities that it generates clouds and fogs. In the case of Manchester, in particular, everyone we talked to who had visited the city said that it was almost always raining there.

At two in the afternoon, we began to pass the shore of a bay [Morecambe Bay]. From Manchester thus far, the land beside the railway had all been low-lying, with occasional patches of marshy ground.