Horsham in Literature: The Invisible Man

Among the many passing references to Horsham in 19th century literature, one of the shortest and strangest is that in HG Wells' 1897 novella "The Invisible Man".

The story's action is mainly played out in the village of Iping, West Sussex.  Though in the same county, Iping is situated some distance from Horsham. 

When the Invisible Man makes his escape from Iping after committing the  Wicksteed murder, a manhunt is organised across the country.  Not surprisingly, people soon start to be afraid of travelling by train with an invisible murderer at large in Sussex. Wells writes:

Every passenger train along the lines on a great parallelogram between Southampton, Manchester, Brighton, and Horsham, travelled with locked doors, and the goods traffic was almost entirely suspended.

The parallelogram to which Wells refers would be very strange in its shape as Manchester is a long way from the other towns mentioned.  The description also makes no sense in railway terms as there would have been no direct trains from Horsham and Brighton to Manchester in the 19th century. Indeed, even today, there are no direct trains though there was a brief period in the 1980s and 1990s when direct trains ran from Brighton to Manchester.  These trains did not travel via Horsham.

Of course, in 1897, Horsham and Brighton were connected by the sadly defunct Steyning line.

The above reference to Horsham is the only one in "The Invisible Man".  Whilst it is always good to see one's home town appear in any story, I can't help but wish that the reference was more realistic both in geometrical and railway terms.