Not a story like any of the above, but what amazed me most was just how mobile people (not just the rich) were throughout the 19th century.
E.g. moving a family of 16 from Staffordshire to Furness (as one of mine did) in the 1860s must have been some undertaking. Okay, you'd probably do anything to get out of nailmaking, but what a journey and presumably without any real guarantee of employment at the other end.
Another family (somewhat better off, well at least until bankrupted!) seemed to think nothing of virtually commuting between Bury St Edmunds and London several times a month.
All, to use a modern term, non-trivial journeys then.