THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID GEOEGE STEPEENSON. THE STORY OF THE LIFE GEORGE STEPHENSON, RAILWAY ENGINEER. ABRIDGED BY THE AUTHOR FROM THE ORIGINAL AND LARGER WORK. BY SAMUEL SMILES. \\ Durfraat anb $Uttstnrfifa Hoobruts. LONDON: JOHN MUBBAY, ALBEMABLE STBEET. 1859. Th.fi right of TxQ.fi Feats of strength Appointed plugman Study of the steam-engine Page 1 20 CHAPTER II. Improvement of time Habits Self-culture Attempt at artificial egg- hatching Curiosity about steam-engines Resolves to learn to read His teachers, Robin Cowens and Andrew Robertson Learns arithmetic His dog Learns engine-brakeing Bill Coe Removes to Black Callerton Duties as brakesman Improves himself during the night-shift Wages Fanny Henderson Shoe-mending Saves his first guinea Habitual sobriety A dead shot Quarrel with a pitman His first and last fight 21 31 CHAPTER III. Brakesman at Willington His marriage Daily life Attempts to invent Perpetual Motion Makes shoes and shoe-lasts- Clock-cleaning Birth of his son Removal to Killingworth His wife's death Goes to Scotland Improves a pumping-engine Brakesman at Killingworth Supports his infirm father Drawn for the militia Intends to emigrate Saves money for his son's education Takes contract for engine-brakeing Im- proves the winding-engine Improves a pumping-engine His celebrity as an engine-doctor 32 47 vi 11 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Continued self-culture Encounter with difficulty His studies with John Wigham Sobriety and thrift Sells his guineas at a profit His cottage at West Moor His blackbird Repairs watches Ingenious contrivances Competition in last-making Pitmen's theory of the earth His physical vigour Made colliery engine-wright His improvements in the colliery working Improves himself in mechanics Education of his son Con- structs a sun-dial Electric kite The Rev. Mr. Turner . . 4860 CHAPTER V. First inventors of locomotives Murdock's model Trevithick's locomotive Exhibited in London Merthyr Tydvil experiment Blenkinsop's engine Chapman's Brunton's Mechanical Traveller Mr. Blackett of Wylam's experiments Stephenson studies the subject of locomotive construction Lays down inclined planes Builds his first locomotive, or " travelling engine " The engine described Its performances Invention of the steam-blast His second locomotive Summary of the improvements effected 61 75 CHAPTER VI. Explosions of fire-damp in collieries Accident in Killingworth pit .Ste- phenson's intrepid conduct Meditates a safety-lamp Experiments with fire-damp His theory of explosions His first safety-lamp Courage in testing it Success of the experiment "Blows up"- Improves his lamp Continues his experiments His second lamp His third lamp Is charged with pirating Sir H. Davy's idea Controversy on the subject Mr. Stephenson's defence Examination of witnesses Testimonial presented to Mr. Stephenson Superior safety of the Geordylamp 76 99 CHAPTER VII. Mr. Stephenson's confidence in the locomotive Improvement of the railroad New rail and chair Makes further improvements in the engine Scarcity of skilled workmen Invention of steam springs Invents a dynamometer His experiments on friction His views of locomotion on common roads Indifference of the public to the invention of the loco- motive Again thinks of emigrating to the United States The Hetton railway constructed and opened Education of his son Accident in Killingworth pit Robert sent to Edinburgh university . . 100117 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER VIII. Edward Pease Projects the Stockton and Darlington Railway The "Quakers' Line" The Act obtained Mr. Stephenson's introduction to Mr. Pease The interview Makes a new survey Suggests improve- ments , Proposes the use of locomotives Mr. Pease visits Killingworth Mr. Stephenson appointed engineer to the Stockton and Darlington Railway The working survey of the line Mr. Stephenson's conversa- tion Commencement of a locomotive factory at Newcastle 'Rails Gauge Tractive power Completion of the line Mr. Stephenson's anticipations respecting railways Opening of the line The coal traffic First railway coach, the " Experiment " Rival coach companies The beginnings of passenger traffic Middlesborough-on-Tees . . . . 118 145 CHAPTER IX. Tramroad projected from Liverpool to Manchester Immense increase of the trade between these towns Mr. Sandars Mr. Wm. James surveys a line Difficulties of the survey Mr. James visits Killingworth Becomes partner in the locomotive Public meetings at Liverpool, &c. A railway determined on The first prospectus Deputations to Killing- worth The railway re-surveyed by Mr. Stephenson Opposition to the survey Overtures of conciliation The opposition of the Canal Compa- nies organized Newspaper articles Opinions as to railway speed Article in the * Quarterly ' 146 160 CHAPTER X. The parliamentary contest on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway The evidence taken Mr. Rastrick Mr. Stephenson in the witness-box - States his experience Alarming speed of twelve miles an hour ! ' Awk- ward for the coo " Is supposed to be mad Mr. Harrison's speech Mr. Giles's evidence as to Chat-Moss Mr. Alderson's speech - Evidence against locomotives Mr. Adam's reply Defeat of the bill New survey Messrs. Rennie employed The Act passed Sir Isaac Coffin's speech Mr. Stephenson appointed engineer of the railway .. .. 161 178 CHAPTER XI. Description of Chat-Moss The resident engineers Mr. Dixon's journey over the Moss Mr. Stephenson's idea of forming a floating road upon it Commencement of the work Drainage Difficulty in forming an embankment on the Moss The directors contemplate the abandonment of CONTENTS. the works Mr. Stephenson urges them to persevere The road formed Parr Moss Cost of the work The organizing of the labour The tunnel at Liverpool Olive Mount cutting Bridges Sankey viaduct Mr. Cropper The works pressed forward to completion Mr. Stephen- son's daily life and habits at Liverpool Evenings at home . . 179 198 CHAPTER XII. Discussions as to the tractive power to be employed in working the line Mr. Telford's report, unfavourable Variety of schemes suggested Walker and Rastrick's report in favour of fixed engines Stephenson' s defence of the locomotive Prize offered for the best engine The conditions proposed The Newcastle factory Robert Stephenson's return from America Improvements in the locomotive The tubular boiler Build- ing of " The Rocket " Its steam-blast The competition at Rainhill The " Novelty " The " Sanspareil " The " Perseverance " Triumph of " The Rocket," and congratulations of the engineer . . . . 199220 CHAPTER XIII. Completion of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Acknowledgment of Mr. Stephenson's skill and energy The opening ceremony Fatal acci- dent to Mr. Huskisson Commercial results of the railway Details of the working arranged The road, carriage stock, and locomotive power The railway workmen Alleged favouritism and monopoly Public interest excited by Liverpool and Manchester Railway Alarming stories circulated in rural districts Increased speed of stage-coaches Govern- ment and the railways The locomotive on common roads Numerous new lines projected Canterbury and Whitstable Leicester and Swanning- ton Railways in Lancashire Grand Junction London and Birmingham project The Messrs. Stephenson appointed engineers Interview of a deputation with Sir Astley Cooper Opposition to the line The Act passed and the landlords " conciliated " Formidable character of the works Blisworth cutting Kilsby tunnel English railway navvies 221 249 CHAPTER XIV. Mr. Stephenson's residence at Alton Grange Leases Snibston colliery Local improvements effected Private life at Alton Takes an office in London Surveys of new lines of railway The Manchester and Leeds Incident in Committee The Littleborough Tunnel North Midland Heavy character of the works Bull-bridge His interest in Midland coal-traffic York and North Midland Estimates Surveys of lines in Scotland and the North of England Habits of accurate observation CONTENTS. XI Proposes a line across Morecambe Bay Specimen of his railway journeys Anecdote of the robins at Alton Grange Journey into Belgium Is made Knight of the Order of Leopold Public celebration at Ghent The turnpike roads improved by the English Government, to compete with the railways Openings of through lines Advantages of railway travel- ling generally recognized 250 287 CHAPTER XY. Mr. Stephenson leases the Claycross colliery Eemoves to Tapton House The British Association meeting at Newcastle in 1838 Visits Killingworth Partial retirement from the profession of engineer Leases Tapton colliery Proposed railway testimonial Mr. Stephenson 's interest in Mechanics' Institutes Examined before a railway committee in 1841 Views on railway speed Undulating railway theory The railway mania Words of caution Rage for direct lines Want of foresight in Parliament Board of Trade Report Letter to Sir Robert Peel Completion of East Coast route from London to Newcastle The atmospheric railway Struggle in Parliament for the Newcastle and Berwick line Hudson's testimonial to Stephenson High Level bridge Visit to Belgium Inter- view with King Leopold Visit to Spain Illness and return 288 317 CHAPTER XVI. Life at Tapton Horticultural pursuits Theory of vegetation and feeding Bees In-doors habits Conversible faces : Lord Denman Friends at Tapton The microscope Crowdie night Visits to London Visit to Sir Robert Peel The Claycross Workmen' s-Institute Opening of the Trent Valley Railway, and public celebration at Tamworth Railway celebration at Manchester Meeting with Emerson Illness and death Statues His personal appearance Character Self-reliance Improve- ment of time Laborious diligence His thoroughness Energy Debt repaid by his son to the Newcastle Institute Generosity Patierifce Stephenson compared with Watt Deportment Fullness and accuracy of his information Hatred of humbug Ornamental initials Declines entering Parliament Offer of knighthood Conclusion . . 31 8 350 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 1. Portrait of George Stephenson Frontispiece 2. Map of Newcastle District .... 1 3. High Street House 9 4. Colliery Gin 14 5. Whimsey 20 6. Newburn Church and Village . . 22 7. Coal Waggons 31 8. Signatures on Marriage Certificate . . 33 9. House at Willington Quay . . . . 34 10. Killingworth High Pit . . . . . . 43 11. West Moor Pit, Killingworth . . . . 47 12. The Cottage at West Moor . . . . 52 13. Sun-dial at Killingworth 58 14. Davy and Geordy Safety-lamps . . 87 15. Tankard presented to Mr. Stephenson 95 16. Half-lap Joint 102 17. Old Locomotive still in use at Killingworth 105 18. Portrait of Edward Pease 119 19. The "Experiment" Railway Coach 138 20. The No. I. Engine at Darlington . . 142 21. Middlesborough-on-Tees 145 PAGE 22. Map of Liverpool District . . . . 146 23. Chat-Moss Works in progress . . 134 24. Olive Mount Cutting 191 25. Sankey Viaduct 192 26. Forth-Street Works, Newcastle . . 207 27. The " Rocket " 218 23. Kilsby Tunnel 245 29. Alton Grange 251 30. Coalville, Snibston Colliery . . . . 253 31. Map of Railways in Midland Dis- trict 257 32. Littleborough Tunnel 261 33. Bull-bridge, near Ambergate .. .. 265 34. Tapton House, Chesterfield . . . . 289 35. Lime Worss at Ambergate . . . . 292 36. Clay Cross Works 329 37. Clay Cross Village 330 38. Statue of George Stephenson at Euston b'quare .. 336 39. Newcastle Literary and Philosophi- cal Institute . . . . 342 40. Tablet in Trinity Church, Chester- field ..350 THE LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. JTicf/i. Callerton* Y ? * ' * f 6'calc, Smiles Co an inch \ I Map of Newcastle District. CHAPTEK I. THE NEWCASTLE COAL DISTRICT VILLAGE OF WYLAM GEORGE STEPHENSON'S EARLY YEARS. THE great northern coal-field of Durham and Northumber- land extends in an almost unbroken direction from the Tees to the Tweed. It runs along, and indeed dips .under, the coast-line of the German Ocean, extending irregularly inwards into both counties, in some parts to a considerable distance. This immense field underlies some eight hundred square miles of country ; and the working of the coal from the various seams gives employment to a large number of workpeople. 2 TOWN OF NEWCASTLE. CHAP. I Newcastle may be regarded as the capital of the district, though there are many other important towns in the neigh- bourhood, such as Sunderland, Shields (North and South), Hartlepool, and Middlesborough, the prosperity of which depends in a great measure on the sale and shipment of the coal to London and other ports at home and abroad. Newcastle is a very curious old town : its more ancient parts are full of crooked lanes and narrow streets, of wynds and chares, formed by tall antique houses, rising tier above tier along the steep northern bank of the Tyne ; as the similarly precipitous streets of Gateshead crowd the op- posite shore. Eighteen hundred years ago the Romans, under Hadrian, first bridged the Tyne by the Pons Mlii, near the point occupied by the present Low Level Bridge, erecting at the same time a fortification on the Moot Hill, now occupied by the Central Railway Station. About a thousand years later, after repeated immigrations of Norsemen, whose Eorls or Earls of Northumberland made Newcastle their principal seat, the Normans came and built the New Castle now eight hundred years old from which the town derives its modern name. The keep of the New Castle still stands entire, though black with age and smoke, almost directly opposite the line of the noble High Level Bridge the warlike relic of the older civilization thus confronting the utilitarian offspring of the new. The town has in the mean time grown immensely, hav- ing expanded in all directions far beyond its ancient boun- daries. It is no longer a border fortress the " shield and defence against the invasions and frequent insults of the Scots," as described in ancient charters, but a busy centre of peaceful industry, the fountain of a vast amount of steam power, which is exported, in the form of coal, to all parts of the world. A dense cloud of smoke constantly hangs over the town, .almost obscuring the sun's light. North and south, the atmosphere is similarly murky, and the surface of the soil everywhere exhibits the signs of extensive underground CHAP. I. POPULATION OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 3 workings. In all directions are to be seen swollen heaps of ashes and refuse, coals and slag the rubbish of old aban- doned pits, as well as the pumping engines and machinery of new. As you pass through the country by night, the earth looks as if it were bursting with fire at many points the blaze of coke ovens, iron furnaces, and coal heaps reddening the sky to such a distance that the horizon seems to be a glowing belt of fire. The Northumbrian people, generally, exhibit many strik- ing and characteristic qualities, inherited most probably from the hardy and energetic Norsemen who settled in such numbers along the coast many centuries ago. Taking them as a whole, they are bigger as well as hardier men, and of more marked individuality, than the inhabitants of our more southern counties. They are less flexible, graceful, and polished, but full of rough shrewdness and mother-wit, and possessed of considerable strength of cha- racter, of which, indeed, their remarkable guttural speech is but a type. The Northumbrian dialect is a sort of mixture of Lowland Scotch and North-country English, pervaded by the strong burr , peculiar to Northumberland. It is related of a Scotch lass' who took service in Newcastle that when asked how she got on with the language, she replied that she managed it very well by "swallowing the K's and giein them a bit chow i' the middle." This de- scription of the Newcastle dialect might, no doubt, be improved, but we will not venture upon a task so dif- ficult. The classes of the Northumbrian population more particularly referred to in the course of the following pages, are those connected with the coal trade. The number of workpeople employed in the Durham and Northumberland collieries, above and below ground, is about forty thousand the above-ground workmen being nearly half the number of those employed under the sur- face. Besides these there is about an equal number of keelmen and sailors employed in the transport of the coal ; the shipping connected with the trade, as is well known, B 2 4 COLLIERY WORKPEOPLE. CHAP. I. having for hundreds of years formed the principal nursery of our seamen. The pitmen, who work out the coal below ground, or "the lads belaw," as they call themselves,, are a peculiar class, quite distinct from the workmen employed on the surface. They are a people with peculiar habits, manners, and character, as much so as fishermen and sailors, to whom, indeed, they are supposed, perhaps from the dan- gerous nature of their calling, to bear a considerable resem- blance. Some forty or fifty years ago they were a very much rougher and worse-educated class than they are now; hard workers, but very wild and uncouth; much given to " steeks," or strikes ; and distinguished, in their hours of leisure and on pay -nights, for their love of cock- fighting, dog-fighting, hard drinking, and cuddy races. The pay-night was a fortnightly saturnalia, in which the pit- man's character was fully brought out, especially when the " yel " was good. Though earning much higher wages than the ordinary labouring population of the upper soil, the latter did not mix nor intermarry with them ; so that they were left to form their own communities, and hence their marked peculiarities as a class. Indeed, a sort of traditional disrepute seems long to have clung to the pitmen, perhaps arising from the nature of their employ- ment, and from the circumstance that the colliers were amongst the last classes enfranchised in England, as they were certainly the last in Scotland, where they continued bondmen down to the end of last century. The last thirty years, however, have worked a great improvement in the moral condition of the pitmen; the abolition of the twelve months' bond to the mine, and the substitution of a month's notice previous to leaving, having given them greater freedom and opportunity for obtaining employment ; and day schools and Sunday schools, together with the important influences of railways, have brought them fully up to a level with the other classes of the labour- ing population. The Newcastle colliery class can even boast of having produced amongst their number many CHAP. I. DRAINING AND WINDING ENGINES. 5 distinguished men, such as Dr. Hutton the geologist, originally a hewer at Long Benton ; and Thomas Bewick, the first English wood engraver. One of Bewick's earliest recollections was that of lying for hours on his side be- tween dismal strata of coal, and plying the pick by the light of a glimmering candle for bread. Amongst the upper-ground workmen connected with a colliery are the firemen, enginemen, and brakesmen, who fire and work the engines, and superintend the machinery employed to draw coals out of the pits and keep them clear of water. Previous to the introduction of the steam-en- gine the usual machine employed for the purpose was what is called a " gin." The gin consists of a large drum placed horizontally, round which ropes attached to buckets and corves are wound, which are thus drawn up or sent down the shafts by a horse travelling in a circular track or " gin race." This method was employed for drawing up both coals and water, and it is still used for the same purpose in small collieries ; but where the quantity of water to be raised is great, the gin is found quite insufficient, and then pumps worked by steam power are called into requi- sition. Newcomen's atmospheric engine was first made use of to work the pumps ; and it continued to be so employed long after the more powerful and economical condensing engine of Watt had been introduced. In the Newcomen or " fire engine," as it was called, the power is produced by the pressure of the atmosphere forcing down the piston in the cylinder, on a vacuum being produced within it by condensation of the contained steam by means of cold water injection. The piston rod is attached to one end of a lever, whilst the pump rod works in connexion with the other. The hydraulic action employed to raise the water is exactly similar to that of a common sucking pump. The working of a Newcomen engine is a clumsy and ap- parently a very painful process, accompanied by an extra- ordinary amount of wheezing, sighing, creaking, and bump- ing. When the pump descends, there is heard a plunge, 6 PLATEWAYS AND STAITHS. CHAP. I. a heavy sigh, and a loud bump : then, as it rises, and the sucker begins to act, there is heard a creak, a wheeze, another bump, and then a loud rush of water as it is lifted and poured out. Where engines of a more powerful and improved description are used, the quantity of water raised is enormous as much as a million and a half gallons in the twenty-four hours. Another engine, early employed for the purpose of wind- ing the coal out of the pits, was that called a Whimsey. In working this machine, the engine-tenter, or brakesman, stood with his hand, or foot, upon a lever, to stay the action of the whole the moment he saw the corfe or basket full of coals above ground, when it was landed by the banksman on the pit-head. The total power of the engines employed in pumping and winding in the Northern collieries is now considerably upwards of twenty thousand horses. The necessity which existed for conveying, in the easiest and cheapest manner, large quantities of coal from the pits to the shipping places along the Tyne and Wear, early led to the invention of levelled tracks laid with stone, along' which the waggons were dragged by horses. Then wooden planks or rails were in course of time introduced, by which the resistance of friction was still further diminished ; but, as the wood soon became worn out, the rails were protected by flat iron plates nailed upon their upper edges ; and eventually the whole rail was made of cast-iron plates, whence the road came to be denominated the " plate- way. ' These roads led down to the staiths erected along the river side ; the waggons sometimes descending by their own gravity along inclined planes, the waggoner standing behind to check the speed by means of a convoy or wooden brake bearing upon the rims of the wheels. Arrived at the staiths, the waggons were emptied at once into the ships alongside waiting for cargo. Any one who has sailed down the Tyne from Newcastle Bridge cannot but have been struck with the appearance of the immense staiths, con- structed of timber, which are erected at short distances from each other on both sides of the river. CHAP. I. KEELS AND KEELMEN. 7 But a great deal of the coal shipped from the Tyne comes from above-bridge, where sea-going craft cannot reach, and is floated down the river in " keels," in which the coals are sometimes piled up according to convenience when large, or, when the coal is small- or tender, it is conveyed in tubs to prevent breakage. These keels are of a very ancient model, perhaps the oldest extant in England : they are even said to be of the same build as those in which the Norsemen navigated the Tyne centuries ago. The keel is a tubby, grim-looking craft, rounded fore and aft, with a single large square sail, which the keel-bullies, as the Tyne watermen are called, manage with great dexterity ; the vessel being guided by the aid of the " swape," or great oar, which is used as a kind of rudder at the stern of the vessel, These keelmen are an exceedingly hardy class of workmen, not by any means so quarrelsome as their designation of " bully " would imply the word being merely derived from the obsolete term "boolie," or beloved, an appellation still in familiar use amongst brother workers in the coal districts. One of the most curious sights upon the Tyne is the fleet of hundreds of these black- sailed, black-hulled keels, bringing down at each tide their black cargoes for the ships at anchor in the deep water at Shields arid other parts of the river below Newcastle. These preliminary observations will perhaps be sufficient to explain the meaning of many of the occupations alluded to, and the phrases employed, in the course of the following narrative, some of which might otherwise have been com- paratively unintelligible to the general reader. THE colliery of Wylam forms the nucleus of the village of the same name, situated on the north bank of the Tyne, some eight miles west of Newcastle. About the end of last century the colliery belonged to Mr. Blackett, a gentleman of considerable celebrity in coal mining, but probably then better known to the general public as the proprietor of the Globe newspaper. The village of Wylam, like most 8 BIRTHPLACE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. CHAP. I. other colliery villages, consists of an unsightly pumping engine surrounded by heaps of ashes, coal dust, and slag ; an iron-furnace, smoking and blazing by night and day ; and a collection of labourers' dwellings of a very humble order. The place is more remarkable for the amount of its population than for its cleanness or neatness as a village the houses, as in all colliery villages, being the property of the owners or lessees, who employ them for the temporary purpose of accommodating the workpeople, against whose earnings there is a weekly set-off of so much for house and coals. This village of Wylam would be altogether unin- teresting but for the fact that in its immediate neighbour- hood was born one of the most remarkable men of this century- George Stephenson, the Railway Engineer. His father, Robert Stephenson, or "Old Bob," as the neighbours termed him, worked for several years as engineman at the Wylam Pit. The old pumping engine has long since been pulled down; but the house still stands in which Robert Stephenson lived, and in which his son George was born. It is situated a few hundred yards from the eastern extremity of the village, and is known by the name of High Street House. It is a common two storied, red-tiled, rubble house, portioned off into four labourers' compartments. It served the same use then which it does still that of an ordinary labourer's dwelling. Its walls are still unplastered, its floor is of clay, and the bare rafters are exposed over head. The lower room on the west end of this cottage was for some years the home of the Stephenson family ; and there George Stephenson was born on the 9th of June, 1781, as appears from the record in the family Bible, which is still preserved. It does not appear that his birth was registered in the parish books, the author having made an unsuccessful search in the registers of Ovingham and Heddon-on-the- Wall to ascertain the fact. Though the village of Wylarn is within the parish of Ovingham, High Street House stands exactly beyond its boundary and within that of Heddon. But the parish church was a long way off and the registry CHAV. 1 HIS PARENTAGE of births was not then so well organized as it has since become. Robert Stophenson had lived and worked at Walbottle, a village situated about midway between Wylam and High Street House. Newcastle, during the earlier part of his life ; and he re- moved from thence to Wylain as engineman. A tradition is preserved in the family, that Robert Stephenson's father and mother came from beyond the Scottish Border, on the loss of considerable property, and a suit was even commenced for its recovery, but was dropped for want of the means to prosecute it. Certain it is, however, that Robert's position throughout life was that of a humble workman. His wife, Mabel Carr, was a native of Ovingham, the daughter of one Robert Carr, a dyer. The Carrs were, for several gene- rations, the owners of a house in that village adjoining the churchyard ; and the family tombstone may still be seen standing against the east end of the chancel of the parish church, underneath the centre lancet window; as the 10 CHARACTER OF HIS FATHER. CHAP. I. tombstone of Thomas Bewick, the wood-engraver, occupies the western gable. The neighbours who remember Mabel Stephenson describe her as a woman of delicate con- stitution, and of extremely nervous temperament; but they concur in averring of her that "she was a real canny body/' And a woman of whom this can be said by general consent in the Newcastle district may be pronounced a worthy person indeed ; for it is about the highest praise of a woman which Northumbrians can express. Old Robert was a general favourite in the village, especially amongst the children, whom he was accustomed to draw about him whilst tending the engine-fire, and to feast their young imaginations with his tales of Sinbad the Sailor and Robinson Crusoe, besides others of his own invention; and "Bob's engine-fire" came to be the most popular resort in the village. Another feature in his character, by which he was long remembered, was his affection for birds and animals ; and he had many tame favourites of both sorts, which were as fond of resorting to his engine-fire as the bo} r s and girls themselves. In the winter time he had usually a flock of tame robins about him ; and they would come hopping familiarly to his feet, to pick up the crumbs which he had saved for them out of his slender dinner. At his cottage he was rarely without one or more tame blackbirds, which flew at liberty about the house, and in and out at the door. In summer time he would go a-birdnesting with his children ; and one day he took his little boy George to see a blackbird's nest for the first time. Holding him up in his arms, he let the wondering boy peep down, through the branches held aside for the purpose, into a nest full of young birds, a sight which the boy never forgot, but used to speak of with delight to his intimate friends when he himself had grown an old man. The earnings of old Robert were very small they amounted to not more than twelve shillings a week ; and as there was a growing family of six children to maintain, CHAP. I. HIS CHILDHOOD. 1 1 of whom George was the second, the family, during their stay at Wylam, were in very straitened circumstances. As an old neighbour said of them, " They had little to come and go upon ; they were honest folk, but sore haudden doon in the world." The father's earnings being barely sufficient, even with the most rigid economy, for the sustenance of the family, there was little to spare for their clothing, and nothing for their schooling, so none of the children were sent to school. The boy George led the ordinary life of working people's children. He played about the doors; went birdnesting when he could ; and ran errands to the village. He was also an eager listener, with the other children, to his father's curious tales ; and he early imbibed from him that affection for birds and animals which continued throughout his life. In course of time he was promoted to the office of carrying his father's dinner to him while at work, and it was on such occasions his great delight to see the little robins fed. At home he helped to nurse, and that with a careful hand, his younger brothers and sisters. One of his duties was to see that the younger children were kept out of the way of the chaldron waggons, which were then dragged by horses along the wooden tramroad immediately in front of the cottage door. This waggon-way was the first in the Northern district on which the experiment of a locomotive engine was tried. But at the time of which we speak, the locomotive had scarcely been dreamt of in England as a practicable working power ; horses only were used to haul the coal ; and one of the first sights, with which the boy was familiar was the coal-waggons dragged by them along the wooden railway at Wylam. Thus eight years passed ; after which, the coal having been worked out on the north side, the old engine, which had grown " fearsome to look at," as an old workman described it, was pulled down ; and then old Kobert, having obtained employment at the Dewley Burn Colliery as a fireman of the engine, removed with his family to that place. Dewley Burn, at this day, consists of a few old- 12 EMPLOYED AS A COWHERD. CHAP. r. fashioned low-roofed cottages, standing on either side of a babbling little stream. They are connected by a rustic wooden bridge, which spans the rift in front of the doors. In the central one-roomed cottage of this group, 011 the right bank, Eobert Stephen son lived for a time with his family. The pit at which he worked stood in the rear of the cottages. The coal has long since been worked out, and the pit closed in ; and only the marks of it are now visible, a sort of blasted grass covering, but scarcely con- cealing, the scoriae and coal-dust accumulated about the mouth of the old pit. Looking across the fields, one can still discern the marks of the former waggon-way, leading in the direction of Walbottle. It was joined on its course by another waggon-road leading from the direction of Black Callerton. Indeed, there is scarcely a field in the neigh- bourhood that does not exhibit traces of the workings of former pits. As every child in a poor man's house is a burden until his little hands can be turned to profitable account and made to earn money towards supplying the indispensable wants of the family, George Stephenson was put to work as soon as an opportunity of employment presented itself. A widow, named Grace Ainslie, then occupied the neigh- bouring farmhouse of Dewley. She kept a number of cows, and had the privilege of grazing them along the waggon-ways. She needed a boy to herd the cows, to keep them out of the way of the waggons, and prevent their straying or trespassing on the neighbours' "liber- ties ; " the boy's duty was also to bar the gates at night after all the waggons had passed. George petitioned for this post, and, to his great joy, he was appointed, at the wage of twopence a-day. It was light employment, and he had plenty of spare time on his hands, which he spent in birdnesting, making whistles out of reeds and scrannel straws, and erecting Lilliputian mills in the little water-streams that ran into tne Dewley bog. But his favourite amusement at this early age was erecting clay engines in conjunction with CHAP I. DRIVES A GIN-HORSE. 13 his chosen playmate, Bill Thirlwall. The place is still pointed out, "just aboon the cut-end," as the people of the hamlet describe it, where the future engineers made their first essays in modelling. The boys found the clay for their engines in the adjoining bog, and the hemlocks which grew about supplied them with imaginary steam-pipes. They even proceeded to make a miniature winding machine in connexion with their engine, and the apparatus was erected upon a bench in front of the Thirlwalls' cottage- door. Their corves were made out of hollowed corks ; their ropes were supplied by twine ; and a few bits of wood gleaned from the refuse of the carpenters' shops completed their materials. With this apparatus the boys made a show of sending the corves down the pit and draw- ing them up again, much to the marvel of the pitmen. But some of the more mischievous among them seized the opportunity of smashing the fragile machinery early one morning when going to their work, greatly to the sorrow of the young engineers. We may mention, in passing, that George Stephenson's companion afterwards became a work- man of repute, and creditably held the office of engineer at Shilbottle, near Alnwick, for a period of nearly thirty years. As George Stephenson grew older and more able to work, he was set to lead the horses when ploughing, though scarce big enough to stride across the furrows; and he used afterwards to say that he rode to his work in the mornings at an hour when most other children of his age were fast asleep in their beds. He was also employed to hoe turnips, and do similar farm work, for which he was paid the advanced wage of fourpence a-day. But his highest ambition was to be taken on at the colliery where his father worked ; and he shortly joined his elder brother James there as a " corf-bitter," or " picker," where he was employed in clearing the coal of stones, bats, and dross. His wages were now advanced to sixpence a-day, and afterwards to eightpence when he was set to drive the