In the evening a party of about one hundred people assembled at Dee's Royal Hotel. The banquet passed off heavily, and on the following morning Robert Stephenson met, after breakfast, the person who was supposed to be the author of the article which had caused him So much pain, and immediately asked him whether he had written it. The charge was admitted; and Robert Stephenson, having expressed in the strongest terms his opinion on the subject, left the room. The writer of the article, who was also a director of the Company, appealed for protection to Mr. Glynn, the chairman, who was not present at the scene. The latter replied briefly that if directors chose to attack the engineer of the Company or his father in the public journals, they must do so in their private capacity and at their own risk. Some years afterwards the director met Robert Stephenson on the station platform at Rugby, and, expressing his regret for the old quarrel, extended his hand to the engineer, who instantly accepted it, and the feud was forgotten.

A more agreeable celebration of the successful conclusion of the London and Birmingham line was a dinner given to Robert Stephenson towards the close of the previous year (December 23, 1837), at Dunchurch in Warwickshire, when the acting and assistant engineers presented the engineer-in-chief with a silver soup-tureen and stand, worth 130 guineas, as an expression of their affectionate admiration. Mr. Frank Forster was in the chair, and Lieut. Lecount, R.N., the historian of the works,' in the vice-chair. George Stephenson was present as a guest. The host of the Dun Cow,' Dunchurch, had never before entertained so distinguished a party.

must not be omitted. The subscription for the souptureen and stand was confined to the engineering officers of the Company-a restriction which excluded several persons who were anxious to subscribe. Mr. Charles Capper, who, having merely supplied a quantity of machinery to the line, could only be regarded as a subcontractor, in vain endeavoured to force his contribution on the committee, who declined to accept it because, if they set aside the line' agreed upon, they should not know where to draw another. At the dinner, however, the enthusiastic sub-contractor was present in all his glory and admiration for Robert Stephenson. Anyhow,' he exclaimed to some of the committee, as he entered the room, 'you will allow me to dine with Mr. Stephenson.' As the dinner was public, there was of course no opposition. In the dining-room the testimonial was placed on a buffet for inspection; and as the guests assembled, they surrounded the soup-tureen and criticised it. At length the sub-contractor, with a glow of triumph in his face, exclaimed, It is a handsome tureen, but it wants a ladle.' And as the critic spoke, he supplied the deficiency by taking from his pocket a large and very handsome ladle, and putting it into the silver vessel.* The ladle formed part of the testimonial, and Robert Stephenson in after life was very proud to tell his friends how he became possessed of his large soup-ladle.

Thus was completed the construction of the London

The following inscription was put on the tureen :

'To Robert Stephenson, Esquire, Engineer-in-Chief of the London and Birmingham Railway, a tribute of respect and esteem from the members

of the Engineering Department who were employed under him in the execution of that great work. Presented on the eve of their gradual separation.'

and Birmingham Railway, with which line Robert Stephenson maintained his connection up to the time of his death, acting as its consulting engineer with a salary of £100 per annum, and his expenses when called to attend on the line. It was the first of our great metropolitan railroads, and its works are memorable examples of engineering capacity. They became a guide to succeeding engineers; as also did the plans and drawings with which the details of the undertaking were 'plotted' in the Eyre Arms Hotel. When Brunel entered upon the construction of the Great Western line he borrowed Robert Stephenson's plans, and used them as the best possible system of draughting. From that time they became recognised models for railway practice. To have originated such plans and forms, thereby settling an important division of engineering literature, would have made a position for an ordinary man. In the list of Robert Stephenson's achievements such a service appears so insignificant as scarcely to be worthy of note.

CHAPTER XI.

AFFAIRS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE, DURING THE CONSTRUCTION

OF THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.

(ETAT. 29-35.)

Stanhope and Tyne Railway Company Robert Stephenson appointed their Engineer - Opening of the Line and its rapidly increasing Embarrassments- Robert Stephenson visits Belgium with his Father Offices in Duke Street, and George Street, Westminster -The Session of 1836 - Various proposed Lines between London and Brighton: Sir John Rennie's, Robert Stephenson's, Gibbs's, Cundy's-London and Blackwall Railway, and the Commercial Road Railway-Robert Stephenson strongly opposes the Use of Locomotives in Towns-Life at Haverstock Hill-Reading, Friends, Horses, Sunday Dinners Newcastle Correspondence - Mrs. Stephenson's Accident to Knee-Cap-Professor Wheatstone's and Robert Stephenson's Adoption of the Electric Telegraph Robert Stephenson assumes Arms That Silly Picture.'

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LTHOUGH the terms of Robert Stephenson's agree

ment with the directors of the London and Bir

mingham Railway Company precluded him from undertaking the personal superintendence of any other engineering work during the construction of that line, he was at liberty to act as a consulting engineer in the civil department of his profession, to advise on questions of parliamentary tactics, to appear as a professional witness before committees, and to visit any part of the kingdom. or continent, for brief periods- either to superintend the interests of his private undertakings, or inspect the

scene of new public works. Haverstock Hill was his home; and the course of the London and Birmingham line was the route on some part of which he might, on five days out of six, have been seen getting over rough ground on horseback or walking from point to point, at such a pace that his companions, puffing at his heels, were frequently compelled to cry out for breathing time. But by careful distribution of his time he made leisure for many matters distinct from the first Metropolitan Railway.

His connection with the Stanhope and Tyne Railway had already become to him a source of serious uneasiness. As it for years caused him grave anxiety, and at one time threatened to plunge him in pecuniary embarrassment, it is fit here to speak at some length of that signal instance of rash speculation and grave mismanagement of amateur directors.

As early as 1831, a scheme was concocted by certain speculators to work some lime-quarries near the town of Stanhope, in the county of Durham, and certain portions of the extensive coal field at Medomsley, in the same county, and to connect the two works by a railway. The chance that such a line would answer was very slight; for the fifteen miles of rugged country through which it ran by a succession of unusually steep inclines was sparsely populated, and (for Durham) poor in minerals. company was nevertheless formed, and the iron road was laid down. A few months' trial was sufficient to prove what ought to have been foreseen, that such a line could never pay. Two of the original projectors slipped out of the affair on profitable terms, leaving their companions to adopt a bold, and by no means unwise, suggestion, for making good their loss. The line from Stanhope to

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