THE FIRST VOLUME. XV the Plan- Their Report in its favour-Culminating point of the History -Contests in Parliament-Application of the Atmospheric System in practice-Thames Junction Line-Kingstown and Dalkey Line-Croydon Line-South Devon Line - Paris and St. Germain Line-Summary of Results Mechanical Efficiency - Economy - General Applicability to Railway Traffic-Reasons for its Abandonment-Conclusion Page 292 THE LIFE OF ROBERT STEPHENSON. CHAPTER I. THE STEPHENSON FAMILY. -- Various Stephensons of Newcastle 'Old Robert Stephenson' Mabel Carr George Stephenson's Birth-Fanny Henderson George Stephenson moves to Willington Robert Stephenson's Birth-The Christening Party at Willington Quay - Mrs. George Stephenson's delicate Health George Stephenson removes to Killingworth Township, Long Benton-Site of George Stephenson's House at Willington-The Stephenson Memorial.' HE records of Newcastle show that the name of THE Stephenson has been frequent in every rank of the town for the last two hundred and fifty years. But no attempt has ever been made to establish a family connection between the subject of this memoir and the many worthy citizens of Newcastle who, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, bore the same name. A gentleman of high attainments, residing in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, in answer to enquiries for ancestors in the male line of George Stephenson, stated that George Stephenson on a certain occasion said that his family were natives of Castleton, in Liddisdale, and that his grandfather came into England in the service of a Scotch gentleman. There is no doubt that the grandfather of the greatest engineer of the present century lived and toiled and died in humble circumstances. He worked as fireman to the engines of the various colliery pits in the neighbourhood of Wylam, till an accident deprived him of sight and rendered him dependent on others for his daily bread. Gentle beyond the wont of rude North-countrymen, and fond of spinning out long stories of adventure and romance to village children, he was known as Bob the story-teller.' He is now remembered by the few of his associates who linger on the earth as 'Old Robert Stephenson.' In early life he married Mabel, the daughter of George Carr, a bleacher and dyer of Ovingham, a village standing on an ascent which rises from the north bank of the Tyne, and faces the ancient ruins of Prudhoe Castle, that crown the hill on the opposite bank. The maiden name of Mabel Carr's mother was Eleanor Wilson. Eleanor was the daughter of a wealthy Northumbrian yeoman, who possessed a good estate in the parishes of Stocksfield and Bywell. Indignant at her marriage with the bleacher and dyer of Ovingham, Mr. Wilson turned his back upon her, and died without bequeathing her a penny. By his wife Mabel Old Robert Stephenson' had four sons (James, George, Robert, and John) and two daughters (Eleanor and Ann). James, the eldest son, closely resembled his father; but George, Robert, and 1801.] EARLY YEARS OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. John, were all shrewd and observant men, self-reliant and resolute. 3 Born June 9, 1781, George Stephenson could neither write nor read when he had attained the age of eighteen years. Up to that age he displayed no signs of unusual intelligence, but he had always been a good, sober, steady lad. Like most pit-children, he used to grub about in the dirt, and for his amusement fashion models of steamengines in clay. From his earliest years, also, he kept as pets pigeons, blackbirds, guinea-pigs, and rabbits; an almost universal trait amongst the colliery labourers of the Newcastle field. In 1801, he became brakesman of the engine of the Dolly Pit, in Black Callerton, and lodged in the house of Thomas Thompson, a small farmer of that parish. George Stephenson was at that time a light-hearted young fellow, famous for practical jokes, and proud of his muscular power. At this period, also, he acquired the art of shoe-cobbling. The most important farmer of the parish was Mr. Thomas Hindmarsh, who occupied land which his ancestors had farmed for at least two centuries. To his grave displeasure, his daughter Elizabeth accepted the addresses of the young brakesman, giving him clandestine meetings in the orchard and behind the garden-fence, until such effectual measures were taken as prevented a repetition. of the suitor's visits. Elizabeth, however, remained faithful to the lover, whom her father drove from his premises, and she eventually became his second, but not his last, wife. George Stephenson took this disappointment lightly. He soon fixed his affections on Ann Henderson, daughter |