price for a horse. A third long letter (dated Feb. 27, 1837) concerning boilers and prices, Robert Stephenson finished off with an additional word about the 'Smuggler,' and one curt line on his domestic affairs: We are all tolerably well at Hampstead;' when the pen was snatched from his hand by the young lady before mentioned, and a postscript added

MY DEAR UNCLE,- Cousin Fanny would have filled up this part, but she is in bed with a sick headache. Tell Mr. Hardcastle Mr. G. Stephenson's brother Robert is dead, the new groom has been thrown from his horse, and both horse and man are at present perfectly useless. This is what Mr. Stephenson calls being tolerably well at Hampstead.

About two months later another of those prettily ornamented business letters to Uncle Edward' contained a sketch and three or four lines from Mrs. Stephenson's pencil. A few days before, Mrs. Stephenson had met with an unusual accident. She was driving from a friend's door, where she had been making a call, when she stood up in her phaeton, and, looking backwards, waved and nodded another 'good-bye' to some acquaintances at the drawing-room window. Scarcely had she done this when she fell back on the seat of her carriage, frightened and faint, and saying she had broken her knee. On examination it was found that the ligament uniting her right knee-cap to the muscles of the thigh had given way. During her tedious cure Mrs. Stephenson had to lie night and day on a double-incline bed, and in the rather awkward posture which that couch compels, she drew a humorous picture of herself.

The men with whom Robert Stephenson was most familiar at this period were his firm friends throughout

1837.]

ROBERT STEPHENSON'S FRIENDS.

235

life. Amongst them were Mr. Bidder, Mr. Thomas Longridge Gooch, Mr. Budden (who acted as his secretary), Mr. John Joseph Bramah, Mr. Frank Forster, Mr. Birkinshaw, and Mr. Charles Parker. Robert Stephenson was a man of few pleasures. Music he cultivated to a certain point to please his wife; but at this period he rarely touched his flute. His profession was to him both business and pleasure. On Sundays, however, he relaxed. In the morning he usually went to church. In the afternoon he wrote letters and took a walk, and finished up the day with receiving a few professional friends at dinner, immediately after which the cigar-box made its appearance.

Amongst Robert Stephenson's more distinguished associates at this period was Professor Wheatstone, the jointinventor with Mr. William Cooke of the electric telegraph. Their memorable invention was patented in June 1837, and before the autumn of that year was at an end, the correspondence necessary for business purposes between the Euston Square and Camden Town stations was carried on by electricity. Robert Stephenson's London and Birmingham line' has the honour of being the scene of the first successful working of electric telegraphy.

In Dr. Andrew Wynter's Curiosities of Civilisation,' the following interesting passage occurs in the article on the Electric Telegraph':

Following up his experiment, Professor Wheatstone worked out the arrangements of his telegraph, and having associated himself in 1837 with Mr. Cooke, who had previously devoted much time to the same subject, a patent was taken out in the June of that year in their joint names. Their telegraph had five wires and five needles; the latter being worked on the face of a lozengeshaped dial, inscribed with the letters of the alphabet, any one

of which could be indicated by the convergence of the needles. This very ingenious instrument could be manipulated by any person who knew how to read, and did not labour under the disadvantage of working by a code which required time to be understood. Immediately upon the taking out of the patent, the directors of the North Western Railway sanctioned the laying down of the wires between the Euston Square and Camden Town stations, and towards the end of July the telegraph was ready to work.

Late in the evening of the 25th of that month, in a dingy little room near the booking-office at Euston Square, by the light of a flaring dip-candle, which only illuminated the surrounding darkness, sat the inventor, with a beating pulse, and a heart full of hope. In an equally small room at the Camden Town station, where the wires terminated, sat Mr. Cooke, his co-patentee, and, amongst others, two witnesses well known to fame-Mr. Charles Fox and Mr. Stephenson. . . Mr. Cooke in his turn touched the keys and returned the answer. 'Never did I feel such a tumultuous sensation before,' said ́ the Professor, as when all alone in the still room I heard the needles click; and as I spelled the words, I felt all the magnitude of the invention, now proved to be practical beyond cavil or dispute.' The telegraph thenceforward, as far as its mechanism was concerned, went on without a check, and the modifications of the instrument, which is still in use, have been made for the purpose of rendering it more economical in its construction and working, two wires at present being employed, and in some cases only one.

Professor Wheatstone, whilst making valuable communications for the purposes of this work, bore emphatic testimony to the zeal displayed by Robert Stephenson from first to last-from 1837 up to the time of his death to advance the science and protect the interests of telegraphy.

*Those who are curious in the history of the telegraph will, find a distinct proposition for a system of

telegraphic inter-communication of thought in the 'Scot's Magazine' (vol. xv. p. 73) of February 1753.

1838.]

'THAT SILLY PICTURE.'

237

Since he fixed himself in town Robert Stephenson had enjoyed a fine and rapidly increasing professional income

-an income to be measured by thousands. He had, therefore, begun to live with the luxury and some of the ostentation, usual with persons of wealth. In compliance with Mrs. Stephenson's wishes, but not without reluctance, he visited the Heralds' College, and informing the heralds that, according to a family tradition, he was descended from 'the Stephensons of Mount Grenan in Scotland,' asked permission to use the arms of that house. In what estimation the officers of the college held the tradition' it is needless to enquire. On the whole, they acted with discretion. Taking a middle course between their own interests and the rights of the Mount Grenan Stephensons, they took some of the fleur-de-lis and mullets from the shield of the Mount Grenan family, and, having dished them up with a crest and other garnishings, granted them as an heraldic bearing to Robert Stephenson and his father and their descendants. These arms Robert Stephenson took (November 21, 1838), and without haggling paid the sum at which they were priced. Honestly bought, they were perhaps obtained not less honourably than many ancient devices tricked in the College archives. But Robert Stephenson, truthful, honest, and simple, with a repugnance to flattery and a detestation of shams, never liked them.

Not long before his death, his eye chancing to fall on an object ornamented with his arms, he blushed slightly, and said to an old friend by his side-Ah, I wish I hadn't adopted that foolish coat of arms! Considering what a little matter it is, you could scarcely believe how often I have been annoyed by " that silly picture."

CHAPTER XII.

FROM THE COMPLETION OF THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM

RAILWAY TO THE OPENING OF THE NEWCASTLE AND DARLINGTON LINE.

(ÆTAT. 35-41.)

Railways undertaken in various Directions - Brunel, Giles, Braithwaite-Robert Stephenson's Trip to Italy-On his Return again immersed in Projects - The Contractors' Dinner at The Albion Letters to Newcastle-Cigars for the Continent - Stanhope and Tyne Crisis Robert Stephenson threatened with Insolvency-Acts for the Pontop and South Shields and the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railways Robert Stephenson appointed to execute the Newcastle and Darlington Lines - Robert Stephenson created a Knight of the Order of Leopold Mrs. Stephenson's DeathOpening of Newcastle and Darlington Line - Public Dinner and Speeches-Continental Engagements-Leaves Haverstock Hill and moves to Cambridge Square - Fire in Cambridge Square - George Hudson and Robert Stephenson - A Contrast.

THE railway system was fixed. To disturb that system

attempts were made by men of intellect and high character; but those attempts were futile. The principal rules laid down by the Stephensons between 1820 and 1838 are the rules of railway engineering at the present day. The example set by the great leaders was followed successfully in all directions. The younger Brunel, a man dear to all lovers of genius, was at work on the Great Western; Mr. Francis Giles was laying down the line between London and Southampton; Mr. John Braithwaite undertook the London and Colchester, bringing life and