consequence was that the ponderous implement, weighing a little under 28 lb., rose, struck him on the forehead, and laid him flat and perfectly stunned upon the ground. John Tate witnessed the accident; but on the following day he saw Robert throwing the hammer with as much resolution as ever.

Robert's schoolfellows at the Percy Street academy failed to detect in him any remarkable signs of talent, and some of them still express their astonishment at his subsequent scientific acquirements and professional achievements.

Before leaving Robert Stephenson's school-life, we may remark, that his father's experiences and difficulties were the measure of what he thought requisite for the instruction of his son. The subtler influence of letters and the more valuable results of culture were matters about which George Stephenson thought little. Learning he regarded in a strictly utilitarian sense, as an engine necessary for the achievement of certain ends. His ambition was to be a skilful engineer, and a perfect man of business; and in his efforts to achieve this ambition he found two perplexing obstacles in his ignorance of mathematics and his inability to write with facility, or logical exactness. What he desired to be himself, that he also wished his son to be. Robert Stephenson should be an engineer and a director of labour; but he should not have his bravest exertions baffled by defective knowledge. In this spirit George caused his son to learn French, because it would be useful to him in business.

Up to the time when he left Bruce's school, Robert did not exhibit any marked enthusiasm for the pursuits

in which his father was most warmly interested. Possibly George Stephenson was too urgent that he should prosecute the study of mechanics, and by continually goading him to work harder and harder at his buiks' gave him a transient distaste for subjects to which he was naturally inclined. As a member of the Philosophical and Literary Society of Newcastle, Robert brought home standard popular works and encyclopædic volumes treating of natural science and of inventions. These books his father read and compelled him to read; but the labour went very much against the boy's grain.

The earliest drawing' by Robert Stephenson's hand of which there is any record, was that of a sun-dial, copied from Ferguson's 'Astronomy,' and presented by the lad to Mr. Losh, in the year 1816, in token of his gratitude to him as his father's benefactor. This drawing set the father and son on another work-the construction of a real sun-dial, which, on its completion, was fixed over George's cottage door, where it still remains, bearing the date, ‘August 11th, MDCCCXVI.'

A good story is told of 'the hempy boy,' who dearly loved mischief. From the meadow before the West Moor cabin he sent up his enormous kite, reined in by copper wire instead of string, the copper wire being insulated by a piece of silk cord. Anthony Wigham's cow, peacefully grazing in the meadow, was first favoured with a smart dose of electricity, one end of the copper wire being brought down to the top of the animal's tail. Standing at his cottage window, George Stephenson watched the discomfiture of his neighbour's cow in high glee; but when the operator, ignorant whose eyes were upon him, relinquished the torture of the 'coo,' and proceeded to

give his father's pony a fillip with the subtle fluid, George rushed out from his cottage with upraised whip, exclaiming, Ah! thou mischeevous scoondrel-aal paa thee.' It is needless to say that Robert Stephenson did not wait to be paid.'

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CHAPTER IV.

ROBERT STEPHENSON, THE APPRENTICE.

(ÆTAT. 15-20.)

Robert Stephenson leaves School-He is apprenticed to Mr. Nicholas Wood-George Stephenson lays down the Hetton Colliery Railway— Father and Son-Robert's Economy in his personal Expenses -The 'Three Tuns'-The Circumferentor-George Stephenson's increasing Prosperity-His Second Marriage - He builds the Friar's Goose Pumping Engine'- He embarks in a small Colliery Speculation — The Locomotive Boiler Tubes of the Messrs. James - Explosion in the Killingworth Mine - George Stephenson's First Visit to Mr. Edward Pease Robert Stephenson and his Father survey the Stockton and Darlington Line- Robert Stephenson's First Visit to London-His delicate State of Health Survey for the Second Stockton and Darlington Act - Robert Stephenson goes to Edinburgh-Professor Leslie's Testimonial - Letters written at Edinburgh by Robert Stephenson to Mr. Longridge-Robert Stephenson accompanies Professor Jamieson on a Geological Excursion-George Stephenson's Letter to his friend Locke - Robert Stephenson and his Father visit Ireland-Robert Stephenson's Letters from that Country.

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EAVING school in the year 1819-the year in which his father commenced the construction of his first line of railway, the Hetton Colliery line-Robert Stephenson entered on his duties as apprentice to Mr. Nicholas Wood, the mining engineer, who was at that time the viewer of the Killingworth and other adjacent collieries. During his apprenticeship, he had therefore to concern himself with the internal working of the

mines to which his father was engine-wright.

The

father and son now came closer together, and strengthened the firm' league of confidence and affection which bound them throughout life. There was between them far less difference of age than usually exists between father and son, George Stephenson being only twenty-two years his boy's senior. When Robert Stephenson was a young man, his father was still only at the entrance of middle life; indeed, the latter was, in some respects, a young man even to the last, anxious for fresh knowledge, capable after a struggle of relinquishing old errors, and moreover endowed with high animal spirits.

Robert Stephenson was apprenticed to Mr. Nicholas Wood for three years, and during his apprenticeship he manifested that quiet resolution and genuine modesty which characterised him even when he became the leader of his profession. He worked very hard, and lived with careful economy. George Stephenson saw clearly that the only chance he had of reaping a rich harvest from his own and his son's intellects, lay in saving and putting by out of his yearly earnings, until he should be in a pecuniary position to embark in business as a manufacturer as well as an operative engineer. He knew well that the inventor without capital makes others rich, whilst he himself starves and is neglected. His great object, therefore, was to accumulate funds in order that he might enter into business as a manufacturing engineer.

At this period of his life Robert never spent a penny on any article whatever, until he had put to himself Sydney Smith's three questions-Is it worth the money? Do I want it? Can I do without it? Once every fortnight