ENGINE-MAN AT WILLINGTON QUAY AND KILLINGWORTH.
George Stephenson had now acquired the character of an expert workman.
He was diligent and observant while at work, and sober and studious
when the day's work was done. His friend Coe described him to the
author as "a standing example of manly character." On pay-Saturday
afternoons, when the pitmen held their fortnightly holiday, occupying
themselves chiefly in cock-fighting and dog-fighting in the adjoining
fields, followed by adjournments to the "yel-house," George was
accustomed to take his engine to pieces, for the purpose of obtaining
"insight," and he cleaned all the parts and put the machine in thorough
working order before leaving her. His amusements continued to be
principally of the athletic kind, and he found few that could beat him
at lifting heavy weights, leaping, and throwing the hammer.
In the evenings he improved himself in the arts of reading and writing,
and occasionally he took a turn at modeling. It was at Callerton, his
son Robert informed us, that he began to try his hand at original
invention, and for some time he applied his attention to a machine of
the nature of an engine-brake, which reversed itself by its own action.
But nothing came of the contrivance, and it was eventually thrown aside
as useless. Yet not altogether so; for even the highest skill must
undergo the inevitable discipline of experiment, and submit to the
wholesome correction of occasional failure.
After working at Callerton for about two years, Stephenson received
an offer to take charge of the engine on Willington Ballast Hill at
an advanced wage. He determined to accept it, and at the same time
to marry Fanny Henderson, and begin housekeeping on his own account.
Though he was only twenty-one years old, he had contrived, by thrift,
steadiness, and industry, to save as much money as enabled him,
with the help of Fanny's small hoard, to take a cottage dwelling at
Willington Quay, and furnish it in a humble but comfortable style for
the reception of his bride.
Willington Quay lies on the north bank of the Tyne, about six miles
below Newcastle. It consists of a line of houses straggling along the
river side, and high behind it towers up the huge mound of ballast
emptied out of the ships which resort to the quay for their cargoes of
coal for the London market. The ballast is thrown out of the ships'
holds into wagons laid alongside. When filled, a train of these is
dragged to the summit of the Ballast Hill, where they are run out,
and their contents emptied on to the monstrous accumulation of earth,
chalk, and Thames mud already laid there, probably to form a puzzle
for future antiquaries and geologists when the origin of these immense
hills along the Tyne has been forgotten. At the foot of this great
mound of shot rubbish was a fixed engine, which drew the trains of
laden wagons up the incline by means of ropes working over pulleys, and
of this engine George Stephenson acted as brakesman.
The cottage in which he took up his abode was a small two-storied
dwelling, standing a little back from the quay, with a bit of garden
ground in front;[22] but he only occupied the upper room in the west
end of the cottage. Close behind rose the Ballast Hill.
When the cottage dwelling had been made snug and was ready for his
wife's reception, the marriage took place. It was celebrated in Newburn
Church on the 28th of November, 1802. George Stephenson's signature,
as it stands in the register, is that of a person who seems to have
just learned to write. With all the writer's care, however, he had not
been able to avoid a blotch. The name of Frances Henderson has the
appearance of being written by the same hand.
[Illustration: (Signatures of George Stephenson and Frances Henderson)]
After the ceremony, George and his newly-wedded partner proceeded to
the house of old Robert Stephenson and his wife Mabel at Jolly Close.
The old man was now becoming infirm, though he still worked as an
engine-fireman, and contrived with difficulty "to keep his head above
water." When the visit had been paid, the bridal party prepared to set
out for their new home at Willington Quay. They went in a style which
was quite common before traveling by railway had been invented. Two
farm-horses, borrowed from a neighboring farmer, were each provided
with a saddle and a pillion, and George having mounted one, his wife
seated herself behind him, holding on by her arms round his waist. The
brideman and bridemaid in like manner mounted the other horse, and in
this wise the wedding party rode across the country, passing through
the old streets of Newcastle, and then by Wallsend to Willington
Quay--a long ride of about fifteen miles.
George Stephenson's daily life at Willington was that of a steady
workman. By the manner, however, in which he continued to improve his
spare hours in the evening, he was silently and surely paving the way
for being something more than a manual laborer. He diligently set
himself to study the principles of mechanics, and to master the laws
by which his engine worked. For a workman, he was even at that time
more than ordinarily speculative, often taking up strange theories, and
trying to sift out the truth that was in them. While sitting by the
side of his young wife in his cottage dwelling in the winter evenings,
he was usually occupied in studying mechanical subjects or in modeling
experimental machines.
Among his various speculations while at Willington, he tried to
discover a means of Perpetual Motion. Although he failed, as so many
others had done before him, the very efforts he made tended to whet his
inventive faculties and to call forth his dormant powers. He actually
went so far as to construct the model of a machine for the purpose.
It consisted of a wooden wheel, the periphery of which was furnished
with glass tubes filled with quicksilver; as the wheel rotated, the
quicksilver poured itself down into the lower tubes, and thus a sort of
self-acting motion was kept up in the apparatus, which, however, did
not prove to be perpetual. Where he had first obtained the idea of this
machine--whether from conversation, or reading, or his own thoughts, is
not known; but his son Robert was of opinion that he had heard of an
apparatus of this kind as described in the "History of Inventions." As
he had then no access to books, and, indeed, could scarcely yet read,
it is probable that he had been told of the invention, and set about
testing its value according to his own methods.
Much of his spare time continued to be occupied by labor more
immediately profitable, regarded in a pecuniary point of view. In the
evenings, after his day's labor at his engine, he would occasionally
employ himself for a few hours in casting ballast out of the collier
ships, by which means he was enabled to earn a few shillings weekly.
Mr. William Fairbairn, of Manchester, has informed the author that,
while Stephenson was employed at the Willington Ballast Hill, he
himself was working in the neighborhood as an engine apprentice at the
Percy Main Colliery. He was very fond of George, who was a fine, hearty
fellow, besides being a capital workman. In the summer evenings young
Fairbairn was accustomed to go down to Willington to see his friend,
and on such occasions he would frequently take charge of George's
engine for a few hours, to enable him to take a two or three hours'
turn at heaving ballast out of the ships' holds. It is pleasant to
think of the future President of the British Association thus helping
the future Railway Engineer to earn a few extra shillings by overwork
in the evenings, at a time when both occupied the rank but of humble
working men in an obscure northern village.
Mr. Fairbairn was also a frequent visitor at George's cottage on the
Quay, where, though there was no luxury, there was comfort, cleanness,
and a pervading spirit of industry. Even at home George was never for
a moment idle. When there was no ballast to heave, he took in shoes
to mend; and from mending he proceeded to making them, as well as
shoe-lasts, in which he was admitted to be very expert. William Coe,
who continued to live at Willington in 1851, informed the author that
he bought a pair of shoes from George Stephenson for 7_s._ 6_d._, and
he remembered that they were a capital fit, and wore very well.
But an accident occurred in Stephenson's household about this time
which had the effect of directing his industry into a new and still
more profitable channel. The cottage chimney took fire one day in his
absence, when the alarmed neighbors, rushing in, threw quantities of
water upon the flames; and some, in their zeal, even mounted the ridge
of the house, and poured buckets of water down the chimney. The fire
was soon put out, but the house was thoroughly soaked. When George
came home, he found the water running out of the door, every thing in
disorder, and his new furniture covered with soot. The eight-day clock,
which hung against the wall--one of the most highly-prized articles in
the house--was seriously damaged by the steam with which the room had
been filled. Its wheels were so clogged by the dust and soot that it
was brought to a complete stand-still.
George was advised to send the article to the clock-maker, but that
would cost money; and he declared that he would repair it himself--at
least he would try. The clock was accordingly taken to pieces and
cleaned; the tools which he had been accumulating for the purpose of
constructing his Perpetual Motion machine readily enabled him to do
this, and he succeeded so well that, shortly after, the neighbors sent
him their clocks to clean, and he soon became one of the most expert
clock-cleaners in the neighborhood.
It was while living at Willington Quay that George Stephenson's only
son was born on the 16th of October, 1803.[23] The child was from the
first, as may well be imagined, a great favorite with his father, and
added much to the happiness of his evening hours. George Stephenson's
strong "philoprogenitiveness," as phrenologists call it, had in his
boyhood expended itself on birds, and dogs, and rabbits, and even on
the poor old gin-horses which he had driven at the Callerton Pit, and
now he found in his child a more genial object for the exercise of his
affection.
The christening of the boy took place in the school-house at Wallsend,
the old parish church being at the time in so dilapidated a condition
from the "creeping" or subsidence of the ground, consequent upon the
excavation of the coal, that it was considered dangerous to enter
it.[24] On this occasion, Robert Gray and Anne Henderson, who had
officiated as brideman and bridemaid at the wedding, came over again to
Willington, and stood godfather and godmother to little Robert, as the
child was named, after his grandfather.
After working for about three years as a brakesman at the Willington
machine, George Stephenson was induced to leave his situation there
for a similar one at the West Moor Colliery, Killingworth. It was
not without considerable persuasion that he was induced to leave the
Quay, as he knew that he should thereby give up the chance of earning
extra money by casting ballast from the keels. At last, however, he
consented, in the hope of making up the loss in some other way.
The village of Killingworth lies about seven miles north of Newcastle,
and is one of the best-known collieries in that neighborhood. The
workings of the coal are of vast extent, and give employment to a
large number of work-people. To this place Stephenson first came as
a brakesman about the end of 1804. He had not been long in his new
home ere his wife died of consumption, leaving him with his only child
Robert. George deeply felt the loss, for his wife and he had been
very happy together. Their lot had been sweetened by daily successful
toil. George had been hard-working, and his wife had made his hearth
so bright and his home so snug, that no attraction could draw him from
her side in the evening hours. But this domestic happiness was all to
pass away, and the bereaved husband felt for a time as one that had
thenceforth to tread the journey of life alone.
[Illustration: WEST MOOR COLLIERY. [By R. P. Leitch.]]
Shortly after this event, while his grief was still fresh, he received
an invitation from some gentlemen concerned in large spinning-works
near Montrose, in Scotland, to proceed thither and superintend the
working of one of Boulton and Watt's engines. He accepted the offer,
and made arrangements to leave Killingworth for a time.
Having left his boy in charge of a respectable woman who acted as his
housekeeper, he set out on the journey to Scotland on foot, with his
kit upon his back. While working at Montrose, he gave a striking proof
of that practical ability in contrivance for which he was afterward
so distinguished. It appears that the water required for the purposes
of his engine, as well as for the use of the works, was pumped from a
considerable depth, being supplied from the adjacent extensive sand
strata. The pumps frequently got choked by the sand drawn in at the
bottom of the well through the snore-holes, or apertures through which
the water to be raised is admitted. The barrels soon became worn, and
the bucket and clack leathers destroyed, so that it became necessary
to devise a remedy; and with this object, the engine-man proceeded to
adopt the following simple but original expedient. He had a wooden box
or boot made, twelve feet high, which he placed in the sump or well,
and into this he inserted the lower end of the pump. The result was,
that the water flowed clear from the outer part of the well over into
the boot, and was drawn up without any admixture of sand, and the
difficulty was thus conquered.[25]
During his stay in Scotland, Stephenson, being paid good wages,
contrived to save a sum of £28, which he took back with him to
Killingworth, after an absence of about a year. Longing to get back
to his kindred, and his heart yearning for the boy whom he had left
behind, our engine-man bade adieu to his Montrose employers, and
trudged back to Killingworth on foot as he had gone. He related to his
friend Coe, on his return, that when on the borders of Northumberland,
late one evening, footsore and wearied with his long day's journey,
he knocked at a small farmer's cottage door, and requested shelter
for the night. It was refused; and then he entreated that, being sore
tired and unable to proceed any farther, they would permit him to
lie down in the out-house, for that a little clean straw would serve
him. The farmer's wife appeared at the door, looked at the traveler,
then retiring with her husband, the two confabulated a little apart,
and finally they invited Stephenson into the cottage. Always full of
conversation and anecdote, he soon made himself at home in the farmer's
family, and spent with them some pleasant hours. He was hospitably
entertained for the night, and when he left the cottage in the morning,
he pressed them to make some charge for his lodging, but they refused
to accept any recompense. They only asked him to remember them kindly,
and if he ever came that way, to be sure and call again. Many years
after, when Stephenson had become a thriving man, he did not forget the
humble pair who had thus succored and entertained him on his way; he
sought their cottage again when age had silvered their hair; and when
he left the aged couple on that occasion, they may have been reminded
of the old saying that we may sometimes "entertain angels unawares."
Reaching home, Stephenson found that his father had met with a serious
accident at the Blucher Pit, which had reduced him to great distress
and poverty. While engaged in the inside of an engine, making some
repairs, a fellow-workman inadvertently let in the steam upon him.
The blast struck him full in the face; he was terribly scorched, and
his eyesight was irretrievably lost. The helpless and infirm man had
struggled for a time with poverty; his sons who were at home, poor as
himself, were little able to help him, while George was at a distance
in Scotland. On his return, however, with his savings in his pocket,
his first step was to pay off his father's debts, amounting to about
£15; and, shortly after, he removed the aged pair from Jolly's Close
to a comfortable cottage adjoining the tram-road near the West Moor at
Killingworth, where the old man lived for many years, supported by his
son.
Stephenson was again taken on as a brakesman at the West Moor Pit. He
does not seem to have been very hopeful as to his prospects in life at
the time. Indeed, the condition of the working classes was then very
discouraging. England was engaged in a great war, which pressed upon
the industry, and severely tried the resources of the country. Heavy
taxes were imposed upon all the articles of consumption that would bear
them. There was a constant demand for men to fill the army, navy,
and militia. Never before had England witnessed such drumming and
fifing for recruits. In 1805, the gross forces of the United Kingdom
amounted to nearly 700,000 men, and early in 1808 Lord Castlereagh
carried a measure for the establishment of a local militia of 200,000
men. These measures were accompanied by general distress among the
laboring classes. There were riots in Manchester, Newcastle, and
elsewhere, through scarcity of work and lowness of wages. The working
people were also liable to be pressed for the navy, or drawn for the
militia; and though people could not fail to be discontented under such
circumstances, they scarcely dared even to mutter their discontent to
their neighbors.
George Stephenson was one of those drawn for the militia. He must
therefore either quit his work and go a-soldiering, or find a
substitute. He adopted the latter course, and borrowed £6, which, with
the remainder of his savings, enabled him to provide a militia-man to
serve in his stead. Thus the whole of his hard-won earnings were swept
away at a stroke. He was almost in despair, and contemplated the idea
of leaving the country, and emigrating to the United States. Although
a voyage thither was then a much more formidable thing for a working
man to accomplish than a voyage to Australia is now, he seriously
entertained the project, and had all but made up his mind to go. His
sister Ann, with her husband, emigrated about that time, but George
could not raise the requisite money, and they departed without him.
After all, it went sore against his heart to leave his home and his
kindred, the scenes of his youth and the friends of his boyhood, and
he struggled long with the idea, brooding over it in sorrow. Speaking
afterward to a friend of his thoughts at the time, he said: "You know
the road from my house at the West Moor to Killingworth. I remember
once when I went along that road I wept bitterly, for I knew not where
my lot in life would be cast." But his poverty prevented him from
prosecuting the idea of emigration, and rooted him to the place where
he afterward worked out his career so manfully and victoriously.
In 1808, Stephenson, with two other brakesmen, took a small contract
under the colliery lessees, brakeing the engines at the West Moor
Pit. The brakesmen found the oil and tallow; they divided the work
among them, and were paid so much per score for their labor. There
being two engines working night and day, two of the three men were
always on duty, the average earnings of each amounting to from 18_s._
to 20_s._ a week. It was the interest of the brakesmen to economize
the working as much as possible, and George no sooner entered upon
the contract than he proceeded to devise ways and means of making the
contract "pay." He observed that the ropes with which the coal was
drawn out of the pit by the winding-engine were badly arranged; they
"glued" and wore each other to tatters by the perpetual friction. There
was thus great wear and tear, and a serious increase in the expenses
of the pit. George found that the ropes which, at other pits in the
neighborhood, lasted about three months, at the West Moor Pit became
worn out in about a month. He accordingly set himself to ascertain the
cause of the defect; and, finding that it was occasioned by excessive
friction, he proceeded, with the sanction of the head engine-wright and
of the colliery owners, to shift the pulley-wheels so that they worked
immediately over the centre of the pit. By this expedient, accompanied
by an entire rearrangement of the gearing of the machine, he shortly
succeeded in greatly lessening the wear and tear of the ropes, to
the advantage of the owners as well as of the workmen, who were thus
enabled to labor more continuously and profitably.
About the same time he attempted an improvement in the winding-engine
which he worked, by placing a valve between the air-pump and condenser.
This expedient, although it led to no practical result, showed that his
mind was actively engaged in studying new mechanical adaptations. It
continued to be his regular habit, on Saturdays, to take his engine to
pieces, for the purpose at the same time of familiarizing himself with
its action, and of placing it in a state of thorough working order; and
by mastering the details of the engine, he was enabled, as opportunity
occurred, to turn to practical account the knowledge thus diligently
and patiently acquired.
Such an opportunity was not long in presenting itself. In the year
1810, a pit was sunk by the "Grand Allies" (the lessees of the mines)
at the village of Killingworth, now known as the Killingworth High Pit.
An atmospheric or Newcomen engine, originally made by Smeaton, was
fixed there for the purpose of pumping out the water from the shaft;
but, somehow or other, the engine failed to clear the pit. As one of
the workmen has since described the circumstance--"She couldn't keep
her jack-head in water: all the engine-men in the neighborhood were
tried, as well as Crowther of the Ouseburn, but they were clean bet."
The engine had been fruitlessly pumping for nearly twelve months, and
came to be regarded as a total failure. Stephenson had gone to look
at it when in course of erection, and then observed to the over-man
that he thought it was defective; he also gave it as his opinion that
if there were much water in the mine, the engine could never keep
it under. Of course, as he was only a brakesman, his opinion was
considered to be worth very little on such a point. He continued,
however, to make frequent visits to the engine to see "how she was
getting on." From the bank-head where he worked his brake he could see
the chimney smoking at the High Pit; and as the workmen were passing to
and from their work, he would call out and inquire "if they had gotten
to the bottom yet." And the reply was always to the same effect--the
pumping made no progress, and the workmen were still "drowned out."
One Saturday afternoon he went over to the High Pit to examine the
engine more carefully than he had yet done. He had been turning the
subject over in his mind, and, after a long examination, he seemed to
have satisfied himself as to the cause of the failure. Kit Heppel, one
of the sinkers, asked him, "Weel, George, what do you mak' o' her? Do
you think you could do any thing to improve her?" "Man," said George,
in reply, "I could alter her and make her draw: in a week's time from
this I could send you to the bottom."
Heppel at once reported this conversation to Ralph Dodds, the head
viewer, who, being now quite in despair, and hopeless of succeeding
with the engine, determined to give George's skill a trial. George had
already acquired the character of a very clever and ingenious workman,
and, at the worst, he could only fail, as the rest had done. In the
evening Dodds went in search of Stephenson, and met him on the road,
dressed in his Sunday's suit, on his way to "the preaching" in the
Methodist Chapel, which he at that time attended. "Well, George," said
Dodds, "they tell me that you think you can put the engine at the
High Pit to rights." "Yes, sir," said George, "I think I could." "If
that's the case, I'll give you a fair trial, and you must set to work
immediately. We are clean drowned out, and can not get a step farther.
The engineers hereabouts are all bet; and if you really succeed in
accomplishing what they can not do, you may depend upon it I will make
you a man for life."
Stephenson began his operations early next morning. The only condition
that he made, before setting to work, was that he should select his
own workmen. There was, as he knew, a good deal of jealousy among
the "regular" men that a colliery brakesman should pretend to know
more about their engine than they themselves did, and attempt to
remedy defects which the most skilled men of their craft, including
the engineer of the colliery, had failed to do. But George made the
condition a _sine quâ non_. "The workmen," said he, "must either be
all Whigs or all Tories." There was no help for it, so Dodds ordered
the old hands to stand aside. The men grumbled, but gave way; and then
George and his party went in.
The engine was taken entirely to pieces. The cistern containing the
injection water was raised ten feet; the injection cock, being too
small, was enlarged to nearly double its former size, and it was so
arranged that it should be shut off quickly at the beginning of the
stroke. These and other alterations were necessarily performed in a
rough way, but, as the result proved, on true principles. Stephenson
also, finding that the boiler would bear a greater pressure than five
pounds to the inch, determined to work it at a pressure of ten pounds,
though this was contrary to the directions of both Newcomen and Smeaton.
The necessary alterations were made in about three days, and many
persons came to see the engine start, including the men who had put
her up. The pit being nearly full of water, she had little to do on
starting, and, to use George's words, "came bounce into the house."
Dodds exclaimed, "Why, she was better as she was; now, she will knock
the house down." After a short time, however, the engine got fairly
to work, and by ten o'clock that night the water was lower in the pit
than it had ever been before. The engine was kept pumping all Thursday,
and by the Friday afternoon the pit was cleared of water, and the
workmen were "sent to the bottom," as Stephenson had promised. Thus
the alterations effected in the pumping apparatus proved completely
successful.[26]
Mr. Dodds was particularly gratified with the manner in which the
job had been done, and he made Stephenson a present of ten pounds,
which, though very inadequate when compared with the value of the work
performed, was accepted with gratitude. George was proud of the gift
as the first marked recognition of his skill as a workman; and he used
afterward to say that it was the biggest sum of money he had up to that
time earned in one lump. Ralph Dodds, however, did more than this; he
released the brakesman from the handles of his engine at West Moor, and
appointed him engine-man at the High Pit, at good wages, during the
time the pit was sinking--the job lasting for about a year; and he also
kept him in mind for farther advancement.
Stephenson's skill as an engine-doctor soon became noised abroad, and
he was called upon to prescribe remedies for all the old, wheezy, and
ineffective pumping-machines in the neighborhood. In this capacity he
soon left the "regular" men far behind, though they, in their turn,
were very much disposed to treat the Killingworth brakesman as no
better than a quack. Nevertheless, his practice was really founded
upon a close study of the principles of mechanics, and on an intimate
practical acquaintance with the details of the pumping-engine.
Another of his smaller achievements in the same line is still told
by the people of the district. At the corner of the road leading to
Long Benton there was a quarry from which a peculiar and scarce kind
of ochre was taken. In the course of working it out, the water had
collected in considerable quantities; and there being no means of
draining it off, it accumulated to such an extent that the farther
working of the ochre was almost entirely stopped. Ordinary pumps were
tried, and failed; and then a windmill was tried, and failed too. On
this, George was asked what ought to be done to clear the quarry of
the water. He said "he would set up for them an engine, little bigger
than a kailpot, that would clear them out in a week." And he did so.
A little engine was speedily erected, by means of which the quarry was
pumped dry in the course of a few days. Thus his skill as a pump-doctor
soon became the marvel of the district.
In elastic muscular vigor Stephenson was now in his prime, and he
still continued zealous in measuring his strength and agility with
his fellow-workmen. The competitive element in his nature was always
strong, and his success in these feats of rivalry was certainly
remarkable. Few, if any, could lift such weights, throw the hammer
and put the stone so far, or cover so great a space at a standing or
running leap. One day, between the engine hour and the rope-rolling
hour, Kit Heppel challenged him to leap from one high wall to another,
with a deep gap between. To Heppel's surprise and dismay, George took
the standing leap, and cleared the eleven feet at a bound. Had his eye
been less accurate, or his limbs less agile and sure, the feat must
have cost him his life.
But so full of redundant muscular vigor was he, that leaping, putting,
or throwing the hammer, were not enough for him. He was also ambitious
of riding on horseback; and, as he had not yet been promoted to an
office enabling him to keep a horse of his own, he sometimes borrowed
one of the gin-horses for a ride. On one of these occasions he brought
the animal back reeking, when Tommy Mitcheson, the bank horse-keeper,
a rough-spoken fellow, exclaimed to him, "Set such fellows as you on
horseback, and you'll soon ride to the De'il." But Tommy Mitcheson
lived to tell the story, and to confess that, after all, there had been
a better issue of George's horsemanship than what he had predicted.
Old Cree, the engine-wright at Killingworth High Pit, having been
killed by an accident, George Stephenson was, in 1812, appointed
engine-wright of the colliery at the salary of £100 a year. He was also
allowed the use of a galloway to ride upon in his visits of inspection
to the collieries leased by the "Grand Allies" in that neighborhood.
The "Grand Allies" were a company of gentlemen, consisting of Sir
Thomas Liddell (afterward Lord Ravensworth), the Earl of Strathmore,
and Mr. Stuart Wortley (afterward Lord Wharncliffe), the lessees
of the Killingworth collieries. Having been informed of the merits of
Stephenson, of his indefatigable industry, and the skill which he had
displayed in the repairs of the pumping-engines, they readily acceded
to Mr. Dodds's recommendation that he should be appointed the colliery
engine-wright; and, as we shall afterward find, they continued to honor
him by distinguished marks of their approval.
[Illustration: KILLINGWORTH HIGH PIT.]
FOOTNOTES:
[22] The Stephenson Memorial Schools have since been erected on the
site of the old cottage at Willington Quay represented in the engraving
at the head of this chapter. A vignette of the Memorial Schools will be
found at the end of the volume.
[23] No register was made of Robert Stephenson's birth, and he himself
was in doubt whether he was born in October, November, or December. For
instance, a dinner was given to him by the contractors of the London
and Birmingham Railway on the 16th of November, 1839, that day being
then supposed by his father to have been his birthday. When preparing
the "Life of George Stephenson," Robert stated to the author that the
16th of December was the correct day. But, after the book had passed
through four editions, he desired the date to be corrected to the 16th
of October, which, on the whole, he thought the right date, and it was
so altered accordingly.
[24] The congregation in a church near Newcastle were one Sunday
morning plentifully powdered with chips from the white ceiling of
the church, which had been _crept under_, being above an old mine.
"It is only the pit a-creeping," said the parish clerk, by way of
encouragement to the people to remain. But it would not do; for there
was a sudden _creep out_ of the congregation. The clerk went at
last, with a powdered head, crying out, "It's only a creep."--"Our
Coal-Fields and our Coal-Pits."
[25] This incident was related by Robert Stephenson during a voyage to
the north of Scotland in 1857, when off Montrose, on board his yacht
_Titania_; and the reminiscence was immediately communicated to the
author by the late Mr. William Kell, of Gateshead, who was present, at
Mr. Stephenson's request, as being worthy of insertion in his father's
biography. Mr. George Elliott, one of the most skilled coal-viewers in
the North, was of the party, and expressed his admiration at the ready
skill with which the difficulty had been overcome, the expedient of
the boot being then unknown in the Northumberland and Durham mines. He
acknowledged it to be "a wrinkle," adding that its application would,
in several instances within his own knowledge, have been of great
practical value.
[26] As different versions have been given of this affair, it may be
mentioned that the above statement is made on the authority of the late
Robert Stephenson, and of George Stephenson himself, as communicated by
the latter to his friend Thomas L. Gooch, C.E., who has kindly supplied
the author with his memoranda on the subject.
[Illustration: GLEBE FARM-HOUSE, BENTON. [By R. P. Leitch.]]