GEORGE SiEPHENSON. 119 



would visit old scenes at Newcastle, but generally avoided, if 

 possible, what was called fine company; he also refused Sir 

 Robert Peel's offers of knighthood. Projectors of various 

 kinds would seek his advice on subjects connected with 

 mechanical 'engineering. During the last year cf his life Mr. 

 Stephenson met Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great American 

 thinker and writer. Emerson afterwards remarked " that it was 

 worth crossing the Atlantic to have seen Stephenson alone ; he 

 had such native force of character and vigour of intellect." 

 Universally respected, and simple-minded and upright to the 

 iast, George Stephenson passed away on the 12th August, 1848, 

 in his sixty-seventh year. 



Dr. Smiles has drawn the following word-portrait of the great 

 engineer : — " His fair, clear countenance was ruddy, and seem- 

 ingly glowed with health. The forehead was large and high, 

 projecting over the eyes ; and there was that massive breadth 

 across the lower part, which is usually observed in men of 

 eminent constructive skill. The mouth was firmly marked; 

 and shrewdness and humour lurked there as well as in the keen 

 grey eye. His frame was compact, well-knit, and rather spare. 

 His hair became grey at an early age, and towards the close of 

 his life it was of a pure silky whiteness. He dressed neatly in 

 black, wearing a white neck-cloth ; and his face, his person, and 

 his deportment at once arrested attention, and marked the 

 gentleman." A hall devoted to scientific, literary, and educa- 

 tional purposes, and costing;^ 13,000, has been erected to his 

 memory at Chesterfield, where he once resided for a time. 



His distinguished son Robert only survived him eleven years. 

 His death took place in 1859, when in his fifty-sixth year, and 

 he received the honour of a public funeral, and was interred in 

 Westminster Abbey. He designed the high-level bridge across 



