208 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCIirfECT'S JOURNAL. 



CJ.,.v, 



scientific men at Tamwortli, and on the 30th .lune (if tliat year, 

 was present ulicn Sir Robert raised the first sod on tlie Trent 

 \'allev RailHay, oriffiiially surveyed hy Stephenson. On liis liealtli 

 heing drunk, Steplienson made anotlier autobiojirapliical speech. 



XX. DEATH OF STEPHENSO.V. 



lie now married nijain, and the lady survives Iiim. — On the ior- 

 mation of tlie Institution of Practical Engineers at IJirniinghani, 

 lie became tlie I'resident, and took much interest in its jiroceed- 

 ings. From prejudice against some of the members, he refused to 

 belong to the Institution of Civil Engineers — one of the instances 

 of the extent to which he gave way to his personal feelings. 



One of his last acts was promoting a chancery suit against the 

 Directors of the ^\'est Flanders Railway, seemingly on very slight 

 grounds, and which his son gave up in a very liberal manner. 



He had now lived to see his son Robert a memlier of the House 

 (if Commons, and engaged in an undertaking (the great tubular 

 bridge) which will give him as lasting a reputation as that of his 

 father. Anotlier pupil, Mr. Locke, he likewise saw in the House 

 of Commons; and other ]mpils holding such high professional rank, 

 tliat he was justly looked upon as the father of a great school of 

 engineering. He was in the full strength of life and health, and 

 busy in tlie world, when lie was stricken down by death. He was 

 taken with fever, it is said, brought on by too long stay in one of 

 his hothouses. On the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the 

 fever ran very high; but on the Friday he was better. Mr. Con- 

 dell, a surgeon of IJaslow, attended him day and night. On the 

 Saturday morning early, he again became worse, and at noon 

 breathed his last.'" This was on the 12th August 1848, and he was 

 then sixty-eight years old; so that his time of life was neither too 

 short for the world nor himself. 



He was buried the next week in Trinity Church, Chesterfield; 

 all the shops in the town of C'hesterfield being shut, and hundreds 

 crowding in to pay their last tribute to him. The funeral proces- 

 sion included the Mayor and Corporation of the town, the clergy 

 and gentry, the clerks and agents from Lockaford and C'laycross 

 collieries, the carriages of many gentlemen and the mourners, 

 Messrs. Roliert, G. R.. and II. Stephenson, Iliiidmarsli, and Lang- 

 lands. On the coffin-plate was engraved, 



(jeokge Stepiienso.v, 

 of newcastle upon tyxe, 

 died at tapton house, 

 august 12, 1848, aged sixty. eight years. ^'' 



George Stephenson married first in the year 1800, at Killing- 

 worth. His wife died in 1803, shortly after" the birth of his only 

 son Robert. Stephenson next married Miss IJindmarsh, daughter 

 of a respectable farmer in the neighbourhood of Killingworth, and 

 who had been his first love, but the match had been broken oft' by her 

 kinsmen as he was then only a poor working-man. He lived hap- 

 pily with her for many years."' 



Stephenson's tastes and habits, when alone, were simple. In his 

 latter years it was his greatest delight to ramble about birdnesting 

 or nutting.''^ He was never fond of reading, but learned much 

 in talking with the men of bright wits who were his fellows. His 

 mind was fruitful in resources, and it was a rich treat even to the 

 imaginative to listen to him. In this he was much like Watt, and 

 gave proof that mechanical genius is akin to the highest intel- 

 lectual efforts of the poet and the philosopher. The American 

 metaphysician, Emerson, listened to Stephenson in silence and de- 

 light. '= 



At home he gave much time to his dogs, cows, and horses; 

 rabbits, and birds; vines, melons, pines, and cucumbers. Every 

 day he took a long ramble watching the nests he carefully guarded 

 in his trees. On his hothouse he had set his pride, ami having 

 taken up with the idea that the great principle of vegetation was 

 to give as much light and heat to the soil as may he, he believed 

 and said he should grow pines at Tapton as big as pumjikins. This 

 he held forth at a dinner of the North Derbyshire Agricultural 

 Society.'-* It is asserted, his attention to these hothouses hastened 

 his death, = = 



It is said of him by oup who knew him, "Never was a proposi- 

 tion made to him for the mental and temporal improvement of his 

 workmen in his collieries, of whom he had upwards of 1,000, but 

 it met with his immediate attention and consideration, with a 

 deep feeling towards their welfare which could not be sur- 



■••i Chesterfield Gnzelte, August ILI, IS-H. 50 Derbysliiie Uourier. 



■■« 1 Eliza Co(,k"s Jounul, p. (i.'i. aj Leicestprslrrff Mercury. 



i-i Leicestersliire Mercury, 54 Leicestershire MerLury Ucrbyshire Courier. 



* o Herapath's Railway Journal, Vol. X., No. 480, p. 86,", 



passed.''^' ^\'hen ap]ilied to for assistance, lie ever endeavoured, 

 instead of giving temporary relief, to find constant employment 

 for the ap]ilicant.''' 



To those who ap]ilied to him for countenance for new projects he 

 was not always so considerate; he was wrapt up in his own schemes 

 and looked ujion others with ill-will. His feelings towards Brunei 

 were shown with a warmth and bitterness unbecoming, and it ex- 

 tended to all the supporters of the atmospheric system. The 

 locomotive was his cherished idol, and woe to those who interfered 

 with its worship. A very coarse scene took place when Mr. Hud- 

 son brought before him a plan of Mr. F. W. Beaumont, the en- 

 gineer, for common road locomotives; and many more might be 

 quoted. His temper was too apt to give way, unless he had the 

 field wholly to himself. 



Sometimes, however, he would relax. The writer in the Derby- 

 shire Courier relates, "A certain individual in humble life had 

 conceived a design he wished to have a ]iatent for, and made ap- 

 plication to Mr. Stephenson, that he might gain bis patronage in 

 order to give weight to the undertaking. Mr. Ste]ilienson made 

 some iiuiuiries relative to the nature of the jiroject, and having 

 heard a few words in rejily, said, 'Oli! I understand it altogether; 

 it will do very well." Tlie party, overjoyed with this approval, 

 said, 'Before I leave you will you he pleased to tell me your 

 chai-ge.''' 'Oh!' exclaimed Jlr. Stephenson, 'I make no charge; 

 but I tell you what you must do, you must send your instrument 

 down to my works, and I will attach it to them, and prove it; and 

 ] I will do more — I will put it in the papers for you, and invite the 

 I public to come and examine it at work, and afterwards purchase it 

 j myself.' " 



This he did, and sent a letter to the London daily papers, stat- 

 ing that he had tried a new steam-gage by Mr. Smith of Notting- 

 ham, and recommended it strongly. 



The writer first-named tells a story however of him in another 

 style. "A gentleman who had thought of doing away with the 

 hills and valleys of railways, sent a friend to introduce his plan to 

 Mr. Stephenson, who, after having heard some little about it, in- 

 terrogated his visitor as to where the proposer himself was. 'I 

 have left him outside; he was afraid to come in lest you should get 

 the secret out of him.' 'M'hy! have you left him by himself.^' 

 'Yes.' To this he answered, 'You must not leave him by him- 

 self long, or you will soon have to get some one to take care of 

 him.'" 



His plainness of mind and speech as often verged on simplicity 

 as on coarseness, and he ever had more respect for the man than 

 the coat, an examjile more uncommon in those who have risen 

 from the ranks than it is even among those of higher birth. He 

 was never ashamed of his own works and of his fellow-workmen, 

 and was most proud that he had been a working-man, and not a 

 lazy man. On one occasion, he came in contact at an hotel witli a 

 gentleman and his wife, whom he entertained for some time with 

 his shrewd observations and playful sallies. At length the lady 

 became curious to know the name of the stranger with the sharp 

 eye and unostentatious demeanour. "Why, madam," was his 

 answer, "they xised to call me George Stephenson. I am now 

 called George Stephenson, Esq., of Tapton House, near Chester- 

 field. And further, let me say, I have dined with princes and 

 peers, and commoners — with persons of all classes, from the high- 

 est to the humblest; — I have dined oft' a a red herring when seated 

 in a hedge bottom, and have gone through the meanest drudgery; 

 I have seen mankind in all its phases, and the conclusion I have 

 arrived at is this — that if we were all stripped, there's not much 

 dift'erence."'* 



He was proud of his varied insight into mankind, and at the 

 dinner at Newcastle said, "I have dined in mines, for I was once 

 a miner; and I have dined with kings and queens, and with all 

 grades of the nobility." 



His energy, ingenuity, and perseverance have been already 

 spoken of, but a few words more may be said. After leaving 

 Callerton Colliery, he went to ^^'albottle Pit as brakesman, waiting 

 on the engine while drawing the coals up from the pit. Thence 

 he went to Willington ballast-crane, likewise as brakesman. Here, 

 at the age of '■22 or 23, he began to learn to read. From AV^illing- 

 ton he went to Killingworth, still as brakesman. At this pit were 

 three brakesmen, who took the night shift by turns. The night 

 shift lasted eight or ten hours; and as there was little work to be 

 done in that time, only drawing up and letting men down, the 

 brakesman's time hung heavily on his hands. Stephenson, how- 

 e\er, made the most of his time, and in these night shifts began 

 learning to reckon. A\^hen he had worked his sums on a slate, he 

 sent them ofi^ next morning to a schoolmaster in the neighbour- 



's Jjeiceaterstiire Mercury. 



s' LItrbjsliire Courier. 



i> 8 Uerby Reporter. 



