PREFACE. 



THE following volume contains a revised edition of the 

 Life of George Stephenson, with which is incorporated 

 a Life of his son Robert, late President of the Institute 

 of Civil Engineers. While complete in itself, this book 

 also forms the continuation of the biographical history 

 of British engineering the earlier portions of which 

 are comprised in the two volumes of ' Lives of the 

 Engineers' already published, and brings the subject 

 down to the establishment of the railway system, in the 

 course of which British engineers have displayed their 

 highest skill and achieved their greatest triumphs. 



Since the original appearance of the work some six 

 years ago under the title of ' The Life of George Ste- 

 phenson,' much additional information relative to the 

 early history of railways and of the men principally 

 concerned in establishing them, has been communicated 

 to the author by the friends and pupils of the two Ste- 

 phensons, as well as by the late Eobert Stephenson 

 himself, of which the author has availed himself in the 

 present edition. 



Although it is unusual to embody two biographies in 

 one narrative, it will probably be admitted that in the 

 case of the Stephensons such a combination is peculiarly 

 appropriate, the life and achievements of the son having 

 been in a great measure the complement of the life and 



