vi PREFACE. 



achievements of the father. The care with which the 

 elder Stephenson, while occupying the position of an 

 obscure workman, devoted himself to his son's education, 

 and the zeal with which the latter repaid the affectionate 

 self-denial of his father, are among the most effective 

 illustrations of the personal character of both. As 

 regards their professional history also, it will be found 

 that the relations which existed between them, more 

 particularly with reference to the improvement of the 

 locomotive and the construction of the first passenger 

 railways, were of so intimate a kind, that it is impossible 

 to dissociate the history of the one engineer from that of 

 the other. 



These views were early formed by the author as to 

 the proper treatment of the subject of George Stephen- 

 son's Life, and were carried out in the preparation of 

 the original work, with the concurrence of Robert Ste- 

 phenson, who supplied the requisite particulars relating 

 to himself. Such portions of these were accordingly 

 embodied in the narrative as could with propriety be 

 published during the lifetime of the latter, and the 

 remaining portions are now added, with the object of 

 rendering the record of the son's life, as well as the 

 early history of the railway system, more complete. 



It may not be out of place to explain briefly the 

 circumstances in which the book originated and was 

 written, and the sources from which the facts it con- 

 tains were derived, as a guarantee to the reader that 

 every possible pains have been taken to secure due 

 authenticity and accuracy of information. 



The subject of a biography of George Stephenson was 

 brought under the author's notice shortly after the death 



