PREFACE. xlii 



to him, though he was ready to admit its accuracy, 

 considering the authentic sources from which it had 

 been obtained. At a subsequent period the author 

 enjoyed the advantage of much intimate personal inter- 

 course with Mr. Stephenson, and obtained from him, 

 either orally or in writing, many of the important 

 facts embodied in the following narrative. Besides 

 what was supplied directly by himself, much additional 

 information was obtained through his instrumentality 

 from other gentlemen well qualified to supply it 

 from Mr. Charles Parker, relative to the early history 

 of the London and Birmingham Railway; from Mr. 

 T. Sopwith, C.E., as to George Stephenson's visits 

 to Belgium ; and from Sir Joshua Walmsley as to his 

 journey into Spain. Mr. Stephenson continued to 

 furnish the author with corrections and additions from 

 time to time as they occurred to him ; and one of the 

 last communications received from him, shortly before 

 his death, was a letter accompanying a large bundle of 

 the correspondence and papers of Mr. Joseph Sandars 

 (since deceased), the projector of the Liverpool and 

 Manchester Railway, of which due use has been made 

 in the present edition. It has also been thought desir- 

 able to append Robert Stephenson's own narrative of 

 his father's inventions and improvements in the form 

 in which it was communicated to the author, the record 

 being valuable as an authentic memorial of the early 

 history of the Locomotive Engine and Railways. 



Since the publication of the earlier editions of the 

 Life of Stephenson, the author has been enabled to 

 avail himself of the personal recollections of Mr. T. L. 

 Gooch, C.E. ; Mr. Vaughan, of Snibston ; Mr. F. Swan- 



