xiv PREFACE. 



wick, C.E. ; and Mr. Binns, of Claycross, all of whom 

 officiated as private secretaries to George Stephenson at 

 different periods of his professional life, and afterwards 

 held responsible offices either under him or in conjunc- 

 tion with him. The materials for the narrative of 

 Eobert Stephenson' s career in Colombia have been 

 kindly supplied by his friend Mr. E. S. Illingworth. 

 Much of the valuable information communicated by 

 these gentlemen is published for the first time in the 

 present edition. 



The same pains have been taken with the illustration 

 of the book as in the case of the two volumes of ' Lives 

 of the Engineers' already published. The author has 

 had the advantage of being ably supported by his artists, 

 Messrs. Leitch and Skelton, whose illustrations speak 

 for themselves, and will, he believes, be found worthy 

 of the subject. 



London, November, 1862. 



NOTE. End of the " Rocket" The important influence which this 

 famous engine, which won the prize of 500Z. at the Locomotive Com- 

 petition at Rainhill in 1829, exercised on the general extension of 

 the railway passenger system, led the author, in the early editions of 

 the l Life of George Stephenson,' to express the regret (repeated in 

 the note to p. 274 of the following work) that pains had not been 

 taken to ensure its preservation, in like manner as the French Govern- 

 ment have preserved Cugnot's road locomotive of 1770 in the 

 Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers at Paris. It is, therefore, with 

 pleasure we have to state that, while these sheets are passing through 

 the press, the " Rocket " is in course of removal to the Museum of 

 Patents at Kensington, where it will find its appropriate place in that 

 highly interesting national collection. 



