64 ROBERT STEPHENSON" AT KTLLINGWORTH. CHAP. V. 



as easily as he would read a page of a book. Both 

 father and son profited by this excellent practice, which 

 shortly enabled them to apprehend with the greatest 

 facility the details of even the most difficult and com- 

 plicated mechanical drawing. 



While Robert went on with his lessons in the evenings, 

 his father was usually occupied with his watch and clock 

 jr cleaning ; or in contriving models of pumping engines ; 

 or endeavouring to embody in a tangible shape the 

 mechanical inventions which he found described in 

 the odd volumes on Mechanics which fell in his way. 

 This daily and unceasing example of industry and ap- 

 plication, working on before the boy's eyes in the person 

 of a loving and beloved father, imprinted itself deeply 

 upon his heart in characters never to be effaced. A spirit 

 of self-improvement was thus early and carefully planted 

 and fostered in Robert's mind, which continued to influ- 

 ence him through life ; and to the close of his career, he 

 was proud to confess that if his professional success had 

 been great, it was mainly to the example and training of 

 his father that he owed it. 



Robert was not, however, exclusively devoted to 

 study, but, like most boys full of animal spirits, he was 

 very fond of fun and play, and sometimes of mischief. 

 Dr. Bruce relates that an old Killingworth labourer, when 

 asked by Robert, on one of his last visits to Newcastle, 

 if he remembered him, replied with emotion, "Ay, 

 indeed ! Haven't I paid your head many a time when 

 you came with your father's bait, for you were always 

 a sad hempy ? " 



The author had the pleasure, in the year 1854, of 

 accompanying Robert Stephenson on a visit to his old 

 home and haunts at Killingworth. He had so often 

 travelled the road upon his donkey to and from school, 

 that every foot of it was familiar to him ; and each 

 turn in it served to recall to mind some incident of 



