CHAP. IX. STEPHENSON'S ANTICIPATIONS. 167 



unusual measure of ordering in a bottle of wine, to drink 

 success to the railway. John Dixon remembers and 

 relates with pride the utterance of the master on the 

 occasion. " Now, lads," said he to the two young men, 

 " 1 will tell you that I think you will live to see the 

 day, though I may not live so long, when railways will 

 come to supersede almost all other methods of convey- 

 ance in this country when mail-coaches will go by 

 railway, and railroads will become the great highway 

 for the king and all his subjects. The time is coming 

 when it will be cheaper for a working man to travel upon 

 a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great 

 and almost insurmountable difficulties that will have to 

 be encountered ; but what I have said will come to pass 

 as sure as you live. I only wish I may live to see the 

 day, though that I can scarcely hope for, as I know how 

 slow all human progress is, and with what difficulty I 

 have been able to get the locomotive adopted, notwith- 

 standing my more than ten years' successful experiment 

 at Killingworth." The result, however, outstripped 

 even the most sanguine anticipations of Stephenson ; 

 and his son Eobert, shortly after his return from America 

 in 1827, saw his father's locomotive generally adopted 

 as the tractive power on railways. 



The Stockton and Darlington line was opened for! 

 traffic on the 27th of September, 1825. An immense! 

 concourse of people assembled from all parts to witness 

 the ceremony of opening this first public railway. The 

 powerful opposition which the project had encountered, 

 the threats which were still uttered against the company 

 by the road-trustees and others, who declared that they 

 would yet prevent the line being worked, and perhaps 

 the general unbelief as to its success which still pre- 

 vailed, tended to excite the curiosity of the public as to 

 the result. Some went to rejoice at the opening, some, 

 to see the " bubble burst ;" and there were many pr( 

 phets of evil who would not miss the blowing up of the 



