CHAP. IX. TOWN OF MIDDLESBOROUGH. 177 



was opened in 1825, the site of this future metropolis of 

 Cleveland was occupied by one solitary farm-house and its 

 outbuildings. All round was pasture-land or mud-banks ; 

 scarcely another house was within sight. The corpora- 

 tion of the town of Stockton being unwilling or unable to 

 provide accommodation for the rapidly increasing coal 

 traffic, Mr. Edward Pease, in 1829, joined by a few of 

 his Quaker friends, bought about 500 or 600 acres 

 of land, five miles lower down the river the site of 

 the modern Middlesborough for the purpose of there 

 forming a new seaport for the shipment of coals brought 

 to the Tees by the railway. The line was accordingly 

 extended thither ; docks were excavated ; a town sprang 

 up ; churches, chapels, and schools were built, with a 

 custom-house, mechanics' institute, banks, shipbuilding 

 yards, and iron-factories ; and in a few years the port 

 of Middlesborough became one of the most thriving on 

 the north-east coast of England. In ten years a busy 

 population of some 6000 persons (since swelled to about 

 20,000) occupied the site of the original farmhouse. 

 More recently, the discovery of vast stores of ironstone 

 in the Cleveland Hills, close adjoining Middlesborough, 

 has tended still more rapidly to augment the population 

 and increase the commercial importance of the place. 



It is pleasing to relate, in connexion with this great 

 work the Stockton and Darlington Railway, projected 

 by Edward Pease and executed by George Stephenson 



that when Mr. Stephenson became a prosperous and 

 a celebrated man, he did not forget the friend who 

 had taken him by the hand, and helped him on in 

 his early days. He continued to remember Mr. Pease 

 with gratitude and aifection, and that gentleman, to the 

 close of his life, was proud to exhibit a handsome gold 

 watch, received as a gift from his celebrated protege, 

 bearing these words : " Esteem and gratitude : from 



George Stephenson to Edward Pease/' 



VOL. III. N 



