340 



TRAVELLING AND CORRESPONDENCE. CHAP. XVI. 



on the Midland and Manchester and Leeds lines ; be- 

 sides occasionally going to Newcastle to see how the 

 locomotive works were going on there. During the 

 three years ending in 1837 perhaps the busiest years 

 of his life ] he travelled by postchaise alone upwards 

 of twenty thousand miles, and yet not less than six 

 months out of the three years were spent in London. 

 Hence there is comparatively little to record of Mr. 

 Stephenson's private life at this period ; during which 

 he had scarcely a moment that he could call his own. 



His correspondence increased so much, that he found 

 it necessary to engage a private secretary, who accom- 

 panied him on his journeys. He was himself exceed- 

 ingly averse to writing letters. The comparatively 

 advanced age at which he learnt the art of writing, and 

 the nature of his duties while engaged at the Killing- 

 worth colliery, precluded that facility in correspondence 

 which only constant practice can give. He gradually, 

 however, acquired great facility in dictation, and had 

 also the power of labouring continuously at this work ; 

 the gentleman who acted as his secretary in the year 

 1835, having informed us that during his busy season 

 he one day dictated not fewer than thirty-seven letters, 

 several of them embodying the results of much close 

 thinking and calculation. On another occasion, he 

 dictated reports and letters for twelve continuous hours, 

 until his secretary was ready to drop off his chair from 

 sheer exhaustion, and at length he pleaded for a suspen- 

 sion of the labour. This great mass of correspondence, 

 although closely bearing on the subjects under discussion, 

 was not, however, of a kind to supply the biographer 



1 During this period he was en- 

 gaged on the North Midland, extending 

 from Derby to Leeds ; the York and 

 North Midland, from Normanton to 

 York ; the Manchester and Leeds ; 

 the Birmingham and Derby, and the 

 Sheffield and Rotherham Railways; 

 the whole of these, of which he was 



principal engineer, having been au- 

 thorised in 1836. In that session 

 alone, powers were obtained for the 

 construction of 214 miles of new rail- 

 ways under his direction, at an ex- 

 penditure of upwards of five millions 

 sterling. 



