situated upon a flat space of ground enclosed by lofty banks on either side, at the bottom of the narrow rift called Walbottle Dean. Jolly's Close, however, no longer exists, and only a few of the oldest people in the neighbourhood are aware that such a place ever was. A mountain of earth, shale, and débris, the accumulation of fifty years, lies tumbled, over its site, the rubbish, or "deeds," having been shot over from the hillside, once a green hill, but now a scarified, blasted rock, along which furnaces blaze and engines labour night and day. The stream in the hollow, which used to run in front of old Robert Stephenson's cottage door, is made to pay tribute in the form of water power at every wheel in the Dean; and only a narrow strip now remains of what was once a green meadow.

One of the old persons in the neighbourhood, who knew the family well, describes the dwelling in which they lived, as a poor cottage of only one room, in which the father, mother, four sons and two daughters, lived and slept. It was crowded with three low-poled beds. This one apartment served for parlour, kitchen, sleeping-room, and all. The cottage went with the work, and the use of it formed part of the workman's wage, -the Duke being both the employer and the landlord.

The children of the Stephenson family were now growing up apace, and were most of them of an age to be able to earn money at various kinds of colliery work. James and George, the two eldest sons, worked as assistant firemen; and the younger boys worked as wheelers or pickers on the banktops. The two girls helped their mother with the household work.

So far as weekly earnings went, the family were at this time pretty comfortable. Their united earnings amounted to from 35s. to 40s. a week; and they were enabled to command a fair share of the necessaries of life. But it will be

1802, it was

live than it is

The price of

remembered that in those days, from 1797 to much more difficult for the working classes to now; for money did not go nearly so far. bread was excessive. Wheat, which for three years preceding 1795 had averaged only 54s., now advanced to 76s. a quarter; and it continued to rise until in December 1800 it had advanced to 130s., and barley and oats in proportion. There was a great dearth of provisions; corn riots were of frequent occurrence; and the taxes on all articles of consumption were very heavy. The war with Napoleon was then raging; derangements of trade were frequent, causing occasional suspensions of employment in all departments of industry, from the pressure of which working people are always the first to suffer.

During this severe period, George Stephenson continued to live with his parents at Jolly's Close. Other workings of the coal were opened out in the neighbourhood; and to one of these he was removed as fireman on his own account. This was called the "Mid Mill Winnin;" there he had for his mate a young man named Bill Coe, and to these two was entrusted the working of the little engine put up at Mid Mill. They worked together there for about two years, bý twelve-hour shifts, George firing the engine at the wage shilling a day.

of

a

His ambition was as yet

He was now fifteen years old. limited to attaining the standing of a full workman, at a man's wages; and with that view he endeavoured to attain such a knowledge of his engine as would eventually lead to his employment as an engineman, with its accompanying advantage of higher pay. He was a steady, sober, hard-working young man, and nothing more, according to the estimate of his fellow workmen.

One of his favourite pastimes in by-hours was trying feats of strength with his companions. Although in frame he was

not particularly robust, yet he was big and bony, and considered very strong for his age. His principal competitor was Robert Hawthorn, with whom he had frequent trials of muscular strength and dexterity, such as lifting heavy weights, throwing the hammer, and putting the stone. At throwing the hammer George had no compeer; but there was a knack in putting the stone which he could never acquire, and here Hawthorn beat him. At lifting heavy weights off the ground from between his feet,-by means of a bar of iron passed through them, the bar placed against his knees as a fulcrum, and then straightening the spine and lifting them sheer up,Stephenson was very successful. On one occasion, they relate, he lifted as much as sixty stone weight in this way-a striking indication of his strength of bone and vigour of muscle.

When the pit at Mid Mill was closed, George and his companion Coe were sent to work another pumping-engine erected near Throckley Bridge, where they continued for some months. It was while working at this place, that his wages were raised, to 12s. a week,—an event of no small importance in his estimation. On coming out of the foreman's office that Saturday evening on which he received the advance, he announced the fact to his fellow workmen, adding triumphantly, "I am now a made man for life!"

The pit opened at Newburn, at which old Robert Stephenson worked, proving a failure, it was closed; and a new pit was sunk at Water-row, on a strip of land lying between the Wylam waggon-way and the river Tyne, about half a mile west of Newburn Church. A pumping-engine was erected there by Robert Hawthorn, now the Duke's engineer at Walbottle; and old Stephenson went to work it as fireman, his son George acting as the engineman or plugman. At this time he was about seventeen years old,-a very youthful age for occupying so responsible a post. He had thus already

got ahead of his father in his station as a workman; for the plugman holds a higher grade than the fireman, requiring more practical knowledge and skill, and usually receiving higher wages.

The duty of the plugman was to watch the engine and to see that it kept well in work, and that the pumps were efficient in drawing the water. When the water-level in the pit was lowered, and the suction became incomplete through the exposure of the suction holes, then his business was to proceed to the bottom of the shaft and plug the tube so that the pump should draw hence the designation of Plugman. If a stoppage in the engine took place through any defect in it which he was incapable of remedying, then it was his duty to call in the aid of the chief engineer of the colliery to set the engine to rights.

:

But from the time when George Stephenson was appointed fireman, and more particularly afterwards as engineman, he applied himself so assiduously and so successfully to the study of the engine and its gearing,-taking the machine to pieces in his leisure hours for the purpose of cleaning and mastering its various parts,-that he very soon acquired a thorough practical knowledge of its construction and mode of working, and thus he very rarely needed to call to his aid the engineer of the colliery. His engine became a sort of pet with him, and he was never wearied of watching and inspecting it with devoted admiration.

There is indeed a peculiar fascination about an engine, to the intelligent workman who watches and feeds it. It is almost sublime in its untiring industry and quiet power: capable of performing the most gigantic work, yet so docile that a child's hand may guide it. No wonder, therefore, that the workman, who is the daily companion of this lifelike machine, and is constantly watching it with anxious care, at length comes to regard it with a degree of personal

interest and regard, speaking of it often in terms of glowing admiration. This daily contemplation of the steam-engine, and the sight of its steady action, is an education of itself to the ingenious and thoughtful workman. It is certainly a striking and remarkable fact, that nearly all that has been done for the improvement of the steam-engine has been accomplished, not by philosophers and scientific men, but by labourers, mechanics, and enginemen. It would appear as if this were one of the departments of practical science in which the higher powers of the human mind must bend to mechanical instinct. The steam-engine was but a mere toy, until it was taken in hand by workmen. Savery was originally a working miner, Newcomen a blacksmith, and his partner Cawley a glazier. In the hands of Watt, the instrument maker, who devoted almost a life to the subject, the condensing engine acquired gigantic strength; and George Stephenson, the colliery engineman, was certainly not the least of those who have assisted to bring the highpressure engine to its present power.

While studying to master the details of his engine, to know its weaknesses, and to quicken its powers, George Stephenson gradually acquired the character of a clever and improving workman. Whatever he was set to do, that he endeavoured to do well and thoroughly; never neglecting small matters, but aiming at being a complete workman at all points; thus gradually perfecting his own mechanical capacity, and securing at the same time the respect of his fellow workmen and the increased confidence and esteem of his employers.