The life of George Stephenson, railway engineer - Lighthouse ...

316 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xxvi.
sengers provided with proper assistance before he himself went
forward on his journey.
It was some time before the more opulent classes who could
afford to post to town in aristocratic style, became reconciled to
railway travelling. The old families did not relish the idea of
being conveyed in a train of passengers of all ranks and condi-
tions, in which the shopkeeper and the peasant were carried
along at the same speed as the duke and the baron—the only
difference being in price. It was another deplorable illustration
of the levelling tendencies of the age.* It put an end to that
gradation of rank in travelling, which was one of the few things
left by which the nobleman could be distinguished from the
Manchester manufacturer and bagman. So, for a time, many
of the old families sent forward their servants and luggage by
railway, and condemned themselves to jog along the old highway
in the accustomed family chariot, dragged by country post-
horses. But the superior comfort of the railway shortly recommended
itself to even the oldest families ; posting went out of
date ;
post-horses were with difficulty to be had along even the
great highroads; and nobles and servants, manufacturers and
peasants, alike shared in the comfort, the convenience, and the
dispatch of railway travelling. The late Dr. Arnold of Rugby
regarded the opening of the London and Birmingham line as
but another step accomplished in the great march of civilization.
" I rejoice to see it," he said, as he stood on one of the bridges,
and watched the train flashing along, and away through the dis-
tant hedge-rows,— " I rejoice to see it, and think that feudality
is gone forever. It is so great a blessing to think that any one
evil is really extinct."
* At a meeting of the Chesterfield Mechanics' Institute, at which Mr. Stephenson
-was present, one of the spealcers said of him, " Known as he is wher-
ever steam and iron have opened the swift lines of communication to our
countrymen, and regarded by all as tlie Father of Eailways, he might be called,
in the most honourable acceptation of the term, the first and greatest leveller of
the age." Mr. Stephenson joined heartily in the laugh which followed this de-
scription of himself. Sir Humphry Davy was onoe similarly characterized;
but the remarit was somewhat differently appreciated. When travelling on the
Continent, a distinguished person about a foreign court inquired who and what
he was, never having heard of his scientific fame. Upon being told that his dis-
coveries had " reeo&h'wifeerf cAeinisfry," the courtier promptly replied, " I hate
all revolutionists ;
his presence will not be acceptable here."