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

326 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap, xxvii.
Thus, during one of his brief sojourns at Alton Grange, he
found time to write to his son a touching account of a pair of
robins that had built their nest within one of the empty upper
chambers of the house. One day he observed a robin fluttering
outside the windows, and beating its wings against the panes, as
if eager to gain admission. He went up stairs, and there found,
in a retired part of one of the rooms, a robin's nest, with one of
the parent birds sitting over three or four young—all dead.
The excluded bird outside still beat against the panes ; and on
the window-sill being let down, it flew into the room, but so ex-
hausted that it dropped upon the floor. Mr. Stephenson took up
the bird, carried it down stairs, and had it warmed and fed.
The poor robin revived, and for a time was one of his pets. But
it shortly died too, as if unable to recover from the privations it
had endured during its three days fluttering and beating at the
windows. It appeared that the room had been unoccupied, and
the window having been let down for some time, the robins had
taken the opportunity of building their nest within it ; but the
servant having accidentally closed the window, the calamity be-
fell them which so strongly excited Mr. Stephenson's sympathies.
An incident such as this, trifling though it may seem, gives the
true key ,to the heart of the man.
The amount of his parliamentary business having greatly
increased with the projection of new lines of railway, Mr. Ste-
phenson found it necessary to take an office in London during
the session of 1836.* This office was the busy scene of railway
politics for many years. There consultations were held, schemes
were matured, deputations were received, and many projectors
called upon our engineer for the purpose of submitting their plans
of railway working. But Mr. Stephenson's principal business
was in carrying through the projects for which he was profes-
sionally concerned as engineer-in-chief. He was also called
upon to give evidence in support of many lines, such as the
Great Western, with which he was not immediately connected.
" In fact," as he said to the House of Commons' Committee in
1841, " there is hardly a railway in England that I have not had
* His first office was at No. 9, Duke Street, Westminster, from whioli he
removed to 30^, George Sti-eet, Westminster, in 1887.