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

376 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. xxx.
that, on a previous occasion, he had estimated the value of cer-
tain land required for a railway at from 35,000/. to 40,OOOZ., for
which a jury had awarded only 2,000/. Such was the extortion
to which those early railways were subjected, and which, in one
way or another, has fallen ultimately upon the public.
Mr. Stephenson had been looking forward with much interest
to the completion of the East Coast route to Scotland as far as
his native town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He had done much
to form that route, both by constructing the lines from Derby to
York, and by bringing before the public his plan for carrying
the main line northwards to Edinburgh. A bill with this object
was again brought before Parliament in 1844. On the 18th of
June in that year, the Newcastle and Darlington line—an im-
portant link of the great main highway to the north—was com-
pleted and publicly opened—thus connecting the Thames and
the Tyne by a continuous line of railway. On that day, Mr.
Stephenson, Mr. Hudson, and a distinguished party of railway
men, travelled by express train from London to Newcastle in
about nine hours. It was a great event, and was worthily cele-
brated. The population of Newcastle held holiday ; and a banquet
held in the Assembly Rooms the same evening assumed
the form of an ovation to Mr. Stephenson and his son. Thirty
years before, George Stephenson, in the capacity of a workman,
had been labouring at the construction of his first locomotive in
the immediate neighbourhood. By slow and laborious steps, he
had worked his way on, dragging the locomotive into notice, and
raising himself in public estimation. He had now, at length,
established the great railway system, and came back amongst
his townsmen to receive their greeting.
The Honourable Mr. Liddell, M. P., whose father. Lord
Ravensworth, had helped and encouraged George Stephenson to
make his first locomotive at Killingworth, appropriately occupied
the chair, and, in introducing Mr. Stephenson to the meeting,
alluded to the recent rapid progress of railroads, and especially
to the last great event in their history—the opening of an uninterrupted
railway communication from the Thames to the Tyne
—whereby " he had been enabled to take part in the proceedings
of the House of Commons at a late hour in the night, and to