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

CHAP, xxxiv.] VISITS SIR EOBEET PEEL. 423
he enjoyed a visit to the Haymarket, with a party of friends on
his birthday, to see T. P. Cooke, in " Black-eyed Susan;"—if
that can be called enjoyment which kept him in a state of tears
during half the performance. At other times he visited Newcastle,
which always gave him great pleasure. He would, on
such occasions, go out to Killingworth and seek up old friends,
and if the people whom he knew were too retiring and shrunk
into their cottages, he went and sought them there. Striking the
floor with his stick, and holding his noble person upright, he •
would say in his own kind' way, " "Well, and how's all here to-
day ? " To the last Mr. Ste'phenson had always a warm heart
for Newcastle and its neighbourhood.
Sir Robert Peel, on more than one occasion, invited Mr.
Stephenson to his mansion at Drayton, where he was accustomed
to assemble round him men of the greatest distinction in art,
science, and legislation, during the intervals of his parliamentary
life. The first invitation, Mr. Stephenson declined. Sir Robert
invited him a second time, and a second time he declined : " I
have no great ambition," he said, " to mix in fine company, and
perhaps should feel out of my proper place among such high
folks." But Sir Robert a third time pressed him to come down
to Tam worth early in January, 1845, when he would meet
Buckland, Follett, and others well known to both. " Well, Sir
Robert," said he, " I feel your kindness very much, and can no
longer refuse : I will come down and join your party."
Mr. Stephenson's strong powers of observation, together with
his native humour and shrewdness, imparted to his conversation
jt all times much vigour and originality, and made him, to young
and old, a delightful companion. Though mainly an engineer,
he was also a profound thinker on many scientific questions
and there was scarcely a subject of speculation, or a department
of recondite science, on which he had not employed his faculties
in such a way as to have formed large and original views. At
Drayton, the conversation often turned upon such topics, and
Mr. Stephenson freely joined in it. On one occasion an animated
discussion took place between himself and Dr. Buckland on one
of his favourite theories as to the formation of coal. But the
result was, that Dr. Buckland, a much greater master of tongue-
;