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

CHAP, v.] BIETH OF HIS SON. 45
constructing which he sought to improve himself. The child
was from the first, as may well be imagined, a great favourite
with his father, whose evening hours were made happier by his
presence. George Stephenson's strong " philoprogenitiveness,"
as phrenologists call it, had in his boyhood expended itself on
birds, and dogs, and rabbits, and even on the poor old gin-horses
which he had driven at the Callerton Pit ; and now he found in
his child a more genial object on which to expend the warmth
of his affection.
The christening of the child took place in the school-house
at Wallsend, the old parish church being at the time in so
dilapidated a condition from the " creeping," * of the ground
underneath, consequent upon the excavation of the coal, that it
was considered dangerous to enter it. On this occasion, Robert
Gray and Anne Henderson, who had officiated as bridesman and
bridesmaid at the wedding, came over again to Willington, and
stood as godfather and godmother to little Eobert, as the child
was named, after his grandfather.
After working for about three years as a brakesman at the
"Willington machine, George Stephenson was induced to leave
his situation there for a similar one at the "West Moor Colliery,
'Killingworth. It was while residing at Killingworth that his
remarkable practical qualities as a workman were first recog-
nized by his employers, and that he slowly but surely acquired
that reputation as an Engineer and Inventor by which he after-
wards became so extensively known and honoured.
* The congregation in a church near Newcastle were one Sunday morning
plentifully powdered with chips from the white ceiling of the church, which
had been crept under, being above an old mine. " It's only the pit a-creeping,"
said the parish clerk, by way of encouragement to the people to remain. But
it would not do ; for there was a sudden creep out of the congregation. The
clerk went at last, with a powdered head, crying out, " It's only a creep,"
Our Coal Fields and our Coal Pits.
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