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

G8 LIFE OF GEORGE STEPHENSON. [chap. viii.
Master Beaumont * between his coal pits, near Newcastle, and
the staithes by the river side, probably about the year 163.0.
On these rails a large loaded wagon could be drawn by one
horse.
The same mode of transport was shortly after generally em-
ployed in the principal colliery districts. Old Eoger North thus
describes the railroads as they were laid down in the neigh-
bourhood of the Tyne, in 1676:
—
"Another remarkable thing is their way-leaves ; for when
men have pieces of ground between the colliery and the river,
they sell the leave to lead coals over their ground, and so dear
that the owner of a rood of ground will expect 20Z. per annum
for this leave. The manner of the carriage is, by laying rails
of timber from the colliery down to the river exactly straight
arid parallel, and bulky carts'are made with four rowlets fitting
these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one horse will
draw down some four or five chaldron of coals, and is an im-
mense benefit to the coal merchants." f
A century later (in 1770-1772) the same roads were found
in general use by Arthur Young. The roadway was little im-
proved, but the works on which the road was formed were some-
times of a formidable character. Speaking of the wagon roads
near Newcastle, Mr. Young observes :— " The coal-wagon roads,
from the pits to the water, are great works, carried over all sorts
of inequalities of ground, so far as the distance of nine or ten
miles. The tracks of the wheels are marked with pieces of
wood let into the road for the wheels of the wagons to run on
by which means one horse is enabled to draw, and that with
ease, fifty or sixty bushels of coals." %
An intelligent French traveller, named Saint-Fond, who
visited Newcastle in 1791, speaks in terms of high admiration
of the colliery wagon ways, as superior to everything of the kind
* This enterprising gentleman expended not less than 30,000/. in his mining
speoiilations, the result of which is described by a local chronicler, one Mr. Gray,
writing in 1649, who quaintly observes, that " within a few years he consumed
all his money, and rode home upon his light horse."
t Roger North's Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, A. d. 1676.
_} Sir Mouths' Tour, vol. iii. p. 9.