greatest kindness and consideration, erecting admirable cottages
for their accommodation, and providing them with church, chapel,
and schools for their religious and social education.

While living at Alton Grange, Stephenson was engaged in laying out
several new lines in the middle and north of England, especially
the Grand Junction and the Midland, both of which he constructed
with great boldness and practical skill. As he grew older and more
famous, he began to mix in the truly best society of England; his
acquaintance being sought by all the most eminent men in
literature, science, and political life. Though but an uneducated
working man by origin, George Stephenson had so improved his mind
by constant thought and expansive self-education, that he was able
to meet these able and distinguished friends of his later days on
terms of perfect intellectual and social equality. To the last,
however, he never forgot his older and poorer friends, nor was he
ever ashamed of their acquaintance. A pleasant trait is narrated
by his genial biographer, Dr. Smiles, who notices that on one
occasion he stopped to speak to one of his wealthy acquaintances in
a fine carriage, and then turned to shake hands with the coachman
on the box, whom he had known and respected in his earlier days.
He enjoyed, too, the rare pleasure of feeling his greatness
recognized in his own time: and once, when he went over to Brussels
on a visit to the king of the Belgians, he was pleased and
surprised, as the royal party entered the ball-room at the Town
Hall, to hear a general murmur among the guests of "Which is
Stephenson?"

George Stephenson continued to live for sixteen years, first at
Alton Grange, and afterwards at Tapton House, near Chesterfield, in