Note 25 — Chapter III

This incident was related by Robert Stephenson during a voyage to the north of Scotland in 1857, when off Montrose, on board his yacht Titania; and the reminiscence was immediately communicated to the author by the late Mr. William Kell, of Gateshead, who was present, at Mr. Stephenson's request, as being worthy of insertion in his father's biography. Mr. George Elliott, one of the most skilled coal-viewers in the North, was of the party, and expressed his admiration at the ready skill with which the difficulty had been overcome, the expedient of the boot being then unknown in the Northumberland and Durham mines. He acknowledged it to be "a wrinkle," adding that its application would, in several instances within his own knowledge, have been of great practical value.