Note 71 — PART III. LOCAL DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS.

The cottage is still standing in the neighbourhood of Wylam, in which George Stephenson first saw the light. Aided, in due time, by his son, worthy of such a father, he did more than any other man to elaborate our present railway system. The antiquary who has been revelling in the associations of the past will scarcely fail, as he looks down from his Wall-traversed heights upon the vale which gave birth to such a man, to give for a moment the reins to his imagination, and suffering his mind to penetrate the mists of futurity, ruminate upon the changes which the efforts of the Stephensons are destined to produce, not only in the physical, but in the moral aspect of society.