l beneath the surface.
He wrote to his father about it, and as the estate was at the time for
sale, George, now a comparatively wealthy man, bought it up on his
son's recommendation. He also pitched his home close by at Alton
Grange, and began to sink shafts in search of coal. He found it in due
time; and thus, in addition to his Newcastle works, he became a
flourishing colliery proprietor. It is pleasing to note that
Stephenson, unlike too many other self-made men, always treated his
workmen with the 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 comfort
and opulence; growing big pines and melons, keeping birds and dogs, and
indulging himself towards the end in the well-earned repose to which
his useful and laborious life fully entitled him