g;
and his success in these feats of rivalry was certainly remarkable. Few,
if any, could lift such weights, throw the hammer and putt the stone so
far, or cover so great a space at a standing or running leap. One day,
between the engine hour and the rope-rolling hour, Kit Heppel challenged
him to leap from one high wall to another, with a deep gap between. To
Heppel's surprise and dismay, George took the standing leap, and cleared
the eleven feet at a bound. Had his eye been less accurate, or his limbs
less agile and sure, the feat must have cost him his life.

But so full of redundant muscular vigour was he, that leaping, putting,
or throwing the hammer were not enough for him. He was also ambitious of
riding on horseback, and, as he had not yet been promoted to an office
enabling him to keep a horse of his own, he sometimes borrowed one of the
gin-horses for a ride. On one of these occasions, he brought the animal
back reeking; when Tommy Mitcheson, the bank horse-keeper, a rough-spoken
fellow, exclaimed to him: "Set such fellows as you on horseback, and
you'll soon ride to the De'il." But Tommy Mitcheson lived to tell the
joke, and to confess that, after all, there had been a better issue to
George's horsemanship than that which he predicted.

Old Cree, the engine-wright at Killingworth High Pit, having been killed
by an accident, George Stephenson was, in 1812, appointed engine-wright
of the colliery at the salary of 100 pounds a year. He was also allowed
the use of a galloway to ride upon in his visits of inspection to the
collieries leased by the "Grand Allies" in that neighbourhood. The
"Grand Allies" were a company of gentlemen, consisting of Sir Thomas
Liddell (afterwards Lord Ravensworth), the Earl of Strathmore, and Mr.
Stuart Wortley (afterwards Lord Wharncliffe), the lessees of the
Killingworth collieries. Having been informed of the merits of
Stephenson, of his indefatigable industry, and the skill which he had
displayed in the repairs of the pumping-engines, they readily acceded to
Mr. Dodds' recommendation that he should be appointed the colliery
engine-wright; and, as we shall afterwards find, they continued to honour
him by distinguished marks of their approval.

[Picture: Killingworth High Pit]

[Picture: Glebe Farm House, Benton]

CHAPTER IV.
THE STEPHENSONS AT KILLINGWORTH--EDUCATION AND SELF-EDUCATION OF FATHER
AND SON.

George Steph