t a proper training in
technical science was indispensable to success in the higher walks of the
engineer's profession; and he determined to give to his son that kind and
degree of education which he so much desired for himself. He would thus,
he knew, secure a hearty and generous co-worker in the elaboration of the
great ideas now looming before him, and with their united practical and
scientific knowledge he probably felt that they would be equal to any
enterprise.

He accordingly took Robert from his labours as under-viewer in the West
Moor Pit, and in October, 1822, sent him to the Edinburgh University,
there being then no college in England accessible to persons of moderate
means, for purposes of scientific culture. Robert was furnished with
letters of introduction to several men of literary eminence in Edinburgh;
his father's reputation in connexion with the safety-lamp being of
service to him in this respect. He lodged in Drummond Street, in the
immediate vicinity of the college, and attended the Chemical Lectures of
Dr. Hope, the Natural Philosophy Lectures of Sir John Leslie, and the
Natural History Class of Professor Jameson. He also devoted several
evenings in each week to the study of practical Chemistry under Dr. John
Murray, himself one of the numerous designers of a safety-lamp. He took
careful notes of all the lectures, which he copied out at night before he
went to bed; so that, when he returned to Killingworth, he might read
them over to his father. He afterwards had the notes bound up, and
placed in his library. Long years after, when conversing with Thomas
Harrison, C.E., at his house in Gloucester Square, he rose from his seat
and took down a volume from the shelves. Mr. Harrison observed that the
book was in MS., neatly written out. "What have we here?" he asked. The
answer was--"When I went to college, I knew the difficulty my father had
in collecting the funds to send me there. Before going I studied
short-hand; while at Edinburgh, I took down verbatim every lecture; and
in the evenings, before I went to bed, I transcribed those lectures word
for word. You see the result in that range of books."

One of the practical sciences in the study of which Robert Stephenson
took special interest while at Edinburgh was that of geology. The
situation of the city, in the midst of a district of highly interesting
geological formation, easily accessible to pedestrians, is indeed most
favourable t