un through a district in which passengers were supposed
to be likely to constitute any considerable portion of the traffic.

We may easily imagine the anxiety felt by Mr. Stephenson during the
progress of the works towards completion, and his mingled hopes and
doubts (though his doubts were but few) as to the issue of this great
experiment. When the formation of the line near Stockton was well
advanced, Mr. Stephenson one day, accompanied by his son Robert and John
Dixon, made a journey of inspection of the works. The party reached
Stockton, and proceeded to dine at one of the inns there. After dinner,
Stephenson ventured on the very unusual measure of ordering in a bottle
of wine, to drink success to the railway. John Dixon relates with pride
the utterance of the master on the occasion. "Now, lads," said he to the
two young men, "I venture to tell you that I think you will live to see
the day when railways will supersede almost all other methods of
conveyance in this country--when mail-coaches will go by railway, and
railroads will become the great highway for the king and all his
subjects. The time is coming when it will be cheaper for a working man
to travel upon a railway than to walk on foot. I know there are great
and almost insurmountable difficulties to be encountered; but what I have
said will come to pass as sure as you live. I only wish I may live to
see the day, though that I can scarcely hope for, as I know how slow all
human progress is, and with what difficulty I have been able to get the
locomotive thus far adopted, notwithstanding my more than ten years'
successful experiment at Killingworth." The result, however, outstripped
even the most sanguine anticipations of Stephenson; and his son Robert,
shortly after his return from America in 1827, saw his father's
locomotive generally employed as the tractive power on railways.

The Stockton and Darlington line was opened for traffic on the 27th
September, 1825. An immense concourse of people assembled from all parts
to witness the ceremony of opening this first public railway. The
powerful opposition which the project had encountered, the threats which
were still uttered against the company by the road-trustees and others,
who declared that they would yet prevent the line being worked, and
perhaps the general unbelief as to its success which still prevailed,
tended to excite the curiosity of the public as to the result. Some went
to rejoice at t