hearted fellows in
the main--frank and openhanded with their comrades, and ready to share
their last penny with those in distress. Their pay-nights were often a
saturnalia of riot and disorder, dreaded by the inhabitants of the
villages along the line of works. The irruption of such men into the
quiet hamlet of Kilsby must, indeed, have produced a very startling
effect on the recluse inhabitants of the place. Robert Stephenson used
to tell a story of the clergyman of the parish waiting upon the foreman
of one of the gangs to expostulate with him as to the shocking
impropriety of his men working during Sunday. But the head navvy merely
hitched up his trousers, and said, "Why, Soondays hain't cropt out here
yet!" In short, the navvies were little better than heathens, and the
village of Kilsby was not restored to its wonted quiet until the
tunnel-works were finished, and the engines and scaffoldings removed,
leaving only the immense masses of _debris_ around the line of shafts
which extend along the top of the tunnel.

In illustration of the extraordinary working energy and powers of
endurance of the English navvies, we may mention that when railway-making
extended to France, the English contractors for the works took with them
gangs of English navvies, with the usual plant, which included
wheelbarrows. These the English navvy was accustomed to run out rapidly
and continuously, piled so high with "stuff" that he could barely see
over the summit of his load, the gang-board along which he wheeled his
barrow. While he thus easily ran out some 3 or 4 cwt. at a time, the
French navvy was contented with half the weight. Indeed, the French
navvies on one occasion struck work because of the size of the English
barrows, and there was an _emeute_ on the Rouen Railway, which was only
quelled by the aid of the military. The consequence was that the big
barrows were abandoned to the English workmen, who earned nearly double
the wages of the Frenchmen. The manner in which they stood to their work
was matter of great surprise and wonderment to the French countrypeople,
who came crowding round them in their blouses, and, after gazing
admiringly at their expert handling of the pick and mattock, and the
immense loads of "dirt" which they wheeled out, would exclaim to each
other, "_Mon Dieu_, _voila_! _voila ces Anglais_, _comme ils
travaillent_!"

CHAPTER XIV.
MANCHESTER AND LEEDS, AND MIDLAND RAILWAYS--STEPHENSON'S LIFE