of the 'Globe' newspaper.

There is nothing to interest one in the village itself. But a few
hundred yards from its eastern extremity stands a humble detached
dwelling, which will be interesting to many as the birthplace of one of
the most remarkable men of our times--George Stephenson, the Railway
Engineer. It is a common two-storied, red-tiled, rubble house, portioned
off into four labourers' apartments. It is known by the name of High
Street House, and was originally so called because it stands by the side
of what used to be the old riding post road or street between Newcastle
and Hexham, along which the post was carried on horseback within the
memory of persons living.

The lower room in the west end of this house was the home of the
Stephenson family; and there George Stephenson was born, the second of a
family of six children, on the 9th of June, 1781. The apartment is now,
what it was then, an ordinary labourer's dwelling,--its walls are
unplastered, its floor is of clay, and the bare rafters are exposed
overhead.

Robert Stephenson, or "Old Bob," as the neighbours familiarly called him,
and his wife Mabel, were a respectable couple, careful and hard-working.
It is said that Robert Stephenson's father was a Scotchman, and came into
England as a gentleman's servant. Mabel, his wife, was the daughter of
Robert Carr, a dyer at Ovingham. When first married, they lived at
Walbottle, a village situated between Wylam and Newcastle, afterwards
removing to Wylam, where Robert was employed as fireman of the old
pumping engine at that colliery.

[Picture: High-street House, Wylam, the Birthplace of George Stephenson]

An old Wylam collier, who remembered George Stephenson's father, thus
described him:--"Geordie's fayther war like a peer o' deals nailed
thegither, an' a bit o' flesh i' th' inside; he war as queer as Dick's
hatband--went thrice aboot, an' wudn't tie. His wife Mabel war a
delicat' boddie, an' varry flighty. Thay war an honest family, but sair
hadden doon i' th' world." Indeed, the earnings of old Robert did not
amount to more than twelve shillings a week; and, as there were six
children to maintain, the family, during their stay at Wylam, were
necessarily in very straitened circumstances. The father's wages being
barely sufficient, even with the most rigid economy, for the sustenance
of the household, there was little to spare for clothing, and nothing for
education, so none of the children we