He  was  so  thoughtful,  so  original,  and  so  sugges-
tive. There  was  scarcely  a  department  of  science
on  which  he  had  not  formed  some  novel  and  some-
times daring  theory.  Thus  Mr.  Gooch,  his  pupil,
who  lived  with  him  when  at  Liverpool,  informs  us
that  when  sitting  over  the  fire,  he  would  frequently
broach  his  favourite  theory  of  the  sun's  light  and
heat  being  the  original  source  of  the  Mght  and  heat
given  forth  by  the  burinng  coal.  "It  fed  the  plants
of  which  that  coal  is  made,"  he  would  say,  **and
has  been  bottled  up  in  the  earth  ever  since,  to
be  given  out  again  now  for  the  use  of  man."  His
son  Robert  once  said  of  him,  *'  My  father  flashed
his  hull's  eye  full  upon  a  subject,  and  brought  it
out  in  its  most  vivid  light  in  an  instant :  his  strong
common  sense,  and  his  varied  experience  operating
upon  a  thoughtful  mind,  were  his  most  powerful
illuminators."

Mr.  Stephenson  had  once  a  conversation  with
a  watch  maker,  whom  he  astonished  by  the  extent
and  minuteness  of  his  knowledge  as  to  the  parts
of  a  watch.  The  watchmaker  knew  him  to  be  an
eminent    engineer,    and    asked    him    how  he    had


4


CHAP  XIX]


HIS    BENEVOLENCE


453


acquired  so  extensive  a  knowledge  of  a  branch  of
business  so  much  out  of  his  sphere.  '*  It  is  very
easy  to  be  explained,"  said  Mr.  Stephenson ;  "  I
worked  long  at  watch-cleaning  myself,  and  when
I  was  at  a  loss,  I  was  never  ashamed  to  ask  for
information."

Towards  the  close  of  his  life  he  frequently  went
down  to  Newcastle,  and  visited  the  scenes  of  his
boyhood.  "  I  have  been  to  Callerton,"  said  he  one
day  to  a  friend,  "and  seen  the  fields  in  which  I  used
to  pull  turnips  at  twopence  a  day;  and  many  a  cold
finger,  I  can  tell  you,  I  had."

His  hand  was  open  to  his  former  fellow-work-
men whom  old  age  had  left  in  poverty.  To  poor
Robert  Gray^  oi  Newburn,  who  acted  as  his  brides-
man on  his  marriage  to  Fanny  Henderson,  he  left
a  pension  for  life.  He  would  slip  a  five-pound  note
into  the  hand  of  a  poor  man  or  a  widow  in  such
a  way  as  not  to  offend  their  delicacy,  but  to  make
them  feel  as  if  the  obligation  were  all  on  his  side.
