went until, twenty-two feet lower, he came upon the
coal measures. In the mean time, however, lest the boring at that point
should prove unsuccessful, he had commenced sinking another pair of
shafts about a quarter of a mile west of the "fault;" and after about
nine months' labour he reached the principal seam, called the "main
coal."

The works were then opened out on a large scale, and Mr. Stephenson had
the pleasure and good fortune to send the first train of main coal to
Leicester by railway. The price was immediately reduced to about 8s. a
ton, effecting a pecuniary saving to the inhabitants of the town of about
40,000 pounds per annum, or equivalent to the whole amount then collected
in Government taxes and local rates, besides giving an impetus to the
manufacturing prosperity of the place, which has continued down to the
present day. The correct principles upon which the mining operations at
Snibston were conducted offered a salutary example to the neighbouring
colliery owners. The numerous improvements there introduced were freely
exhibited to all, and they were afterwards reproduced in many forms all
over the Midland Counties, greatly to the advantage of the mining
interest.

Nor was Mr. Stephenson less attentive to the comfort and well-being of
those immediately dependent upon him--the workpeople of the Snibston
colliery and their families. Unlike many of those large employers who
have "sprung from the ranks," he was one of the kindest and most
indulgent of masters. He would have a fair day's work for a fair day's
wages; but he never forgot that the employer had his duties as well as
his rights. First of all, he attended to the proper home accommodation
of his workpeople. He erected a village of comfortable cottages, each
provided with a snug little garden. He was also instrumental in erecting
a church adjacent to the works, as well as Church schools for the
education of the colliers' children; and with that broad catholicity of
sentiment which distinguished him, he further provided a chapel and a
school-house for the use of the Dissenting portion of the colliers and
their families--an example of benevolent liberality which was not without
a salutary influence upon the neighbouring employers.

[Picture: Stephenson's House at Alton Grange]

[Picture: Robert Stephenson]

CHAPTER XIII.
ROBERT STEPHENSON CONSTRUCTS THE LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.

Of