d go rambling along the hedges spying for nests.
In the autumn he went nutting, and when he could snatch a few minutes he
indulged in his old love of gardening. His uniform kindness and good
temper, and his communicative, intelligent disposition, made him a great
favourite with the neighbouring farmers, to whom he would volunteer much
valuable advice on agricultural operations, drainage, ploughing, and
labour-saving processes. Sometimes he took a long rural ride on his
favourite "Bobby," now growing old, but as fond of his master as ever.
Towards the end of his life, "Bobby" lived in clover, its master's pet,
doing no work; and he died at Tapton, in 1845, more than twenty years
old.

During one of George's brief sojourns at the Grange, he found time to
write to his son a touching account of a pair of robins that had built
their nest within one of the upper chambers of the house. One day he
observed a robin fluttering outside the windows, and beating its wings
against the panes, as if eager to gain admission. He went up stairs, and
there found, in a retired part of one of the rooms, a robin's nest, with
one of the parent birds sitting over three or four young--all dead. The
excluded bird outside still beat against the panes; and on the window
being let down, it flew into the room, but was so exhausted that it
dropped upon the floor. Mr. Stephenson took up the bird, carried it down
stairs, had it warmed and fed. The poor robin revived, and for a time
was one of his pets. But it shortly died too, as if unable to recover
from the privations it had endured during its three days' fluttering and
beating at the windows. It appeared that the room had been unoccupied,
and, the sash having been let down, the robins had taken the opportunity
of building their nest within it; but the servant having closed the
window again, the calamity befel the birds which so strongly excited Mr.
Stephenson's sympathies. An incident such as this, trifling though it
may seem, gives the true key to the heart of the man.

The amount of their Parliamentary business having greatly increased with
the projection of new lines of railway, the Stephensons found it
necessary to set up an office in London in 1836. George's first office
was at 9, Duke Street, Westminster, from whence he removed in the
following year to 30.5, Great George-street. That office was the busy
scene of railway politics for several years. There consultations were
held, sc