subscriber for shares in the London and York line, for 52,000 pounds.
Doubtless he had been made useful for the purpose by the brokers, his
employers.

{309} "When my father came about the office," said Robert, "he sometimes
did not well know what to do with himself. So he used to invite Bidder
to have a wrestle with him, for old acquaintance' sake. And the two
wrestled together so often, and had so many 'falls' (sometimes I thought
they would bring the house down between them), that they broke half the
chairs in my outer office. I remember once sending my father in a
joiner's bill of about 2 pounds 10s. for mending broken chairs."

{324} The simple fact that in a heavy storm the force of impact of the
waves is from one and a-half to two tons per square foot, must
necessarily dictate the greatest possible caution in approaching so
formidable an element. Mr. R. Stevenson (Edinburgh) registered a force
of three tons per square foot at Skerryvore, during a gale in the
Atlantic, when the waves were supposed to run twenty feet high.

{327} Robert Stephenson's narrative in Clark's 'Britannia and Conway
Tubular Bridges,' vol. i. p. 27.

{329a} 'Account of the Construction of the Britannia and Conway Tubular
Bridges.' By W. Fairbairn, C.E. London, 1849.

{329b} Mr. Stephenson continued to hold that the elliptical tube was the
right idea, and that sufficient justice had not been done to it. A year
or two before his death Mr. Stephenson remarked to the author, that had
the same arrangement for stiffening been adopted to which the oblong
rectangular tubes owe a great part of their strength, a very different
result would have been obtained.

{335} 'The Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges.' By Edwin Clark. Vol.
II, pp. 683-4.

{336} No. 34, Gloucester Square, Hyde Park, where he lived.

{350} The above anecdote is given on the authority of Mr. Sopwith.
F.R.S.

{354} The second Mrs. Stephenson having died in 1845, George married a
third time in 1848, about six months before his death. The third Mrs.
Stephenson had for some time been his housekeeper.

{368} In 1829 Robert Stephenson married Frances, daughter of John
Sanderson, merchant, London; but she died in 1842, without issue, and Mr.
Stephenson did not marry again. Until the close of his life, Robert
Stephenson was accustomed twice in every year to visit his wife's grave
in Hampstead churchyard.

{377} Address as President of the Institution of