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DARLINGTON,
SEPTAEMBER 277A Awd 28zº, 1875.
REPORTS OF PROCEED INGS
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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
EDITED BY J. S. JEANS.
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DARLINGTON :
E. D. WALKER, WESTBROOK BUILDINGS,
1875,
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R. A. ILWAY J U B I L E E
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DARLINGTON,
SEPTEMBER 277H Awd 28th, 1875.
REPORTS OF PROCEEDINGS
AND
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS,
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DARLINGTON :
E. D. WALKER, WESTBROOK BUILDINGS.
1875.
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P. R. E. F. A 0 E.
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THE celebration of the Jubilee of the Stockton and Darlington Railway,
the first public line in the United Kingdom worked by locomotives,
took place at Darlington on the 27th and 28th of September 1875. An
extraordinary degree of interest was manifested in the event, not alone
in the immediate locality of its occurrence, but in all parts of the country.
Nor is this at all a matter of surprise. It was the first celebration of its
kind. It was, moreover, the celebration of the Jubilee, not of the first
railway—for some twenty apparent Acts of Parliament had been obtained
for the construction of railways previous to the Royal Assent being .
§ccorded to the Act for the construction of the Stockton and Darlington
Railway in 1821—but of the first public railway on which steam locomo-
tion was employed, and without that now familiar and indispensable
accessory, railways could hardly be regarded as existing in their normal
and practical aspect.
It was not until some few months previous to the actual celebration,
that the Directors of the North Eastern Railway Company resolved on
commemorating with suitable festivities the Jubilee of their Stockton and
Darlington section. While they were holding a meeting in London in
the spring of this year, Mr Henry Pease proposed that “in consideration
of the importance of the event,” the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of
the Stockton and Darlington Railway “should be celebrated in a suit-
able manner.” This resolution was unanimously carried, and the
following gentlemen were appointed to make the necessary provisional
arrangements, viz., Mr. Leeman, M.P., Mr I. L. Bell, M.P., Mr H.
Pease, Mr Kitson, Mr I. Wilson, Mr J. F. Elliot, Mr W. R. Hunter, Mr
W. C. Copperthwaite, Mr A. Kitching, Mr J. W. Pease, M.P., Mr A.
Pease, Mr H. F. Pease, Mr W. Thompson, Mr W. C. Stobart, Mr David
Dale, and Mr W. R. I. Hopkins.
By a happy and convenient coincidence, it transpired that the Joseph
Pease Memorial Committee expected to have the statue erected to the
memory of that gentleman ready for unveiling about the time that the
Jubilee fell due. This circumstance invested the Jubilee with double
interest and significance. The late Mr Joseph Pease was one of the
most active promoters and directors of the Stockton and Darlington
line from its commencement, so that nothing could have been more
appropriate than the intimate association of his memory with such an
4
occasion as its fiftieth anniversary. It was not an easy matter for the
Jubilee Committee to determine on the precise form to be taken by the
festival; and the problem was all the more difficult of solution that it
was an event without precedent or parallel. But, after due consideration,
the Committee resolved that their programme should embrace the
following items:–
First, An exhibition of locomotive engines, illustrative of the progress
of this phase of engineering from the year 1825, when the first
locomotive ran on a public railway.
Second, The unveiling of the statue of the late Mr Joseph Pease.
Third, A great banquet, to which the representatives of all the prin-
cipal railways in the world should be invited.
Fourth, Excursions to places of Hindustrial interest on or near the
Stockton and Darlington Railway.
A large amount was placed at the disposal of the Local Committee for
the purposes of the celebration. In carrying out the necessary arrange-
ments, moreover, the North Eastern Directors received the hearty co-
operation of the Darlington Corporation, which, on the second day of
September resolved, that as the system of public railways had its origin
at Darlington, the town should aid the Directors of the North Eastern
Railway in making the celebration of the Jubilee as worthy and attractive
as possible. For this purpose a sum of £1000 was voted by the Town
Council on the ninth of the same month ; and it was also determined that
the inhabitants should be provided with gas free of charge, for the
illumination of the principal thoroughfares.
All the principal newspapers in the country were represented at the
Jubilee Festival, and most of them furnished lengthy reports of the pro-
ceedings. But as it is awkward to preserve newspaper reports in their
original shape, and as different journals almost of necessity regarded
the event and its celebration from different points of view, it has been
deemed desirable to collate and republish in a convenient and more per-
manent form the essence of the various accounts of the day's proceedings.
This decision cannot fail to commend itself to all who are in the remotest
degree interested in the memorable events of the memorable 27th of
September ; and in achieving its fulfilment there is every reason to
believe that the record herewith submitted will be regarded by many
thousands of those who took parts in the festivities as a fit and
proper completion of the labours which the Jubilee Committee, after
much anxiety and effort, have at last seen consummated to their entire
satisfaction.
C O N T E N T S.
DARLINGTON IN HOLIDAY COSTUME
THE PROCESSION & & &
OPENING OF THE LOCOMOTIVE EXEIIBITION
RECEPTION OF THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON
TJNVEILING OF THE JOSEPH PEASE STATUE
THE BANQUET . & º º
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS * º
PROCEEDINGS OF TUESDAY tº
VISIT TO SALTBURN-BY-THE-SEA
PAGE
Il
15
16
18
25
46
THE RAILWAY J U BILE E.
–32–
DARLINGTON IN HOLIDAY COSTUME
(From the Newcastle Daily Chronicle.)
IT would be difficult, perhaps, for any event to be celebrated with
more earnestness, or more becoming enthusiasm, than the Railway
Jubilee received at the hands of the people of Darlington on Monday.
The really beautiful little “Quaker City” was in every sense of the word
en fete. The leaders of the peaceful community had liberally supported
the munificence of the railway kings; the corporate authorities were
fully aroused to a sense of their own duty; and thus it happened—
despite obstacles and drawbacks of the most serious nature—that their
long list of popular spectacles approached so nearly to complete success.
For the due effectiveness of any festival in which ornate display was
intended to form such an important auxiliary, it was, as may be supposed,
eminently desirable that the fates should be propitious. For the sake
of bunting that had not faced the storms of a thousand years, it was
hoped that rude Boreas would only send forth his gentlest breezes; and
for the sake of the gay plumes, and the brighter smiles of the fair young
damsels who were expected to lend their charms to every scene, it was
hoped that Jupiter Pluvius, of all others, would have his watering-pot
under proper and favourable control. There were some sanguine persons
who ventured to predict that this would actually be the case. They had
in mind a somewhat primitive gathering of half a century ago, when a
magnificently wooded rendezvous, at the foot of Brusselton incline, lay
bathed in a perfect glory of sunlight. They remembered how this happy
augury had given nerve and confidence to the hardy pioneers of the iron
age, and how it had also imparted pleasure to those who, in their rude con-
veyances, and simpler dress, had kindly come to countenance the inaugura-
tion of a new era in the national history. Fortified by such cheering recol-
lections, it was perhaps not unreasonable to imagine that the brightness
which heralded the birthday of railways would be accorded to the marvel-
lous triumphs of a good old age. To those who entertained hopes of such
a character, and were calculating upon a gay and brave show, the boister-
ous dawn of Monday must indeed have acted as a very depressing shock.
All through the long night the wind had blown with the force and con-
tinuity of a hurricane, and had raised many fears for the safety of tents
8
and bunting which the gratified townsmen had so profusely set forth.
Intending banqueters must have suffered a martyrdom at almost every
whistling gust, as they could not fail to conjure up visions of canvas in
collapse, and dainty edibles in a sad state of chaos. When, however,
the horrors of this description were augmented by the heavy clatter of
beating rain, there not only seemed some prospect of a spoiled or missing
dinner, but an absolute certainty that the delicate adornments of the
town would speedily assume the drabbled and washed-out appearance
which is ever so fatal to effect. Subsequent investigation proved how
well the fears had been grounded. Handsome streamers were lowered
as ignominiously as the commonest of chimney pots; mottoes were half
obliterated ; floral beauties were disarranged and uprooted; Wenetian
columns were given an inclination that added nothing to their symmetry
or grace; and, above all, the “village of marquees” had been disordered
and weakened by the unlooked-for strain to which the frail erections
had been exposed. One of the refreshment tents—not an official—was
borne to the ground, and several others suffered in part. The banqueting
hall, which had already been decked with the customary glass and ware,
stood the fury of the blast bravely; but though it escaped in the end
without any serious damage, the tension upon the ropes was frequently so
extreme that, in order to guard against possible contingencies, the whole of
the costly contents were removed. This sudden move occurred during the
small hours of the morning, and, with daylight, many other plans were
devised for warding off the still threatening danger. Happily, however,
the wind storm abated without inflicting further loss, and attention was
then directed to the soiled and damaged bunting in the streets. Rain
still fell heavily, and continued to do so until close upon noon; but the
embellishers, having determined upon a display, continued their work
with undiminished energy, and soon again had the thoroughfares as
radiant as vari-coloured bunting could make them.
While there was nothing unusually grand in the groupings, or strikingly
ingenious in the designs, the general effect of the decorations must be
regarded as extremely imposing. As seen from the station at Bank
Top, there could scarcely be anything more attractive than the fine
Avenue of Venetian pillars that stretched along the Victoria Road.
Each mast was capped with a large banner, a massive triumphal arch
formed an appropriate finish to the drive, and away on every side were
to be seen the picturesque little villas, the dainty gardens, and the
well-wooded country scenes, which always render the environs of
Darlington so charming. The arch itself—though by no means over-
stocked with beauty—was decidedly superior to any of its rivals, and,
in fact, may be said to have constituted the only structure on which
anything like architectural skill had been expended. It was a sub-
stantial erection, coated with white paint, and adorned on both summit
and façade with trophies of flags, garlands of artificial flowers, and a
number of Small shields that were neatly embowered in heather.
9
Immediately above the span, on a ground of Scarlet cloth, was a white
lettered announcement that it honoured the “Pioneers of Railway
Enterprise;” and appropriately appended in side scrolls were the names
of Stephenson, Meynell, Flounders, Pease, Kitching, Gilkes, Mewburn,
Dixon, Backhouse, and Macnay. In the aristocratic precincts of
Grange Road were many smaller attempts after the artistic, and,
at the end, abutting on the Trevelyan Hotel, a somewhat stiff and
paltry-looking archway was placed over the entrance to Blackwellgate.
Blackwellgate, from one end to the other, was very highly beautified by
its residents, and afforded access to the Market Place through a second
of the “Rosinante” arches. It was after passing this arch, however, that
the grandest and most complete spectacle was to be found. Venetian
columns, separated by only short intervals, entirely surrounded the open
market. From the summit of each of them fluttered a large and hand-
some banner; half-way down the pillars were the never-failing shields
and trophies; and connecting the whole together, so as to form a com-
plete chain, were swinging festoons of pink, yellow, and white roses,
relieved with the darker tints of laurel. Beneath these floral garlands
were strings of Venetian lamps, and augmenting these again were many
brilliant crystals on the walls; but although the variety and delicacy of
the glass in both these cases can only be seen to full perfection during the
course of an illumination, they now formed a by no means insignificant
adjunct to the charming aspect of the scene. Bunting was conspicuous
in all the windows, and dangled from nearly all the walls. Every
possible colour was revealed in some shape—from the blue Peter to the
royal standard—and many nationalities were represented. Union
Jacks, foreign eagles, Maltese crosses, and “mongrel” adaptations, were
all curiously intermingled; while more prominent than all, owing to its
central site over the market-house, floated the corporate banner of the
borough of Darlington. The fine banks and business places along the
High Row were not slow to follow the laudable example which had
been set them, and gay balconies, massive drapery, rich bunting, floral
wreaths, and phantom outlines of gas-piping, showed how amply their
owners had responded to the popular wishes for a day and night display.
Regarded from any point, the view in the great square was both gay
and artistic, and reflected the utmost credit on those who had laboured
for such a satisfactory result. Tubwell Row — where, at one time,
future millionaires are supposed to have frequently kicked about in
clogs—was now far too gorgeously decked, and far too busy to tolerate any
such frivolous pastime. Everything in the shape of light amusement,
indeed, seemed to have disappeared as utterly as the thatched roof and
the pack ass; and enterprising publicans, grateful for favours past, or
hopeful for those to come, were now chiefly busy with mottoes to the
“Success of the Mayor and Corporation,” or of “Welcome” to their
anxiously awaited guests. At the Bondgate end of the market was one
of the “stock arches,” and a similar structure spanned the entrance to
10
the Northgate; but the wish for “Success to the North Eastern Rail-
way,” and the prayer for the “Prosperity of Darlington” were as devoid
of originality as the structures were lacking in grace. Northgate did
much to atone for the shortcomings of other places. Chasteness and
simplicity were the prevailing characteristics of the decoration at Pease's
office—the building being entirely outlined with oil lamps—and similar
terms of approval may be fairly used concerning the displays at the
Stockton and Darlington offices, at Messrs Clifford and Palliser's, at
the workmen's institute, at the railway shops, and at many other places.
along this portion of the route. If we except one or two scrolls like
“peace, economy, and progress,” “home and happiness,” or “the pick,
the Bible, and the locomotive, the sources of England's greatness,” it
may be almost said that there was an entire lack of suitable or well-
executed mottoes. Pictorial representations, too, were conspicuous only
by their absence; and, therefore, when we remember the great similarity
in the flags, the remarkable lack of variety in design, and the havoc
made by the rainfall, it is surprising that the general effect should have
proved so pleasing and attractive.
While the thoroughfares were thus assuming their holiday garb, the
town was rapidly filling with holiday makers. Both railway stations
were ornamented with furze and laurel and flowers; both were heavily
laden with never-failing stripes of bunting ; and both offered all
comers “Welcome to Darlington.” But there was little need for any
special welcome. The sightseers, apparently unmindful of the un-
propitious state of the elements, were being landed as quickly as the
heavily-laden trains could get alongside the various platforms, and
scenes of considerable confusion ensued. Though most of them made
their way to the town at once, there were not a few who stayed to
chaff the station officials as to some trifling defect in railway manage-
ment, or as to the miserable, dirty, and comfortless character of the
carriages. Some of the incensed travellers were of opinion that fifty years
had seen but little improvement in the make of vehicles, as the present
“third-class” accommodation was scarcely better than that afforded
by “the wagons” in use at the opening of the line. The cramped
appearance of many of the arrivals seemed to give a semblance of truth
to the idea; and led one indignant workman to declare that the Jubilee
should not only have been celebrated by the burning of all the old stock,
but by the inauguration of a more comfortable era for those who travelled
on the line, and who had so largely helped the North Eastern shareholders
to their present enviable position amongst the great companies of the
country. Thousands of holiday seekers had reached their destination by
noon, and their restless wanderings soon converted the roadways into hor-
rible pools of puddle and slush, and caused a cover to be given to many
articles of apparel from which they could never completely recover. Dirty
men and bedaubed women were seen everywhere. They were jostled by
bands, hustled by policemen, and intercepted at every point by Friendly
11
Society processions; but still, though they were thus beset, and though
they were compelled for a long time to brave the fury of the elements,
they never seemed to lose confidence in the ultimate fineness of the day.
Gleams of sunshine rewarded their patience at last, and then they were
enabled to view the sights with tolerable comfort, to explode their witti-
cisms without let or hindrance, and to interest themselves heartily in
the various events of the day.
THE PROCESSION.
(From the Stockton and Darlington Times.)
The day's programme commenced with a procession to escort the guests
of the North-Eastern Railway Company to the exhibition of engines in
the North Road Shops, and afterwards to accompany the Mayor of the
greatest city in the world from Bank Top Station to the Pease statue.
The procession was officially announced to form under the direction of
Superintendent Rogers at 1.30, but at least half-an-hour before that time
bands were playing, flags unfurled, and men with ribbons in their
button-holes were either being marshalled or were stirring about with
the bustle which characterises people on the eve of a great event. The
members of the Friendly Societies felt that they were indispensable to
the success of the day's proceedings, and as red-letter days come seldom,
resolved to be equal to the occasion. He must have been a very Timon
of Athens who would have attempted to strangle the emotions of
pleasure at the sight. The High Row was crowded with thousands of
expectant spectators. Every balcony and place where view was possible
was filled. Above all, the Sun shone with unexpected warmth and
brilliancy. And so the crowd surged, the bands played, Oddfellows
were for the moment mixed up with Druids, and Foresters with
Good Templars, while policemen mounted and on foot busily engaged
themselves in keeping order. But everybody was good-humoured
and patient ; and at length, after much adjusting, the procession
moved off, mounted police clearing the way. The procession was led
by the 15th Durham Rifle Volunteers with Band-major George Mount-
ford at their head. Next came the Directors of the North Eastern
Railway Company, their guests, and others connected with the
Company. These were followed by the Mayor and Corporation of
Darlington, representatives of other towns, members of the Pease
Memorial Committee, &c. Then came what chiefly the crowd came
out to see. There had passed bearers, strangely clad, carrying mace,
and sword, and wand; men wearing fur caps, unlike anything that
Christie or Lincoln and Bennett ever designed ; groups of civic persons
so wonderfully apparelled that it was difficult to tell which was Mr
Mayor and which was his lackey. Even the Darlington bellman, in
dress almost as gorgeous as that of the Shah, had gone by. But the
people looked for the Friendly Societies, in which most had an interest.
12
And the Societies made a show worth looking at as they marched past
with their banners and bands, insignia and badges. There were the
Temperance bodies with their rosettes and strange collars; other orders
with their variously coloured Scarfs, and stonemasons with their buff
aprons. Among the peculiarities of the procession may be mentioned
a Robin Hood, got up en régle—buskins, cap and feather, and tunic of
Lincoln green. Carrying a bow, he walked with a firm step and looked
as if he meant mischief. But the mischief was only in appearance; so
far as we have been able to ascertain, not a single arrow was shot by
this bold Forester. Also, at the head of the Independent Order of
Oddfellows walked two officials in surplices, with coloured sashes over
their shoulders, and college caps on their heads: one of them carried a
silver-headed crook. These things, like some of the insignia, are a para-
ble to the uninitiated—as of course they are intended to be. The marching
was not so steady and regular as might have been desired : a little drill
previous to such occasions might with advantage be undergone; and
the bands throughout the procession might have been more evenly
distributed. But the sight was one which gave great satisfaction to the
beholders, and seemed to afford pleasure to those who took part in it.
As regards the length of the procession, it is calculated that more than
4000 persons walked in it, and over twenty minutes were occupied in
passing the point at which we made our observations. The road, and
the balconies and windows along it, were thronged by spectators. The
following was the order of procession :-
SIX MOUNTED INSPECTORS OF POLICE.
Band of the 15th D.R.V., preceded by Band-major Mountford.
Directors of the North Eastern Railway Company —George Leeman, M.P.
(chairman); H. Pease, J. W. Pease, M.P.; I. L. Bell, M.P.; D. Dale, Isaac
Wilson, George Fenwick, James Kitson, Dodsworth, J. Cleghorn, W. C.
Copperthwaite, W. R. I. Hopkins, J. F. Elliott, the Earl of Feversham, Sir
H. M. Thompson, Sir H. H. Johnstone, M.P., and C. H. Wilson, M.P.
Guests of the Company:—Mr Priestman, Mr Swan, Stockton; T. E. Harrison,
C.E.; Henry Crossfield, Norwich, London, and North Western Railway
Company; R. Moon, Chairman of the London and North Western Railway
Company; E. Pease, W. H. Wakefield, John N. Whitwell, M.P.; C. M.
Norwood, M.P.; Edward Baines, Thomas Sopwith ; William Thompson,
Darlington; H. Tennant, Sir A. Monck, M.P. ; E. Grace, Scotswood ; J.
Hawksley, C.E. ; S. S. Lloyd, M.P.; Colonel Joicey; J. Heath, barrister;
J. J. Gutch, York ; W. B. Richardson, York; Hodgson, C.E. ; Joseph
Dodds, M.P.; E. Backhouse, M.P. ; Alderman Sir Thomas Dakin, London;
Major Beaumont, M.P.; Dr Hardcastle, Newcastle; Lindsay Wood, New-
castle, President of the North of England Institute of Engineers; Thomas
Gray, Newcastle; J. C. Stevenson, M.P.; T. W. Bunning, E. Williams,
Middlesborough; E. Fletcher, Gateshead; C. M. Palmer, M.P.; C. Allhusen,
Joseph Laycock, T. Burt, M.P.; R. Laycock, P. Howard, Corby Castle;
Marquis of Ripon, Duke of Cleveland, Right Hon. T. E. Headlam, W. B.
Beaumont, M.P.; H. L. Pattinson, Newcastle; J. G. Benson, Newcastle;
W. Cochrane, Newcastle; J. Armstrong, Pelaw Main.
13
Banners bearing the arms of Darlington, South Shields, Gateshead, and York.
Hoggett’s Brass Band.
Mace and Sword Bearer of York.
The Lord Mayor of York and
The Mayor of Darlington.
The Sheriff of York and the Town Clerk of York.
The Mace Bearer of Ripon.
The Mayor of Ripon.
The Mayor of Berwick.
The Mace and Sword Bearers of Newcastle.
The Mayor of Newcastle.
The Mayor and Town Clerk of Durham.
The Mayor of Hull.
The Mace Bearer of Doncaster.
The Mayor of Doncaster.
The Mayor of Scarborough.
The Mayor of Carlisle.
The Mayor of Gateshead.
The Mayor and Town Clerk of Tynemouth.
The Mayor and Town Clerk of South Shields.
The Mayor of Middlesborough.
The Mayor of Jarrow.
Members of the Corporation of Darlington as follows:—Aldermen A. Pease, W.
Watson, R. Luck, A. Kitching, and E. Kipling; Councillors R. Child, J.
Morrell, T. Robson, J. Stephenson, John Ross, J. E. Backhouse, T. R. M.
Plews, Theodore Fry, Thomas Swinburne, W. Foggitt, W. Russell, J. Burn-
side.
Members of Town Councils of northern towns.
Members of the Pease Memorial Committee.
Saxhorn Band.
Town Clerks, Aldermen, and Councillors of neighbouring cities and boroughs,
invited guests, and officials of the North Eastern Railway Company.
TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.
Onward Division I.O.G.T., No. 295, Witton Park. Mr Samuel Davis, Grand
Chaplain. Marshals : Messrs John Steward, Thomas Binns, Durham;
Henry Pearson, Spennymoor, G.W. P.; James Howie, Hunwick; George
Morton, carrying a volume of the Scriptures, and Messrs Henderson and
Moore, with the swords. The Witton Park Saxhorn Band, and the Witton
Park Sons of Temperance Banners.
Invincible Lodge I.O.G.T., No. 1405. Marshals: Messrs William Birdsall, James
Payne, Matthew Rickaby. Common banner with inscription, “Faith, Hope,
and Charity.”
St Paul's Model Lodge I.O.G.T., Darlington. Marshals: Messrs J. M'Neil and
John Newton. Number present about 30.
Witton Park Subordinate Lodges I.O.G.T. Marshal: Mr Robert M’Caird. Silk
Banner. Number present about 200.
Sons of Temperance, Darlington District. District chairman, Mr Henry Pearson;
secretary, Mr John Howie, Bishop Auckland ; treasurer, Mr Matthew Stell-
ing; about 500 in number.
14
RREE GARDENERS.
Red Rose Lodge, South Church, Bishop Auckland. Number present, 90. Good
Intent Lodge, Darlington. Number present, 100. Old Adam's Lodge,
Darlington, 100. Rose of Albert Hill, Darlington, 110. Blooming Dahlia,
Darlington, 110. Moss Rose, of Paradise, Stockton, 130.
ANCIENT ORDER OF FORESTERS.
Queen Victoria Lodge, Darlington, and representatives from the district. Mar-
shals: Mr Robson, Mr Hall, Mr Hedley, and Mr Allan. Brass Band and
two large banners. Number present, 300.
DARLINGTON FRIENDLY SOCIETY.
Registered No. 1405, represented by the officers—William Carlton, president; J.
Wilson, vice-president ; J. Wise, treasurer; J. Sutherland, secretary; and
members to the number of about 40.
ODDFELLOWS.
Kingston Union: Friendship Lodge, North Road, Darlington, together with the
Stockton Lodge. Marshals : J. Hutchinson, C. Burt. Large silk banner
representing “Christ blessing little children’’ on the one side, and “Crown,
Sceptre, and Holy Bible” on the other. Number present, 70.
The members of the North Briton Lodge, accompanied by representatives from
the Hartlepool district, to the number of about 400. The motto on the
banner was “Faith, Hope, and Charity.” Officers of the lodge—John
Robinson, N.G. ; Robert Smith, secretary; standard bearers, Baines Davi-
son, Thomas Smith, George Stevenson, H. Haughton, Thomas Milner, Henry
Heslop.
National Independent Order, Darlington, numbering about 300, preceded by a
banner, bearing the arms of the order and the name of the lodge. Two
officers, P.P. G. H. Rafton and P. G. W. Simpson, wearing college hats,
followed by the officers in their regalia, carrying silver-mounted wands. The
members of the order in new regalia, in the midst of which were borne three
banners—viz., the Widows' and Orphans’ Fund, bearing the motto, “Visit
the widow and fatherless in their affliction,” the banners of the Phoenix and
Caledonian Lodges, and several Union Jacks. There were also visiting
brethren:-P.G. Thomas Searle, Milbridge, Leeds; P.P.G.M. William
Rafton, York; P. G. Thomas Constantine, Manchester ; D.S. James Wood,
Newcastle.
Grand United Order, Darlington—600 members, wearing a white rosette, headed
by scarlet silk banner, 12ft. by 10ft. 6in., with deep margin of blue silk.
The frontispiece representing the emblems of the order on a shield 6ft. in
diameter, and above in gilt letters, “The Grand United Order of Odd-
fellows,” on the other side a representation of the “Good Samaritan * on a
similar shield. The committee of arrangements were:—Brother Thomas
Sanders, P.G.M. ; John Todd, P.G.M.; Robert Wallis, P.G.M. ; Thomas
Weatherhead, P.G.M.; David Seton, P.G.M.; George Pall, P.G.M.; George
Elevin, P.G.M.; Phillp Coley, P.G.M.; John Kerton, Thomas Jones, James
Clark, Charles Mildred, deputy district master; Councillor George Marshall,
district master; George Stockdale, district treasurer ; William Crowther,
district secretary.
Royal Progress and Loyal Phoenix Lodges, Raby. Marshals: Messrs Walker,
Rafter, and Ainsley. Present, 300. Northallerton Brass Band and large
silk banner. Present, 600.
<& Jº
15
SMITHS.
Vulcan Lodge, Darlington. Marshals: Mr Humble and Mr William Mees.
Common banner, with words, “He that would be free, himself must strike
the blow.” Present, 60.
DRUIDS.
Witton Park Equalised District. Splendid pink and green banner. Present,
400.—William Tell Lodge, Darlington. Present, 400. Marshals: Mr
William Chapman, Mr James Plant, and Mr Harwood, Stockton.
STONEMASONS.
Representatives from Middlesborough, Stockton, and Darlington lodges, with
Shildon Brass Band. Marshals: Mr Iredale, Mr Hutching, and Mr Benni-
son. Two large silk banners. All the men present wore aprons. Present,
250.
OPENING OF THE LOCOMOTIVE EXEHIBITION.
Arriving at the North Road Works, the great majority of the members
of the societies represented in the procession made their way to Victoria
Road, there to await the arrival of the Lord Mayor of London.
Entering the Works, Mr George Leeman, M.P., chairman of the North
Eastern Railway Company, and the noblemen and gentlemen by whom
he was accompanied, walked four abreast through the building. Arriv-
ing at Locomotion (the engine that drew the first passenger train), which
was in full work, Mr Henry Pease mounted its foot-board, and steam
having been turned off, addressed the numerous gathering—which
included the Marquis of Ripon, Lord Wenlock, Mr Norwood, M.P., Mr
Sampson S. Lloyd, M.P., Mr Cave, M.P., Mr Dodds, M.P., Mr Lowthian
Bell, M.P., Sir S. A. Monck, M.P., and Mr Baines (Leeds)—as follows:—
The engine which you have seen working here to-day is, to all intents
and purposes, as any ordinary observer would have seen it this day fifty
years ago. It ran for the use of the Stockton and Darlington Rail-
way for twenty-five years, and you will agree with me, that after that
time it was reasonable that it should be put in hospital, and taken
care of for its services. Like some of you gentlemen who had good
parents, the locomotive has exceeded its parents, and you will find, if
you will have the goodness to walk through part of this establishment,
you will be extremely interested in marking the progress in the construc-
tion of locomotive engines from the period when this was constructed by
George Stephenson, and placed upon the Stockton and Darlington Rail-
way. You will have what I apprehend is rather a unique opportunity
to see one or more of our finest and most powerful specimens of mineral,
merchandise, and passenger engines now in use on the best lines of
railway in the United Kingdom. In referring to the difference which
time has produced, I beg you will not suppose that with all the ingenuity
and care of the managers of these works they could accomplish all the
improvements of this sort, for a great many improvements in the
I 6
machimery, as well as others, are due to the careful artizans of this
country, who, having from time to time their minds turned to their
work, can suggest improvements essentially their own. (Cheers.) Allow
me to refer to a gentleman to whose great care and thought we are in
the main indebted for the order and arrangement of these specimens of
work—Mr Bouch. We very much regret that the state of his health
does not admit of his being here at the present time, and I wish he
could have told you something of the means and the plan by which he is
enabled, with the assistance of the artizans employed here, to carry out
such work. I may give you one example, in saying, that it matters not
what accident may happen to any powerful engine on the line, he has so
arranged his duplicates in these works, that in seven days that engine
can go out again useful and able to accomplish its work. And these
duplicates are no very serious store, compared with the work which an
engine should be doing day by day. As some of you are perhaps aware
the little engine you are now looking at cost £500, with a weight of 64
tons; engines now cost £3000, and weigh 30 tons. Experience formed
the idea which some persons had before entertained, that in order to
have ample power in a locomotive, you must have weight on the rails,
but that experience had to be gained slowly, for we find that in the early
minutes of the Stockton and Darlington Railway Company, in ordering
two engines, it was expressly stipulated that the weight should not
be so much. No doubt these engines were useful for the time, and were
economical in their way.
The party then proceeded on a tour of inspection round the exhibition.
RECEPTION OF THE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.
(From the Newcastle Daily Chronicle.)
The members of the municipal bodies, directors of the North Eastern
Railway Company, with their guests and officials, and the members of
the Pease Memorial Committee, came by special train from the old
Stockton and Darlington Station to the Bank Top Station of the North
Eastern Railway, where it was expected the Lord Mayor of London
would arrive at 3.28 P.M. The great procession, which had marched from
the Market Place to the exhibition of locomotives at the North Road
Engine Works, there broke into two parts. The gentlemen above named
proceeded through the exhibition, whilst the Friendly Societies, Tem-
perance Societies, Smiths, Foresters, Druids, &c., returned by various
routes to Darlington in order to take part in another procession, which
was yet to be organised. Section by section the various bodies reached
the Victoria Road, where they were placed on either side of the thorough-
fare, in order to close in when the head of the new procession should
have passed by. Here they were joined by the Darlington Volunteers,
who marched up to the head of the road, and took up position close to
17
the station gates; whilst the Friendly Societies lined the avenue almost
as far as the triumphal arch at the junction with the Grange Road
Inside the Bank Top Station an immense crowd had assembled, notwith-
standing the efforts of the railway company's servants to exclude all who
had no business inside the building. The police arrangements on the
platform were under the direction of Detective Superintendent Campbell,
of York, who, with a large staff of officials, contrived for a long time to
secure a wide and clear space in front of the line. At length the people
came down in great force, and pressed through the gates, almost defeat-
ing the exertions of the officials to retain an open space in which the
expected visitors might be received. Amongst the gentlemen present
were the members of the municipal corporations, and directors of the
North Eastern Railway Company, whose names are given in the order of
procession above, and also the Marquis of Londonderry, the Marquis of
Ripon, Lord Wenlock, Earl Cathcart, the Hon. Waldegrave Leslie, Mr
Leeman, M.P., Mr Joseph Dodds, M.P., Mr W. H. James, M.P., Sir John
Kennaway, Bart., Mr Whitwell, of Kendal, Mr John Holmes, M.P., Sir
Henry Havelock, Bart., and Lady Havelock, Lieut. Ernest White,
Deputy Chief Constable of Durham County; the Dean of Durham, Rev.
Dr Lake; Major Beaumont, Mr H. W. P. Bolckow, M.P., Mr Grosvenor
Hodgson, Mr Jos. Laycock, jun., Mr J. W. Pease, M.P., Sir John Swin-
burne, Bart., &c. The train in which the Lord Mayor and his suite
travelled was pretty well up to time, but there was very little of the im-
pressive in the manner in which his lordship was received. A saloon
carriage dashed up to the front of the platform, and the crowd surged
right in upon it, bringing the Mayor of Darlington in very close proximity
to the doorway. Lord Mayor Stone was lustily cheered as he stepped on
the platform, and was quickly conducted to one of the waiting-rooms of
the station in order to vest himself in his official robes before proceeding
to take part in the ceremony of the day. Here a long delay occurred.
Three carriages and pairs had been drawn up to the front porch of the
station, and stood so long unoccupied, that the crowd began to imagine
that the visitors had made their exit by some other means of egress. The
Lord Mayor was known to be ready vested, his friends were waiting, and
at last it transpired that the hitch arose in consequence of the unexpected
absence of his lordship's trumpeters, who were nowhere to be found. The
detective superintendent of the railway police was applied to, but that
gentleman had not seen the missing musicians in any part of the station,
and the conclusion was arrived at that they had been forwarded to New-
castle instead of being disembarked at Darlington with the rest of the
party. But whilst the officer just mentioned was hastily making for the
telegraph office to despatch a message northwards,the four trumpeters Sud-
denly made their appearance on the platform, and a move was at once made
to the carriages. The four trumpeters, in tunics of Scarlet and gold, with
black velvet caps, led the way, blowing a lively fanfare, followed by the
Lord Mayor of London in his official Scarlet, and wearing the fur cap of
B
18
office, the Mayor of Darlington, Mr Leeman, M.P., Mr Henry Pease, Mr J.
W. Pease, M.P., the Mayor of Hull, the Lord Mayor's secretary, and others.
Those gentlemen took their seats in the private carriages that were
waiting, and preceded by the volunteers and followed by the Friendly
Societies, who closed in in regular order as the carriages passed by, they
proceeded down the Victoria Road on their way to the site of the Pease
memorial. The spectacle as the procession streamed down the declivity
towards the cricket field was by far the finest sight of the day. The Sun
was shining brightly, and the glow of colours from the banners, with the
Venetian masts and streamers on each side of the road, combined to pro-
duce an effect which was not approached in any other portion of the
festivities. The procession, accompanied by an immense crowd of
people, proceeded by Grange Road to the Market Place, through which,
after some difficulty, an avenue was formed for the Lord Mayor and
other guests to take their place at the foot of the statue, the unveiling
ceremony of which was now to be witnessed.
UNVEILING OF THE JOSEPH PEASE STATUE.
The movement which culminated in the erection of the statue unveiled
on Monday at Darlington took shape about a year ago, when a com-
mittee was appointed to make the necessary arrangements for a per-
manent memorial of the late Mr Pease. Of that committee Mr Richard
Luck was appointed chairman, and Mr Thomas Potts and Mr J. E.
Backhouse secretaries. On the fourth day of January 1875, the
committee issued a circular soliciting subscriptions towards the
proposed memorial, and mentioning that “the central committee,
to whom was entrusted the duty of determining the form of the
memorial, has decided on the erection, in the town of Darlington,
of a statue by an eminent sculptor, and the execution by a first-rate
artist of a portrait, to be placed in the borough hall of Mr Pease's
native town. These will, it is estimated, cost about £3500. Towards
this sum considerable contributions have been received, but it is desired
to afford the opportunity of contributing to all (wherever resident) who
appreciated the eminent public Services, talents, and virtues, of Mr
Pease, and who desire to see them recognised in some appropriate and
enduring memorial.” Towards this appeal a most liberal response was
made, more particularly by gentlemen interested in iron, coal, and rail-
way matters, who seemed only too anxious to be allowed an opportunity
of showing their gratitude and esteem to one who, in his life, had done
substantial service to most of them, and made the fortunes of many.
Having received subscriptions enough to warrant them in making the
necessary arrangements for the completion of their project, the commit-
tee engaged Mr Lawson of London, a very rising sculptor, to undertake
the proposed statue, on which he has now been engaged for some six
19
or eight months. The statue itself is of heroic size, and represents Mr
Pease standing with one arm at rest by his side, and the other thrust
into his breast—an attitude to which he was no stranger. The costume
in which Mr Pease appears belongs to “the people called Quakers,” and
is in harmony with the style in which he was accustomed to dress.
The sculptor, we may add, had never seen Mr Pease in life. His ideas
have been altogether taken from photos and from paintings of the
deceased, so that he stood at a considerable disadvantage in the
execution of his task. On each of the four sides of the pedestal, which is
constructed of polished Peterhead granite, supplied by Messrs Macdonald,
Field, and Co., Aberdeen, and weighing four tons, there are panels in
bronze, also designed by Mr Lawson in basso-relievo, and representing
the four chief phases in the career of Mr Pease. The first panel repre-
Sents a group of South Durham electors discussing the candidature of
the first Quaker member of Parliament, when he stood for that division
in 1832, and was returned at the head of the poll. Next to the political
aspect of Mr Pease's busy and useful life his educational work was perhaps
the most important, and that is illustrated on a second panel exhibiting
in the humble school-house of a colliery village a female teacher impart-
ing instruction to her pupils. The conception and execution alike of
this panel call for high approval, and may be regarded as one of the
most artistic features of the whole erection. A third panel illustrates
the industrial and commercial phases in the life of Mr Pease, whose
career as a colliery owner commenced in 1828 by purchasing a share
owned by one Thomas Longstaffe in Old Shildon Colliery, and termi-
nated at his death in 1872, when he had attained the distinction of
being the largest colliery owner in the county. In this panel the first
engine used on the Stockton and Darlington Railway occupies the
front, along with several mineral wagons, while behind those there
are docks and shipping, and colliery appliances, and in the background
the Cleveland hills are outlined—the scene of his extensive ironstone
mining operations. The fourth and last panel represents Mr Pease in
the midst of a group of negroes, and is intended to symbolise his efforts
on behalf of the slave, and for the abolition of the West Indian
apprenticeship system, in which along with Wilberforce and Clarkson
he took an active part.
From the large numbers who were present on the occasion, it was evi-
dent that the unveiling of the statue was regarded as one of the most im-
portant and interesting features of the day's proceedings. Five o’clock was
the hour fixed for the commencement of the ceremony, but long before that
time the market-place, in which the monument occupies so conspicuous
a place, was crowded by a dense mass of people. Such, indeed, was
the anxiety to secure a favourable position from which to view the
ceremony, that many had stood on the platform from an early period
in the forenoon, ungrudgingly submitting to the drenching showers of
rain which occasionally fell. As the appointed hour approached, more
20
animated became the scene. Between four and five o'clock the yet
unveiled statue was the centre of a large crowd of people, which was
continuously augmented up to five o’clock; and outside the barrier
which had been constructed was a closely-packed throng of men,
women, and children, pressing forward with an eagerness and im-
petuosity which the large body of policemen, mounted and on foot,
were well-nigh unable to cope with. Far as the eye could reach on all
sides was to be seen a perfect sea of human beings, swayed to and fro
by the contention for the priority of position. Every “coign of vantage,”
too, was occupied. Not a window was there within view of the statue
which did not contain its complement of spectators; and more daring
and enthusiastic still were many of both sexes who, ascending
lofty ladders and steep stairs, perched themselves on the tops of the
surrounding houses. Such was the lively scene presented when,
punctually at five o'clock, the procession marching from the railway
station made its appearance in the Market-place. There were two bands
of music in attendance—one that of the Grenadiers, under the leader-
ship of Mr Godfrey, and the other that of the local volunteers. For
the accommodation of the leading personages of the day had been
erected a platform adjoining the monument, and the note of preparation
for the commencement of the ceremonial was announced by the sound-
ing of trumpets. -
Mr Ald. Luck, addressing the Duke of Cleveland, expressed to him the
high sense of the honour he had conferred on the Memorial Committee
in agreeing to unveil the statue.
The Duke of Cleveland, who was greeted with hearty cheering, then
advanced to the front of the platform, and said: I now ask that the
statue (pointing to it with his finger) shall be formally unveiled.
In prompt compliance with this request, the binding cords were
unloosed, setting free the canvas covering, on the removal of which the
statue of the late Mr Joseph Pease was fully disclosed to the expectant
multitude, who signified their approval of the work by loud and long-
continued shouts of applause.
The Duke of Cleveland, on again stepping forward, was received with
loud applause. He said:—At the desire which has been expressed to
you by the gentleman who has just asked me to unveil this statue, in the
name of the committee, I accepted that office. Though it is an office of
a melancholy character, yet I accepted it as an honour to myself—not, as
it has been expressed, doing honour. I do not feel that I am in the
slightest degree conferring any honour. Upon the contrary, I do myself
an honour in accepting the office—(hear, hear), -of unveiling the statue
which has been erected by the subscribers to-day to the memory of the
long-esteemed and now deeply lamented Joseph Pease. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, those features will recall to you the kindly regard which Mr
Pease always entertained for his native town of Darlington, and for the
inhabitants of it. They will recall to you the services which he per-
21
formed so continuously in their behalf. They will remind you, too, of
the support which he invariably gave, by personal attendance, by direc-
tion, by superintendence, as well as by pecuniary aid, to every project
which was brought forward which could have for its object the promo-
tion of the material welfare, or promote the moral culture of the inhabi-
tants of this town. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, you know well the energy of
his character. When sanitary measures were proposed, when educational
measures were proposed, if they were for the benefit of the town,
whether they were proposed by other persons, or emanated from himself,
they always met from him with the most energetic support; and his
perseverance was enabled to overcome those difficulties which, it has
been truly said by the honourable gentleman who did me the honour
of presenting me to you, were constantly opposed to him in the course
of his early career. (Applause.) Gentlemen, such was the son of a
gentleman who has conferred one of the greatest benefits upon the
country. To his sire undoubtedly are we indebted for the first concep-
tion of the first railway in this kingdom. It has been well said that the
beginning was small, but it led to the establishment of other railways,
and we know what the railway system has produced, and we know how
it has spread all over the kingdom. (Cheers.) To him and to George
Stephenson—(renewed cheers)—undoubtedly are we indebted for the
first establishment of the railway system. But it is not enough to
begin. To Mr Joseph Pease we are also indebted for the manner in
which he worked out the establishment of that system. In the establish-
ment of that railway he worked most energetically. He had many
difficulties to contend with. At the close of the last century he found
Darlington a very different place from that which you see it. It hardly
numbered then five thousand inhabitants. But he engaged in industrial
pursuits, he stimulated industry; and he early foresaw the success of
that Stockton and Darlington Railway. Intended, in the first in-
stance, for the cheaper conveyance of coals over the district, its future
success was to be dependent upon the success of the industries and
mineral resources of this country. He engaged largely in those mineral
enterprises; and we all know how largely he was interested in all that
was undertaken of that sort throughout this county. (Cheers.) It
would be useless and unfitting for me to dwell upon those. They are as
well known to you as to myself. Yet, at the same time, I cannot help
alluding to them in passing. The discovery of ironstone gave a great
stimulus to the district, and the railway system then received a large
extension. Mr Pease, although he had for his first object the interests
of those with whom he was connected, yet he did not confine himself
within any circumscribed area. (Hear, hear.) On the contrary, his
enterprise was through all this district, and this district has profited largely
by it. If he was successful in realising a princely fortune for those
dependent upon him, he at the same time enriched others, and gave
remunerative employment to many. I have heard—and I have no
22
doubt it is true—that he also assisted many in evil times, who have
since become wealthy, to tide over the evil times which befel, as must
always be the case, in affairs of this sort. (Hear, hear.) There was a
time in the railway mania of 1845 which caused considerable depression;
but Mr Pease, by his perseverance, by his management, and by his
Suavity of manner, enabled great difficulties to be overcome, and finally
triumphed, as we all know. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, as a public
man, there were two questions into which he entered with the ardour
of early youth. I mean the abolition of slavery and the establishment
of education. (Loud applause) Mr Pease had the good fortune to see
those two measures, in which he had taken a prominent part, eventually
carried. Slavery was abolished in all shapes throughout the empire.
He also saw education—elementary education—established by law, so
that he had the triumph of seeing these great questions fully carried
out. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, to me it is a melancholy duty that I now
perform. It is the last act of friendship. I had the honour of being
acquainted with Mr Pease. I was his immediate successor in the
honour of representing this county. I am, therefore, in a position to
appreciate his character, and to speak of him in respect of his conduct in
this district. I know that this district has largely profited by his
Services, by his industrial pursuits, and also by his conduct as a public
man. To-day we are met on the anniversary of the first establishment
of railways—the first railway that ever was established. It is quite
right, therefore, to connect that anniversary with the statue which is
now before us. (Loud applause.) Gentlemen, although this anniversary
is rightly celebrated with the pomp and circumstance becoming its
importance, yet I will say, that although this be the case, it is right to
recollect the services of one who has been so deeply connected with the
system ; and I feel confident that it is no empty pageant, but that all
those who attend to-day bear in mind the character and the services of
Mr Pease. They assemble to-day to bear testimony to the services
rendered alike to his townspeople, to the county at large, and to the
country. With these remarks, I will not longer dwell upon this subject.
I thank you for the honour you have conferred upon me, and hope that
you will appreciate fully the gift by the committee of a statue which
will bring to their remembrance services which have been so ably
rendered throughout a long life by Mr Joseph Pease. (Loud and pro-
longed cheering.)
Mr Ald. Luck, addressing the Mayor of Darlington, said he had another
very pleasing duty to perform, and that was to ask the Mayor to accept,
on behalf of the Corporation of the borough, not only the statue that had
been unveiled, but also a portrait that they would find hanging on the
wall of the Council Chamber.
The Mayor of Darlington then stepped forward, and said: My Lord
Duke, ladies, and gentlemen,_In thanking you for the honour that you
have done to a near relative of my own, I wish to do so entirely in my
23
official capacity, and to forget, for the time, that he was so nearly con-
nected by family ties as he was. There are but few, I suppose, here who
worked along with the early pioneers of the railway, but many stood side
by side with the late Joseph Pease as he laboured from day to day in
the work connected with that line and the various works in the neigh-
bourhood. They knew him as a staunch friend, adviser, and counsellor
in all times of difficulty; and as regards this town, we all know what a
prominent part he took in it, and what good he did to it, Mr Ald.
Luck has alluded to the clock, which was but one of the many, gifts that
he bestowed upon it. As Chairman of the Board of Health, before the
incorporation of this borough, the part he took in Sanitary reform was
wonderfully successful in lessening the death-rate in a marvellous degree.
It would not be appropriate to mention figures now, but the difference of
the death-rate now and then is something astonishing. He, as you all
know, took part in all these movements for the advantage of the town ;
and it is but a fitting memento of him that we, as a Corporation, should
possess this statue which you have so kindly presented this day, and
which you, my Lord Duke, have been so kind and condescending as to
unveil. We welcome you here at any time, especially on an occasion of
this kind, assisting, as you have done, in the gift which this committee
has so kindly bestowed upon us; and I assure Mr Luck it will be retained
by this Corporation through all time as a sacred trust allotted to them—
an honoured statue in their midst of which they will be proud. (Cheers.)
Mr J. W. Pease, M.P., said: My Lord Duke, Mr Ald. Luck, Mr
Mayor, ladies, and gentlemen : I cannot allow the present, especially to
me, very interesting and touching occasion to pass without expressing
the feelings of myself and those whom I represent—the members of my
own family—in witnessing the ceremony which has taken place to-day.
I Say I feel deeply the kindness of this presentation—of this memorial
to the memory of one who was justly dear to his own family and
his own friends. I thank you, my Lord Duke, for your kindness in
coming to-day, because I feel that, as you have already said, you
were not unacquainted with his private, with his personal, and with his
political character. If he had been alive, I should have said that you
had spoken in too flattering words of any services he may have rendered
to the community. But when the grave closes over a man, his friends,
his neighbours, those who knew him in life, kindly forget his faults, his
errors, and those failings which belong to all humanity, and they look
rather, as his friends and neighbours have done to-day, to the good he
may have done to the generation in which he lived. I feel this more
especially because, in many cases, I think we have seen that when men
have served their country in their day and generation, the generation
to which they belonged has been long and slow in acknowledging the
services which they may have rendered to the State and to the world.
But in this case, he whose form has been immortalised to-day had
scarcely passed away from the gaze of his friends when you, Mr Luck,
24
and those friends who have co-operated so heartily and so kindly with
you, thought you would like to immortalise the memory of the man with
whom you had been so kindly and so frequently associated in work for
the public good. I feel that there are many who have taken a part to-
day who belong to the very opposite camp in political views to what my
father did ; but they have earnestly and cordially worked with the com-
mittee, because, while they might feel that he belonged to an opposite
camp, they gave him credit for integrity of purpose, and that, when he
did advocate a particular view, he did it because he thought that if it
was carried out it would be for the good of the public in whom he was
so deeply interested. In the Smaller field of local politics, there are
many who have co-operated with the committee who did not always see eye
to eye with him in those local matters, but who still know that he with
them was striving, and they with him were striving in order to effect
what the Mayor has told you has been effected—that the sanitary, the
moral and the educational position of this town might be very much and
more satisfactorily improved. Then I feel there is another class who
have also worked most cordially and harmoniously with that committee,
and they are those who took a very different view in religious matters
to many that he held. They knew that while he chose his own path, he
walked in that path conscientiously ; and if it was somewhat different
from theirs, they knew that one great object of his life was that men's
minds should be led from the things of time to things that last, from the
things which are temporal to the things that endure for ever. I feel
that in this memorial are also associated with him thousands of the
working men of this community, who knew that he had laboured to
raise the whole tone, educationally and morally, of the class to which
they belong. No sooner had he passed away than those various classes
of the community united together and presented that picture which now
hangs in your Council Chamber and this statue to the town, which you,
my Lord Duke, have now so kindly unveiled. If it is a monument to
him whom they miss from their midst, may I also say it is a monument
of the affection of those who presented it ! It does great credit to their
heads and to their hearts. There is one point more. But I feel that if
I attempt, on the present occasion, to go further into this matter, and
speak more of those memories which rush into my mind, I should be
scarcely able to address you many minutes longer. I trust that the
public of this town will long receive benefit for that which they have
done this day, in honouring the man I so much honour. I trust that
the young men and strong who pass this statue will draw this lesson
from it—that a man need not be great in his victories by sea, need not
be a hero in his victories by land, need not live merely for triumphs in
the Senate ; but the man who, in the fear of God, endeavours to do his
duty to his country, will receive the acknowledgments of the community
among whom he lives. (Applause.) There is one point more that I
would touch, and it is this: I trust that no one who ever hears the name
t
25
of Pease, and—I say this for myself and for those young sons of mine who
are somewhere in this crowd—that they will never pass that statue with-
out some feeling of the responsibility that attaches to them—some feel-
ing lest any act of theirs, any word of theirs, should, if it were possible,
reflect on the memory of the man whom the kind and generous people
of this town so much honour. I trust they and I will ever have the
feeling of the poet : —
“Our boast is not that we deduce our birth
From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth,
Our boast is more of higher things we prize—
The sons of parents passed into the skies.”
The proceedings at the statue then terminated, and the large crowd of
people gradually dispersed.
THE BANQUET.
(From the Newcastle Daily Chronicle.)
The arrangements for the banquet were made on a scale of the most
imposing magnificence. The grand marquee was pitched in a grassy
space on the left of Victoria Road, at a short distance from the station.
The situation was picturesque and pleasant, the various tents with which
the marquee was surrounded being partly hidden by trees and wholly
surrounded with what Leigh Hunt calls “quiet spots of greenery.”
Looked at from Victoria Road this large collection of tents presented the
appearance of a camp on a large scale. From Victoria Road there was
a tented way stretching for a distance of about 900 feet, and leading to
the tent in which the guests were received. This erection, which was
appropriately ornamented, was sufficiently spacious to admit of the
entrance of carriages, and visitors were thus enabled to alight without
being subjected to the scrutiny of curious spectators.
The reception marquee, spacious and handsome, was adorned in a
manner that was admirably in keeping with the purpose of its erec-
tion. The slim poles which supported it were ornamented with the
flags of various nations, the ground was elegantly matted, and the banners
of the various Corporations of England were hung round the sides of the
tent. Everything that was necessary either to the comfort or conveni-
ence of the guests was provided, and great skill and taste were shown in
the whole of the arrangements.
From the reception tent the guests passed into the grand marquee.
The exterior of this erection was daintily ornamented, but its interior
presented such a spectacle of magnificence as is seldom beheld. The
marquee had a double awning. It sank low in the centre, and rose up
26
y
in two sloping camopies to a great height. The centre was supported by
stout wooden pillars, which were made to add something to the general
picturesque appearance of the erection, and these in their turn supported
a heavy cross-beam, which ran from end to end. What may be called
the double roof of the marquee was supported by two rows of slender
white pillars. They were twined round with creeping branches of ivy,
and four flags were fastened to each pole, the various colours lending the
marquee an exceptionally grand appearance. Every provision had been
made for an abundance of light. Strong pipes were carried along under
the roofs of the tent, and from these hung pendant two rows of magnifi-
cent chandeliers, the collected globes of which threw a brilliant light on
the tables and the assembled guests.
Notwithstanding the strength of the marquee, and the care which had
been taken to secure its stability, it suffered some slight damage in the
high wind which passed over the district on Sunday night. It shook to
and fro in the fierce tempest, and Mr Benjamin Edgington, of London, to
whom the work of providing the tent accommodation was entrusted, was
not without fears that the marquee would be blown down. The tables,
which had been laid with infinite care, had to be hastily cleared, and it
was feared that the banquet would have to be postponed. Early on
Monday morning, some traces of the fury of the storm might be dis-
covered in a tent which lay prostrate in the neighbourhood of the grand
marquee. Happily, however, the furious wind passed over Darlington
without any more untoward result, and the only consequences of its visit
were a great deal of alarm and additional trouble.
The grand marquee was designed to seat 950 guests. Its length was
about 200 feet, and its breadth something near 80. At either end there
was a raised platform, hung with crimson and ornamented with gold.
One of these platforms was entirely devoted to ladies, and the other, by
Some infelicitous arrangement, was divided between the ladies and the
band. The raised tables which were designed to accommodate the Chair-
man, the Vice-Chairman, and the more distinguished guests, were erected
One on each side of the tent. These tables were laid and decorated in
the most handsome style. In the centre there was a superb dish of
fruit, which rose in pyramidal form, and was crowned by a splendid pine
apple. Elegant mirrors, slightly raised, lay on each side of these rich
dishes, and they were planted round with ferns and evergreens, which
reflected themselves in the smooth surface. By the skill of the confec-
tioner, these tables illustrated fifty years of engineering progress. The
old “No. 1 ° engine, with all its structural curiosities, and its feeble pro-
phecies of the growth and the future greatness of engineering skill, was
presented in opposition to the railway engine of to-day, with its almost
perfect workmanship, and its more than fulfilment of all that was ever
imagined or believed. The disadvantages which are ordinarily attendant
on speaking in tents were ingeniously provided against. Behind the
chairman and vice-chairman spacious sounding-boards were erected.
j 27
These, also, had been made a part of the decorations, and converted into
handsome canopies. Here, again, were illustrations of railway enterprise
and engineering skill. The canopies were surmounted by a cornice on
which was represented the “No. 1" engine and its modern compeer.
Above them were placed the respective dates to which they belonged,
and between them the motto of the old Stockton and Darlington Railway
Company, in white letters on a deep purple ground, “Periculum priv-
atum, utilitas publica.”
As was fitting for so grand an occasion, the concourse of guests was
both brilliant and distinguished. Perhaps on no former occasion has so
large a gathering of individuals interested in the commercial, social, and
political life of the country been witnessed in the North of England, as
that which took place in the marquee.
The following was the menu:—
POTAGES,
Tortue et Tortue Claire.
Gibier. Julienne. .
RELEVES.
Soles en Maionaise,
Petits Poulets Rotis Chapons aux Truffles.
Perdreaux. Coqs de Bruyere.
Maionaise de Wolaille.
Jambons a l’Anglaise.
Langues de Boeuf a la Moderme.
Salade de Homard. Pates de Foie gras.
Pates de Pigeonneaux.
Quartiers d'Agneau Roties.
Galantines d’Agneau.
Poulardes Braisees. Aspics d’Auguilles.
BUFFEL.
Aspics de Homard.
Barons of Beef.
FNTREMETS.
Gelees d’Ananas.
Creme a la Victorie.
Suedoises aux Fruits.
Genoises a la Napolitaine.
Meringues a la Creme.
Patisserie a la Grande Duchesse.
Gateau a la Royale.
FRUITS.
Amanas. Peeches. Raisins.
GLACES.
The following programme of music was performed during the evening
by the band of the Grenadier Guards:—
(On old English songs and dances.)
Solos for cornet, clariomet, euphonium, piccolo, and petite clarionette—
Valse............................... The Royal Bridesmaids........................... Godfrey.
Fantasia (on Scottish melodies)......................................................., Tutton
Galop..................................... Express Train.................................. Hertel.
Glee................................. The Chough and Crow................... Sir H. Bishop.
National Fantasia......................... Ireland..................................... Godfrey
(Selected from Moore's Irish Melodies.)
Galop.................................“ Down the Road................................. Harper.
The banquet was purveyed by Messrs King and Brymer of Cornhill,
who cater for the Guildhall and Mansion House feasts. The viands
were all cooked in London, and sent down to Darlington ready to be
placed upon the tables. The chair was occupied by Mr George Leeman,
M.P., Chairman of the North Eastern Railway Company, while Mr Henry
Bease, Chairman of the Darlington directorate, filled the vice-chair.
Among the more distinguished guests were His Grace the Duke of
Cleveland; the Most Noble the Marquis of Ripon; Sir Charles Adderley,
Bart., R.C.M.G.; Fredk. E. B. B. Beaumont, Esq., M.P. ; B. Wentworth
Beaumont, Esq., M.P.; John Crossley, Esq., M.P.; Colin M. Campbell,
Esq., M.P. ; Major-General Amber Cole; Lord Decies; Sir George W.
Denys, Bart. ; Isaac Fletcher, Esq., M.P. ; Wiscount Gort ; Colonel
Hutchinson, R.E.; Sir Henry Havelock, Bart., M.P. ; John Holms, Esq.,
M.P. ; W. N. Heygate, Esq., M.P. ; Sir H. Johnstone, Bart., M.P. ; W.
H. James, Esq., M.P. ; Sir J. H. Kennaway, Bart., M.P. ; Sir James
Lumsden; George Leeman, Esq., M.P. ; S. S. Lloyd, Esq., M.P. ; Sir A.
E. Monck, Bart., M.P. ; General Malcolm ; C. M. Norwood, Esq., M.P. ;
Sir Fredk. Peel, R.C.M.G.; Sir Richard Green Price, Bart. ; C. M. Palmer,
Esq., M.P. ; Colonel Rich, R.E.; Sir John Swinburne, Bart. ; A. C.
Sherriff, Esq., M.P. ; B. Samuelson, Esq., M.P. ; Digby Seymour, Esq.,
Q.C.; Sir Harry Werney, Bart. ; Lord Wenlock ; Sir S. H. Waterlow,
Bart., M.P. ; Sir C. Whetham ; Sir W. Wright ; C. H. Wilson, Esq.,
M.P. ; John Whitwell, Esq., M.P. ; Joseph Dodds, Esq., M.P., &c. &c.
The following Corporate Towns were represented by Mayors, Town
Clerks or Improvement Commissioners, viz.:-
Berwick Gateshead London South Shields
Carlisle Hartlepool Morpeth Sunderland
Coldstream Hedon Middlesborough Stockton
Durham Harrowgate Newcastle Scarborough
Darlington Hull Richmond Tynemouth
Doncaster Jarrow Ripon York
Edinburgh Leeds
The following Railways were represented :—
Aylesbury and Buckingham Blane Valley
Banbury and Cheltenham Brading Harbour
29
Brecon and Merthyr Tydvil
Bristol and Exeter
Bristol and North Somerset
Bristol Port Railway and Pier
Buckfastleigh, Totnes and South Devon
Buckinghamshire
Buckley
Burry Port and Guendraeth
Caledonian
Carmarthen and Cardigan
Cheshire Lines
City of Glasgow Union
Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith
Coleford, Monmouth, Usk and Pontypool
Cornwall
Cornwall Mineral's Railway
Dublin and Drogheda
East and West Junction
Edinburgh and Bathgate
Edinburgh, Loanhead and Roslin
Forcett
Furness
Glasgow and South Western
Great Eastern
Great Northern
Great Northern and Western
Great Southern and Western
Great Western
Hemel Hempsted
Hexham and Allendale
Kelvin Valley
King's Lynn Dock
Kington and Eardisley
Lancashire and Yorkshire
Llantrissant and Taff Wale
Llynvi and Ogmore
London and Blackwall
London, Brighton and South Coast
London, Chatham and Dover
London and North Western
London, Tilbury and South End
Manchester and Milford
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire
Maryport and Carlisle
Metropolitan District
Midland
Midland and Eastern
Mold and Denbigh
Morayshire
Neath and Brecon
Newquay and Cornwall Junction
North British
North Eastern
North, and South Western
North Staffordshire
Pembroke and Tenby
Penarth
Port Carlisle
Redditch
Rhymney
St Andrews
Scotswood, Newburn and Wylam
Severn Bridge
Shropshire Union
Sidmouth
Sittingbourne and Sheerness
Solway Junction
Somerset and Dorset
South Devon
Staines, Wokingham and Woking
Taff Waie
Tees Valley
Torbay and Brixham
Trent, Ancholme and Grimsby
Vale of Llangollen
Waterford and Central Ireland
Watton and Swaffham
Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont
Whitney
Wiventroe and Brightlingsea
Wrexham and Mold
Dunaburg and Witepsk
Dutch Rhenish
Eastern of France
Royal Swedish
Swedish Central
Bombay, Baroda and Central India
Bahia and San Francisco
Bolivar
Buenos Ayres
Honduras
Recife and San Francisco
Orleans Railway.
The representatives of continental railways present at the banquet
were Count de Armaille and M. W. Bartholoni, Administrators of the
French Railways; M. Solacraup, Director-in-Chief of French Railways;
30
Messieurs Sevine, Forguenot, Courras, and Heiuseau, Engineers of the
Orleans Railway Company; MM. Mathieu and Millet, Engineers of the
South of France Railway Company; and M. Bergerou, Administrator of
the Channel Tunnel Company, of the Swiss Railway, and of the Railway
Company of the West of France.
The tables having been cleared,
The Chairman gave the usual loyal toasts, which were duly honoured.
The Chairman next gave the “Bishop and Clergy, of the Diocese,”
coupled with the name of the Dean of Durham, who responded.
Sir H. M. Thompson, Bart., proposed “the Army, Navy, and Aux-
iliary forces,” to which Sir H. Havelock, Bart., M.P., responded.
The Chairman, on rising to propose the toast of the evening, “The
Jubilee of Railways,” was greeted with loud cheering. He said: My
Lords and Gentlemen,_I have been reminded by the last speaker of
those fireworks, which are to occupy the attention of this town of
Darlington, as part of the celebration of to-day, and which are to take
place as was announced, at ten o’clock. I have, therefore, to bespeak
the indulgent attention of this vast audience, of this distinguished
assemblage, while in the briefest possible terms I propose for your
adoption the toast which is before you—the Jubilee of Railways—
(cheers)—the first prominent idea associated with which is naturally
that of contrast ; I say emphatically of contrast. Fifty years ago it
would have been impossible—
Not all the king's horses and all the king's men;
not all the stage-coaches and all the post-horses of these northern
regions could have brought into this town of Darlington that vast
concourse of people whom we have been able by means of railways
to bring here to-day from every part of this empire. (Cheers.) On
this day fifty years ago this district was commemorating the achievement
by the old engine which you saw to-day at the works of from
six to eight miles an hour, while to-day the Scotch express has
brought the Lord Mayor of London here in less time than it took fifty
years ago to travel from the Brusselton incline here to the west of us
down to the Tees. At the termination of the last century we were but
just emerging from those old days of pack-horses and of stage wagons
which travelled, as we are told, from York to London in four days.
Fifty years ago we were rejoicing in the improvement of roads, and in
those more modern stage coaches by which we were then enabled to
travel from York to London at a speed of some six or seven miles an hour.
In these districts of Northumberland and Durham, there had existed for
many years, it is true, before the commencement of the present century,
those old wagonways by which the coal of Northumberland and
of Durham were carried down to the shipping stages on the Tyne and
the Wear, and that, as you know, was mainly done by horse-power. It
is quite true there had been before the construction of the old engine
31
which you saw to-day—there had been Trevethick, Hedley, Blenkinsop,
and others who had designed locomotive engines which had to a certain
extent possessed merit; but I need scarcely say in this district it was
reserved for the humble engine-wright of Killingworth Colliery, as he
modestly described himself in the first and now famous interview,which he
had with that remarkable man, Edward Pease—it was reserved for him,
I say, to design that locomotive engine, which should in the first place
supersede and ultimately put an end to the system of locomotion which
had existed previously to his day. The history of the struggles which
preceded the opening day, now fifty years ago, of the Stockton and
Darlington Railway, is one which I need not say is very interesting,
and, standing in the position as I do, as very tempting; but I feel that
this audience will be of opinion that I shall display better taste if I leave
the description of those to come to you from the lips of our revered
and honoured vice-chairman, Mr Pease, who, I believe, with one or
two exceptions, is the only person who was present upon the occasion of
the opening. I therefore pass away from that which you will hear much
better from him ; and I call your attention to the fact that the opening of
the Stockton and Darlington formed in the hands of George Stephenson
that cumulative force which found its utterance next in his pro-
jection of the Manchester and Liverpool Railway—a railway which I
need scarcely say owed its very existence to the indomitable energy and
skill of that man. Who that is present has not read stories of his re-
markable encounters with Parliamentary counsel of that day—his
achievement over Chat Moss, in which both he and Joseph Lock and
his henchman, John Dixon, were to have been swallowed up ! Who
fails to remember the stories of the resoluteness with which he had to
struggle against the opinions of the engineers of that day, or rather
many of them 3–I say many of them, because we have been proud to
see here to-night one of those engineers who supported him in that
great struggle for the Manchester and Liverpool Railway. I mean Mr
Vignoles. Who does not remember the stories of the difficulties which
were put in his way by Walker and Rastrick, who advised the directors
of the Liverpool and Manchester line that it would be quite impossible to
work the railway by means of locomotive engines, and who recommended
those directors to settle themselves down to the working of that railway by
a series of fixed engines a mile and a half apart? These were the difficulties
with which George Stephenson had to contend in the early days of railway
history. I know nothing comparable in the history of science to that
grand triumphal march—for such it was—with which the Liverpool and
Manchester Railway was opened with George Stephenson himself driving
the Northumberland engine; Robert Stephenson, his son, the Phoenix;
Joseph Lock, the Rocket; Allcard, the Comet; Thomas Gooch, the Dart:
and Frederick Swannick, the Arrow. Many young men of that day, who
had imbibed the practical spirit and genius of George Stephenson, and
many who had followed them, notably our own Harrison, have become
32
part of our railway history and annals, and others have gone forth in
other lands, have left their names wherever civilisation is to be found,
and more than that, have been great pioneers by which civilisation has
been advanced. I look around to-day upon the representatives of the
large companies which immediately followed the formation of the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway—the Grand Trunk, the London
and Birmingham, the lines of the Midland, and all those other great
railways which extend themselves to every portion of the world; and
in all these railways I see an achievement which, let me say before such
an assembly as this, stands out in point of grandeur, and in all which I
believe it is destined in the hands of divine Providence to accomplish,
as the greatest and the noblest of the material works of this or any
previous age. My lords and gentlemen, you will not be surprised we
have invited you to commemorate with us the jubilee of an event which
I have already observed was the starting-point of a new era in the
history of the world. We felt that the proper place for that commemo-
ration was here, in the very cradle of the railway system ; here, amidst
the homes of the men who were associated in the work; here, where
was the home of that remarkable man to whom I have referred, Mr
Edward Pease, to whose enterprise, to whose sagacity, to whose
encouragement of George Stephenson at the time he most required
encouragement, the great result is all owing; and to whose memory
it is therefore due that we should have a commemoration of this nature.
Gentlemen, I will not detain you by further remarks; but I will ask
you to drink, with all honours, the toast I submit to you—“The Jubilee
of Railways;”—and I ask you to allow me to couple with that toast the
name of Mr Henry Pease.
The toast was drunk with great enthusiasm, the company rising.
The Vice-Chairman said: Circumstances have placed me this evening
in a position to which I feel I am in many respects by no means entitled,
and they have imposed upon me a duty which I am certainly not quite
capable of discharging. It is true that for a pretty long period of my
life my interests have been associated with railways, but I do not feel
that this fully qualifies me to occupy the time of an assembly like the
present, which I presume comprises in point of influence and number
a larger representation of the wealth, commerce, and material progress
of this kingdom than has probably ever been called together outside the
Houses of Parliament. (Cheers.) It will not be necessary to detain you
long on some of the earlier matters connected with the commencement
of the railway system, more especially as I have the pleasure to ask you
on behalf of the committee of management of the North Eastern Railway
directors to be kind enough to take home with you the little volume
which is placed beside you. (Hear, hear.) The committee has reason to
believe that in the main that volume will be found to be a careful digest
of the more prominent points in the early history of railway progress,
while in some respects it comes down to the present day. (Hear, hear.)
33
I ask you to look on the remarks F may make, having regard to what the
chairman has said about the exhibition of fireworks, as in Some degree
supplemental to the excellent speech he has favoured us with, and
therefore more in the light of filling-up matter than in the nature of
an address. The chairman has referred to the early struggles of the
railway system, and very much could be said on that subject. I wish
it were possible for gentlemen long associated with the intelligence and
progress of the country, and heartily co-operating with their neighbours
in the extension of railways, to imagine a time when nearly all that was
called antagonism and respectability was arrayed against the notion of
a railway. (Hear, hear.) It may seem rather remarkable that the world
should have had to be something like 6000 years old before it was
thoroughly known to what extent two simple parallel bars, laid at a
given distance, would facilitate the intercourse of mankind. (Hear,
hear.) It was not that the principle was new, but it was to a certain
extent developed by the early pioneers of railways, and a very simple
instance may be given of the arguments with which they met the opposi-
tion then prevailing. At that time the power of the locomotive was very
little known. Its opponents said, “It is all folly : you will not get your
wagons to travel on that railroad,” and the answer they received was,
“On our two parallel bars constituting a line of railway, our horse shall
carry eight tons at twice the speed that your horse can carry one.
Englishmen will have this road, you may depend upon it.” But at that
time there came a heavy weight against the promoters of the railway
system, in the shape of Lord Eldon, who, in laying down the law, said,
“I am sorry to find the intelligent people of the North country gone mad
on the subject of railways.” (Laughter.) Another man said to us, “It
is all very well to spend money in doing some good, but I will eat all
the coals that your railroads carry.” (Laughter.) He did not live until
the year 1874, when 127,000,000 tons of coal were carried by railways,
and I hope that he had many good dinners on much more digestible
material. (Laughter.) You will not wonder that the farmers were in
array against the railway system, for their landlords said to them, “You
will be all ruined, as there will be no demand for horses.” But they
were not men of sufficient perception, and there were probably very few
who fifty years ago could have looked forward to the time when in 1874
a Committee of the House of Commons would sit and consider what
should be done to overtake the demand for English horses. (Hear,
hear.) Whether those gentlemen have yet found out any way by which
they can contravene the law of supply and demand I do not know, as
they have not yet been good enough to inform us. Well, but there was
another patent difficulty to contend with. There was the absence of the
cash. Persons said, “This is a very foolish scheme. I will not put my
money into it,” and you are aware that one year the bill was thrown out
of Parliament, and the next year it could not have gone to Parliament if
one of the promoters had not said before the bill was launched, “I would
C
34
rather risk #10,000 more than see the bill not launched in Parliament.
(Hear, hear.) The bill was obtained, but not without great difficulty.
Marvellous economy was exercised in the construction of that railway,
and it was not only made, but made satisfactorily. The Vice-Chairman
proceeded to read extracts from the diary of Mr Meynell, of Yarm, the
then chairman of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, describing the
formal opening of the railway fifty years ago, and the subsequent banquet
at Stockton. With regard to No. 1 engine, continued Mr Pease, its cost
was only £500, and at that time there was but a single line of railway
with places for passing. A considerable number of horses was used,
and we find in the old bills regulations as to what part of the company's
traffic was to give way, and what part of it was not to give way. As
the trade increased, other engines were ordered; but it was found, with
a single line of railway, that passings led to a great deal of quarrelling
and detention, and Mr Hackworth, who was then the manager of the
railway, appealed to the directors and implored them to double the line.
He was a Newcastle man, a man of much thought and a good economist.
He came to the board, and when he could make no better account,
seeing they were chary of going to the expense he suggested, he said,
“Gentlemen, I only wish you to know that it would make you cry to
see how they knock each other's brains out. (Laughter.) The line must
be doubled.” And it was doubled. (Hear, hear.) Stronger engines
were put on ; but then came another difficulty. The enginemen, who
were a very willing race, were not accustomed to handle these engines,
and they put on the power of the steam too rapidly. There were no
buffers on the trains then, and the consequence was that the wagons
got knocked together most cruelly, and the coals were thrown out of
them to the great annoyance of the coalowners—the coals not being
delivered at the far end. The result of this was that the enginemen had
to be brought to book for the way they used the wagons and wasted
the coals. They came before the committee, were told of their faults,
and informed that such conduct could not be endured. The men replied
very honestly, “Gentlemen, if you will give us long chains, and let us put
them round your railway office, we will take our two engines and pull you
and the railway office away together, and you shall know nothing at all
about it.” (Laughter.) This argument was, of course, powerful; but the
men received a caution, and by-and-by they learned better how to manage
the engines entrusted to their charge. (Hear, hear.) I look back with
satisfaction on those days when the men were small enough in numbers
to bring the directors into immediate contact with them, thus giving to
those who had official charge of each department of the company great
opportunities of conferring personally with the men, and they were
enabled to know whether the men employed were the best that could be
selected or not. I am happy to say that a very considerable amount of
that feeling still exists in the directorate of the North Eastern Com-
pany, and that this feeling has to a great extent descended from father
35
to son. I hope it will continue to prevail, as I am sure in my case it
will. I am proud to observe there is one man here to-night who in our
early days was about to have his arm amputated, and he refused to have
it amputated until the members of the committee should say what
should be done. He has now been nearly fifty years giving faithful
service to the company, and I trust that his arm has been able to render
him good service during that period. Allow me to mention an arrange-
ment made with regard to the employés of the company which may be
worthy of consideration by gentlemen here who are anxious to do their
duty towards those whom they employ. The system adopted on this
line is to give to the men as much as they themselves subscribe accord-
ing to age and position, and I think it will be found that there are those
who if now inclined to retire from our service will have 10s. a week
towards their maintenance. (Hear, hear.) We have also to deal with
cases of accident on railways; and other directors, I think, will find
this a beneficial system, and one that would save them a good deal of
anxiety and trouble. It acts exceedingly well on the men themselves in
producing a certain tendency to thrift, and establishes a principle which
operates very beneficially upon them. The Vice-Chairman then went on
to observe that in Some respects the great power of the Press had not
been generous to railway companies with regard to the care they take of
those whom they employ. He was inclined to think that the Press had
done a great deal in watching and pointing out things to directors; but
when they proceeded to say that directors were careless of the lives of
those employed in the various departments, then he thought the Press
was not generous. He could tell them that on the North Eastern line
accidents were made matters of most careful inquiry, and every case was
looked into to see if any better arrangement could be adopted which
would contribute to the safe employment of their servants. A very large
proportion of those accidents to servants was caused by the carelessness
of the men themselves, who, like the pitcher which went once too often
to the well, became too seasoned to risk, and the result was they met with
accidents. The trade of the company was not now a small one. The
tonnage at the Darlington Station one day this year was 86,500 tons,
and on many days it came within a trifle of the same amount. The
company, he thought, might be congratulated on the fact that from 1825
to the date on which the Stockton and Darlington Railway was amalga-
mated with the North Eastern Railway Company in 1862, although the
passenger traffic for the few years previous had been very enormous,
they had transferred the old line of railway to the North Eastern clear
of the blood of any one of her Majesty's subjects. How far the resolution
not to sell spirituous liquors at any of their stations, or how far the dis-
couragement of Sunday trading had contributed to this, he had no right
to argue there ; but these things might go together for something. Mr
Pease then spoke of the increase of traffic on the North Eastern Railway.
The number of passengers carried last year was 75 millions, and the rate
36
received was 10+ per head. The percentage of increase had varied very
slightly ; it commenced at £4, 4S. and last year it was £4,4s, 7%d. In
1821, the population of the County of Durham was 201,194, and the
rateable value #647,000; in 1874, the population was nearly 800,000, and
the rateable value was nearly £3,000,000. The Vice-Chairman, in con-
clusion, announced amid applause, that it was intended to celebrate
the jubilee this week by giving a tea to 5000 children. - -
The Earl of Feversham proposed the toast of “Her Majesty's Minis-
ters.” (Applause.)
Sir Charles Adderley, M.P., replied: My lords and gentlemen, On
behalf of her Majesty's Ministers I return my warmest thanks for the
toast which has been drunk in their honour on this occasion of deepest
and world-wide interest, and of highest pride to this country in particular.
(Loud cheers.) When I was invited here I felt at once that any man
who, for the moment, held the office of President of the Board of Trade,
Was not only bound, but fortunate, to attend on such an occasion, on
account of representing that department of Government specially con-
nected with the subject of this day's festival. (Hear, hear.) At this
late hour I will only ask you to allow me, in very few words, to state to
you what I conceive to be the relation between the Government of this
Country and these great private enterprises. Gentlemen, kings may
build pyramids, but it is the individual genius of a free country that
strikes out improvements and inventions for the progress and power of
mankind. (Applause.) It was no Government which struck out the
idea of a system of railways, and brought about this marvel of progress
for the civilisation and improvement of mankind. We know that it was
a family of Darlington who were the projectors. The engineer was the
pride of native talent; and a private company conducted the first experi-
ment. They were not aided by Government, but they were obstructed,
and they found in the Legislature their principal resistance and diffi-
culties. The same genius which conceived the invention has retained
the conduct of the enterprise in its hands to this day, and the immensely
expanded enterprise is still in the hands of private companies in this
Country. The thought and the spirit which conceived the invention,
the energy, the interest—the rivalry, I may say—which conducted and
expanded the enterprise are all part of the self-administrative habit of
this country; and while such is the case, if Government were to intrude
as a partner in the management, or prescribe the details of the enter-
prise, it would only confuse the administration, fetter the invention,
embarrass the conduct of the enterprise, kill the life of competition, and,
above all, shift that responsibility which ought to rest upon those who
manage the undertaking. (Applause.) Yet, strange to say, even in this
free country, the popular cry, I am sorry to find, goes more and more to
Government whenever anything goes wrong. The real business of
Government in connection with the great railway enterprise of this
country is outside that enterprise. (Hear, hear.) It is to guard the
37
public rights and safety, to enforce careful management, to regulate the
concerns of those engaged, to watch, to inspect, to assist where they can,
but, above all, to fix rigidly and strictly the responsibility upon those
who undertake the management. When I first entered the office of
President of the Board of Trade I was pressed on all sides by the rail-
way companies to leave them free and unfettered, and while leaving
them to maintain all their advantages and to attain the utmost speed,
still to guarantee them against disaster. (Laughter.) I found, or I
thought, that the best way to attain those ends, and to carry on the
improvements which are always needed, and which are needed in this,
which, even after half-a-century, is a stage of growth and an experi-
ment still, was that Government should restrict itself faithfully to
discharge what I may call its police functions, relying upon what I have
always relied upon, and what I have found I may safely rely upon—the
high-spirited, generous, and liberal co-operation of the railway com-
panies themselves. (Applause.) The Railway Commission is soon
about to report. I hope it may suggest some greater means of safety,
and I hope it may detect some remedial causes of accident. If it does
So, it will not give more pleasure to the Government who have to watch
over those points on behalf of the public than, I am convinced, it will
give to the railway companies who are conducting this great national
enterprise. Now, gentlemen, I have to propose the next toast. The
leading spirit of England involves England in the difficulties and
dangers of leadership. Other nations have not had to fight the battle
of the gauges as we have had, and, benefited by the experience they
have gained from us, they have been able to lay out their railroads
more easily than we are able to do. Possibly that may be so; still I
am sure that the toast I am asked to give will be heartily responded to
—“Welcome to the world to the inheritanee of our invention.” (Cheers.)
It would have very imperfectly realised the scope and destiny of this
invention if the world had not followed it up and adopted it. It is the
cosmopolitan result which has followed it that is the great essence of its
success, and which makes it a gigantic stride towards the consummation
of history, when the world will become one nation. (Cheers.) It was
a world-wide invention, destined to become a world-wide blessing.
And here I can from Darlington, the cradle of railways, invite the
kindred sympathy of other nations to the giant prodigy of the last half
century, which gave to the world its railway systems. (Cheers.) I
couple the toast with the names of Mr Moon, Chairman of the London
and North Western Railway, and Mons. Jacob, of the Dutch-Rheinish
Railway.
Mr R. Moon, Chairman of the London and North Western Railway,
and Monsieur Jacobs, director of the Dutch-Rheinish Railway, responded.
Sir F. Peel, Chairman of the Railway Commission, proposed “The
Houses of Parliament,” to which His Grace the Duke of Cleveland, and
Mr J. W. Pease, M.P., responded.
38
Lord Wenlock proposed the health of the Lord Mayor of London and
the Mayors of other municipalities who had honoured them with their
presence.
The Lord Mayor of London responded. He assured them that when
he received the invitation to be present that evening he felt it his
imperative duty to be present, for this reason—that no part of the king-
dom had been more benefited by railways than the great Metropolis,
Almost every railway in this country converged in the city of London,
and London was supplied by railways from all parts of the kingdom
with almost all it required. It received an immense amount of pro-
visions, and also of clothing and fuel. He might mention that with
respect to the article of coal in the year 1845, which was the first year
in which coal was sent to London by railway, the total amount was
8000 tons, while last year the amount was 4,000,000 tons.
The Mayor of Darlington also responded. *.
The Marquis of Ripon briefly proposed the “Institute of Civil
Engineers,” coupled with the name of the President, Mr T. E. Harrison.
Mr Harrison said they had all seen the collection of locomotive
engines, beginning with the earliest, and showing the gradual progress
which had been made up to the splendid engines of the present day.
But he had followed all those advances in engines himself for fifty years,
and he still came to the conclusion that at the present moment we were
still comparatively near our infancy as regards railways. Some who
were now young, and who might fortunately be alive fifty years hence,
would see that the railways of the present day would be looked back to
with the same curiosity that we to-day looked back to the first railway
which was made in this country. (Hear, hear.)
The Lord Provost of Edinburgh proposed the health of the chairman
of the meeting, who also had rendered distinguished services as chairman
of the North Eastern Railway.
The Chairman responded, and said that owing to the “conflagration”
which was going on outside, he had been obliged to curtail the pro-
gramme of toasts. He regretted that, because otherwise they would have
had speeches which would have been of great interest. He said, with
regard to the state of the iron trade, that he had received a very extra-
ordinary letter only that morning, which contained these words:–“It
may interest you to know that I have to-day signed a contract for the
construction of the first Chinese railway. On Monday (that was that
night) the first rails will be rolled at Stockton, and as China contains
one-third of the human race, the field of enterprise and the market for
iron are opening out to redress the present inaction.” He was sure they
would receive that intimation with satisfaction. With regard to the
Press, which was to have been proposed by Mr David Dale, he said the
railway interest had never in his judgment been more indebted than it
had been within the last month, since the announcement of this com-
memoration, to the Press for the articles which had appeared—articles
39
of great ability, of great fairness, and great impartiality, and he would
be wanting on the part of the railway interest, if he did not express to
the members of the Press the thanks and gratitude they felt for the
manner in which they had dealt with this great occasion. He begged
to thank those who were present as the representatives of the Press,
and to assure them that those who had the arrangement of the celebra-
tion deeply felt the kindness they had manifested. He was sure they
all felt gratified at the manner in which the celebration had gone off.
He only hoped they would all be taken safely to their own homes, and
that the celebration would terminate to-day in a manner which would
be satisfactory to all who had participated in it.
The proceedings then terminated.
During the dinner a very handsomely got-up history of the Stockton
and Darlington Railway, compiled by Mr J. S. Jeans, from official
sources, was presented to each of the guests.
In the evening there was a grand display of fireworks, and the town
was brilliantly illuminated.
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
(From the Times.)
We publish in another column an account of the great Railway Jubilee
which was held yesterday at Darlington. It has passed off with a success
fully as great as its originators could have expected or wished. The
occasion and the company were alike distinguished, and whether we look
at the event which was itself commemorated together with the mighty
* consequences which have followed it, or at the character of those pre-
sent at the series of the day's ceremonies, we feel that there was nothing
wanting to a triumph which was both well-merited and complete.
Nobles and Legislators and high civic functionaries were among the
guests, or took a prominent part in the proceedings. Chief among the
names which were brought forward for special honour came, of course,
those of GEORGE STEPHENSON and EDWARD PEASE, the former as of one
who had dealt successfully with the mechanical and material difficulties
of the untried art of railway construction fifty years ago, the latter as
having performed the still harder task of surmounting the moral obstacles
interposed by prejudice, by obstimacy, by selfishness, by timidity, and by
all the rest of the catalogue hostile to great discoveries and to those who
wish to turn them to the best use for their fellow-men. The result of
the slender work of 1825 has been, indeed, of transcendent importance.
The twelve miles or so of line between Stockton and Darlington have
been already, as our statistics of yesterday showed, multiplied more than
a thousandfold within the limits of the United Kingdom. The expendi-
ture, though this we must admit is a less favourable symptom, has been
even more than correspondingly increased. Our railway system has
40
grown with the growth of the national wealth, and has had a principal
share in fostering it. An enormous solid interest has come into being
within the memory of living men, greater and more powerful than many
of the kingdoms which fill a large space in the annals of history. The
course of things has been so rapid, and the result so astonishing, that
scarcely any comparison could be too magnificent to be employed as
illustrating the literal truth. The growth of the grain of mustard seed,
the development of the acorn into the oak, or rather into an entire
forest of oaks, express the difference between the beginning and the end
even as far as it has yet come. To express the rapidity of the process
we may borrow the terms of another art of somewhat later origin, and
compare it with the flash of the electric spark along the wire—the result
produced almost before we have realised the process with distinctness.
\
(From the Daily Telegraph.)
There never was, and it is not unreasonable to assume there never will
be, so great a gathering of representatives as is now assembled in this
busy and thriving town, at the invitation of the North Eastern Company
to celebrate the fiftieth year of a wonderful revolution in the manner of
going to and fro. The knot of notabilities and the crowd of common-
place people, who came together at the inauguration of the railway system,
formed an assembly very different from this. It included, comparatively
speaking, very few who were practical judges or prophets in the case.
Many or most of those who, on the 27th of September 1825, saw
Stephenson drive his new-fangled team at the incredible rate of fifteen
miles an hour were unwilling witnesses. They had come to scoff at
failure, perhaps to triumph in calamity. When they saw that Stephen-
son's vision was an accomplished fact, they would scarce believe their
eyes, and were still firm in predicting disaster. There are, however, in
this day a hundred engineers to one of the same profession in 1825;
and the map of England is reticulated with interwoven lines of railway.
What comparison, them, can be instituted between this day's gathering
and the unbelieving assemblage of fifty years ago 2 If we look forward
another fifty years, to the time when it may please the directors of the
North Eastern Railway Company to keep their centenary festival, we
shall yet be inclined to maintain our proposition that this day's jubilee
is destined never to be eclipsed as a representative gathering of railway
enterprise. For does it not include many of the living witnesses of
early struggles against dull prejudice and conservative bigotry Fifty
years hence no man will be living to speak of the time when railways
were not ; so the centenary will have lost a vital interest and an impres-
sive force of association. We Snap our fingers at 1925, and say, “Beat
our Jubilee if you can.”
(From the Standard.)
Darlington and its neighbourhood are celebrating this week the
41
fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first English railway. Generally
speaking, jubilees and centenaries are stupid things, and we may hope
that the ridicule and failure which have attended the ceremonies
devised for the hundredth anniversary of O'Connell's birthday will
put a check on a fashion which is of recent date, but which already
threatens to become a public nuisance. There is nothing remarkable
or interesting in the fact that it is just a hundred years since some dis-
tinguished painter or politician, discoverer or demagogue, quack or
philosopher, was born, and there is no reason for making a fuss over it.
There is a certain historical interest attaching to the fact that a century
has elapsed since the birth of a great nation, even though the celebration
of the day is likely to become a mere exaggeration of the most absurd
anniversary fooleries on the earth—the boast and braggadocio which
commemorate the 4th of July, and do so much to keep alive that peculiar
conceit which exposes Americans to the ridicule of the civilised world;
and there would be hypercriticism in any objection to the Philadelphian
Exhibition of 1876. Similarly, something may be said for a celebration
which helps to set up a landmark of national progress, and to call
attention to one of the most gigantic changes that have taken place
during the last half century. That period has been pre-eminently the
age of mechanical invention and of social progress dependent thereupon.
Of all the great revolutions of the age the greatest, however, is that
which began at Darlington in 1825. Turnpike roads and canals are
alike antiquated; the great rivers of the world, even the Mississippi and
the St Lawrence, much more the Ohio, the Danube, or the Ganges,
have lost or are losing their importance as highways of trade; and
travellers in civilised countries hardly ever dream of spending a single
day on the roads of fifty years ago. When the first railway was opened
the public was far from foreseeing its importance. It was constructed
for horses and stationary engines, and was to have been laid with wooden
rails; only the influence of one great engineer, twenty years in advance
of his age, introduced the iron rail and the locomotive engine. The
railway was meant only to convey coal and iron to a river port ; the
same engineer said that it would carry passengers, and provided, besides
the coal wagons, a simple stage-coach body, fastened on a truck. That
engineer alone comprehended what he had helped to do. George
Stephenson predicted that day to his sons a time when every one would
travel by rail, when highways would be gone out of use, and the mails
would be carried by train. Even he might have been surprised to learn
that in fifty years people would travel by rail from Calais to Constanti-
nople, and from New York to San Francisco (then an unknown port in
the north of Mexico), that Europe would be covered with a network of
railways, that England would have scarcely a village out of their reach,
that they would govern the course of a great civil war in America, and
form a principal stay of the English power in India. It is worth while
to look back fifty years and note what has been done ; to see that in the
42
lifetime of men who are not yet old, the entire system of communication
over a whole continent, and over great regions in other continents, is
more changed than it was changed between the time of Ulysses and that
of George IV. ; that one new invention has revolutionised trade and
travel, and brought Australia nearer to us. than Austria used to be ;
that the locomotive of George Stephenson is now the one great motive
power of the conveyances by which all traffic is conducted throughout
Europe, and throughout a domain larger than Europe on the other side
the Atlantic; that in the United Kingdom alone the yearly number of
passages by railway reaches near 500,000,000, and produces a gross
revenue of some £60,000,000 sterling. This we owe to George Stephen-
son ; and the world never owed half so much to any man before. There
is here a triumph worth celebrating ; there are here practical results
achieved within fifty years that make the period a great epoch in the
story of human advancement, and may well be noted with pride by a
whole nation, and celebrated by a local festival in the place where the
first step in so marvellous and so rapid a march was taken.
(From the Railway News.) .
It was the universal sentiment of all the visitors to the Jubilee that
the gathering had been a success unique in its way. That it was so
must be ascribed mainly to the ceaseless labours of the committee of
directors appointed by the North Eastern Board, and more particularly
to those of the committee's most efficient secretary, Mr J. E. Macnay,
son of one of the earliest officers of the old Stockton-Darlington Railway.
It is not too much to say that but for Mr Macmay’s umceasing toil and
watchfulness the concluding words of the Chairman at the banquet, that
the Jubilee had been “a great success,” would scarcely have become
truth. -
The Jubilee is now a record of the past, but it is to be hoped that it
will not remain merely a record. Besides affording sincere gratification
to thousands, and glorifying an achievement of which the human race,
and the English race especially, has reason to be proud, it has led to
valuable results in bringing many of the leading men of our great lines
of railway into close personal intercommunication. It would be wise,
assuredly, not to let any ties thus formed break asunder in the routine
of this work-a-day world, which chains down all men, but railway-men
more than almost any other class. Could not the fiftieth anniversary
have anniversaries for successors? There are already many congresses,
and, of all still to come, none could be more useful, more instructive,
more valuable in results, than an annual Railway Congress.
(From the Monetary Gazette.)
The generous hospitality of the directors was not exhausted with the
illuminations, the banquet, and the ball. Each guest was presented with
43
a handsome volume, entitled “The Jubilee Memorial of the Railway
System,” a work admirably got up, and beautifully illustrated, and
which, for my own part, I shall cherish as a memento of an exceedingly
pleasant visit. It has been prepared by Mr J. S. Jeans, a gentleman
connected with the local newspaper press, and contains an interesting
record of all that pertains to early railway enterprise. It is decidedly
worthy of a fuller notice than I can give it in this communication.
I am not given to the smoothness of flattery, as some of those know
who have fallen under my censure; but I am bound to repeat that the
liberality and courtesy of the Railway officials deserve the highest praise.
They invited numerous guests, and they treated them uniformly with
handsome hospitality and consideration. They did everything that
was possible to render the festivity a triumphant success, and they
have their reward in universal commendation. The Worshipful the
Mayor of Darlington was courteous to every one—as, indeed, he always
is. Mr Henry Pease, the venerable associate of his late father—“the
father of railways”—was always ready with a kind word, a courteous
explanation, and a friendly forethought. He is a fine type of the
Quaker community, who, if they are sometimes Puritanical in their
habits, can always show the unmistakable instincts of gentlemen.
Would anyone know the real worth of Quakers, let him seek the
privilege of enjoying their hospitality. They are capital hosts, and
know how to give a cordial and graceful welcome.
Now, however, that the lights are extinguished, and the guests have
returned home, that the blaze of pyrotechnics and the illumination of
gas, of lime lights, and of Vauxhall lanterns, no longer light up the
scene, many useful reflections remain. The glare of the brilliant
festivity seems to dazzle the eye, but the memory of this jubilee, and
the pleasing thoughts which it awakes, fade not away. A living
memory starts into existence, and it refuses to disappear with the faded
glories of the feast. When the children that have gazed on the exciting
scene, and drunk in the enthusiasm of the hour, become old and infirm,
they will preserve the recollection of the worthies whom all have so
justly united to honour on this occasion. They will embalm the
memories, the names, and the deeds of the heroes of railway enterprise,
and they will hand down to their posterity the veneration they have
this day learnt to cherish. Some little jealousy has arisen as to the
names that ought to be included among the pioneers of railways. I will
not enter into the strife of words, and especially as I find there is a
disposition, all but universal, really to render honour to whom honour
is due. Probably a slight misuse of the word “pioneer” has originated
all the dissension, and the term may have been applied to some to
whom, in the strictest sense, this special honour does not belong. Every
soldier in the army is not a pioneer, sent to prepare the way, but when
the conflict of battle calls forth deeds of heroism, he is the true soldier
who bravely stands his ground, and does his duty, even though he be
44
not in the van. Where all have wrought so assiduously and so well,
and with so much advantage to mankind, let all enjoy their proper meed
of praise; but I for one will forbear to assign even to George Stephenson
and to Edward Pease more than their due at the expense of their co-
adjutors. Men of their calibre would be the last to desire such a thing.
A local contemporary draws the line of demarcation at 1825, and would
call all pioneers whose labours were antecedent to that period. Well,
this seems judicious, but it does not imply greater distinction for the
pioneers than for their successors. The question resolves itself into
one as to the order of time and not the order of merit. Let then the
names of Sir William Chaytor, Benjamin Flounders, Thomas Meynell,
Leonard Raisbeck, and Timothy Hackworth, of Jonathon Backhouse,
Edward Pease, of Hedley, Blenkinsop, Joseph Pease, Henry Pease,
George Stephenson, and Robert Hawthorn, of Peter Tate, Trevethick,
Dixon, Gilkes, Storey, Macnay, Thomas Gray, of Leeds and others, be
mentioned, that each may receive from a grateful nation the honour to
which his talents and his work entitle him.
(From the Illustrated London News.)
The celebration, on Monday last, at Darlington, of the fiftieth anni-
versary of the opening of the first railway in the United Kingdom for
passenger traffic—the Stockton and Darlington line—has been a fruit-
ful topic of reflection and of speculation. Fifty years ago how little did
the world dream of what would spring from the then completed local
enterprise of George Stephenson and Joseph Pease ! There were
scoffers in those days, as in all days, against any novelty, seriously pro-
posed, which carried within it a promise of benefits before undreamt of.
Few they were whose faith in the new system of locomotion embraced
half the extent of advantage which it was destined to effect. The con-
trast between now and then so far transcends imagination that it is
credible only because it has been realised. No seer would have ventured
to predict it. Not even they who may justly be regarded as the
founders of the railway system were bold enough to anticipate the
marvellous rapidity of its growth, the never-ceasing improvement of its
appliances, or the collateral, social, and political changes of which it has
been the prolific parent. Fifty years are much in the life of an indi-
vidual, but are not much in the history of a nation. Yet, perhaps,
during the last half century there has been more progress in what we
call civilisation—not a little of which must be ascribed to the railway
system of intercommunication—than had been achieved during many
foregoing centuries.
Darlington was properly enough chosen as the locality in which the
Railway Jubilee should be celebrated. Its association with the men who
started the system pointed it out as the fittest locality in which to hold a
festive commemoration of its birth. The rites—if they may be so called—
45
practised on the occasion were not unworthy of it. Though extremely
simple, they were, on the whole, very apposite and effective. There was an
exhibition of locomotives, so arranged as to be illustrative of the changes
and improvements of structure which they have undergone from first to
last. There was the unveiling of a statue of Joseph Pease, erected by
the Municipality in honour of their renowned fellow-townsman; there
was a presentation to the Municipality, by a munificent member of that
body, of a portrait in oil of the same illustrious personage ; and there
was a banquet, at which, of course, the meaning and moral of the
preceding ceremonies were set forth in eloquent terms. The occasion
was one which hardly needed the presence of the great ones of the land
to gild the proceedings. It spoke for itself. It required no adventitious
splendours. It was grander in its own character, in its meaning, and in
the lessons which it unfolded to all who were capable of receiving them,
than any extraneous pomp and circumstance could have made it. It
dwarfed all personal and even official pretensions which were not in
some special sense intertwined with its own. It shed honour upon
those who took part in it, rather than received honour from them. The
sentiments it evoked were those, not so much of personal admiration, as
of wonder at the succession of events claiming commemoration. It was
not, in the stricter sense of the word, a local triumph; not even a
national one. The subject of the exultant outpouring of emotion which
characterised it was one in which all the world might take a more or
less lively interest.
PROCEEDINGS OF TUESDAY.
TUESDAY the 28th September was observed in Darlington, and elsewhere
in the district, as a general holiday. The guests of the Railway Company
were furnished with passes which entitled them to travel on any part of
the North Eastern system. Most of the public works in the South Dur-
ham and Cleveland districts were thrown open for the inspection of
visitors. Facilities were afforded for visiting the following private
grounds and works:—
At DARLINGTON.—The North Road, Darlington Iron, Darlington Forge,
Darlington Wagon, Skerne Iron, South Durham Iron, and Messrs
Fry, Ianson & Co.'s works, and H. Pease & Co.'s Priestgate Mills.
Grounds of Pierremont and Pierremont South, Brinkburn, South-
end, Woodside, Woodburn, North Lodge, and Elm Field.
At STOCKTON.—Messrs W. Whitwell & Co.'s, Head, Wrightson & Co.'s,
Blair & Co.'s, West Stockton, Bowesfield, North Yorkshire, and the
Norton Iron Works.
AT MIDDLESBRO'—The Exchange, the Railway Company's Dock, Messrs
Bolckow, Waughan and Co.'s, the Britannia Co.'s, Hopkins, Gilkes,
46
& Co.'s, Cochrane & Co.'s, the Linthorpe Co.'s, Newport, Gilkes,
Wilson, Pease, & Co.'s, and Clarence Works, and the Albert Park.
At CARGO FLEET-Messrs Swan, Coates, & Co.'s Works.
At ESTON.—Clay Lane and South Bank, Jackson, Gill, & Co.'s, and
Bolckow, Waughan, & Co.'s Works, Furnaces, and Mines.
At REDCAR.—Wilton Castle, Kirkleatham Museum, and Coatham and
Redcar Iron Works.
At MARSKE.—Upleatham Hall Gardens, and Messrs Pease & Co.'s
Upleatham Ironstone Mines.
At SALTBURN.—The private gardens of the Saltburn Improvement
Company, and Rushpool Hall Gardens. The Pier and Hoist, and
Lord Zetland's Woods.
The greatest attraction to the numerous strangers who visited Dar-
lington on Tuesday was the exhibition of locomotive engines at the
North Road Engine Works. To enable those who were so disposed to
enjoy the opportunity of Seeing this most interesting exhibition, tickets
were gratuitously issued from a number of shops in Darlington during
the preceding week, and so great was the demand for the exercise of the
privilege thus generously conceded, that on Saturday night there was
scarcely a ticket left for disposal in the town. The result of this heavy
run was apparent in the extraordinary number of people who visited the
exhibition, the large works of the Company having been crowded from
an early hour in the forenoom until they were closed in the evening.
Every facility was afforded to the visitors for seeing the exhibition at
its best, steam was got up in the shop engine which was built in 1825
for winding purposes at Etherley Colliery, and removed to those works
in 1860, and thus the attractions of the exhibition were enhanced by the
most novel and interesting machines being set in motion, while one or
two of them were applied in such a way as to exhibit their mode of
working and capabilities. Old Locomotion was also in full steam, and
was kept so during the whole of the day. One or two of the larger
engines were likewise put under steam, in order that the contrast between
1825 and 1875 might be the more fully apparent. Altogether, about
26,000 people visited these works on Tuesday, and this figure added to
the 24,000 who visited them on the preceding day, brought the total
number of visitors up to about 50,000.
The festivities concluded with a grand ball in the marquee in the
cricket field, promoted by a local committee of gentlemen, of which Mr
J. E. M'Nay and Mr J. E. Backhouse were the secretaries, which passed
off with great success. There was another display of fire-works in
Victoria Road, under the direction of Mr Brock, of the Crystal Palace,
and a general illumination of the principal thoroughfares throughout
the evening, the illuminations being similar to those of the previous
day.
47
VISIT TO SALTBURN-BY-THE-SEA.
No place was more generally chosen by the guests of the Railway
Company than the charming modern watering-place of Saltburn-by-the-
Sea. It would be too much perhaps, to say that Mr Pease's beautiful
little town was crowded on the Tuesday, but it certainly contained a
very unusually large influx of visitors, who had every means of enjoy-
ment placed at their command. The gardens were thrown open, the
band of the Grenadier Guards were in attendance, the weather was pro-
pitious, and the Railway Company furnished forth a capital luncheon to
their guests in the Zetland Hotel, in addition to supplying them with
guide-books descriptive of the place and of its history.
(From the Wewcastle Chronicle.)
However much the displays of iron and steel, of locomotives, and blast
furnaces may have interested the engineers and capitalists whom the
great Jubilee gathered together, it must be confessed that the beauties
of natural scenery have, after all, a greater charm for those who have come
out holiday making; and though shareholding paterfamilias may have
revelled in the contemplation of the modern philosopher's stone which
the metallurgical and mechanical sciences have combined to extract
from the Cleveland Hills, his wife and daughters would be disposed to
rejoice much more greatly that the liberal programme of the North
Eastern Railway Company for Tuesday included a visit to the charming
marine watering-place of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. The brilliant weather with
which the excursionists were favoured caused the romantically situated
little town to put on its gayest apparel, and present its most favourable
aspect ; while the beautiful gardens of the Public Company, the woods
of Rushpool Hall, and those of Lord Zetland, afforded ample material
for an enjoyable day, not to mention the many admirable drives which
the vicinity of the place affords. At the imposing hotel which crowns
the cliff, and commands such a fine sweep of the ocean, the railway
directors had been considerate enough to provide an open house, so far
as luncheon was concerned to their invited guests. Passing thence
through the decorated portals of the Public Gardens, which were fes-
toomed with evergreens, and bore the word “Jubilee" in a floral design,
we found a large gathering of the general public being gratified with the
enjoyments of an open-air concert ; and, when we add that the band-
stand was occupied by Mr Godfrey and the famous band of the Grenadier
Guards we have said enough to indicate the nature of the treat which
the Company’s liberality had set before a listening public. An admir-
able programme of operatic and national music was played through
amid the plaudits of the crowd, who were specially delighted with the
readiness which the conductor evinced in responding to encores. The
48
concert wound up with the most novel of the choice morceawa, in Mr
Godfrey's repertoire, a galop founded on the movement of an express
train, the warning bell and starting whistle introducing the music which
is accompanied by a marvellous imitation of the puffing of a locomotive.
This selection, as appropriate as it was striking, was much applauded
and encored. After this enjoyable concert we strolled through the
wooded glen which improving hands have fashioned into such an
attractive park, tasting the Spa-water which flows through a romantic
pillar of rock, and wandering down by the side of the wimpling burn
which flows through the bottom of the glen on its way to the sea. Re-
tracing our steps, we are struck by the lofty proportions of a high-level
bridge which stretches from cliff to cliff, and looks from the bottom of
the glen as light as though it were a structure of wire-work. Its viaduct-
like pattern, however, would not satisfy the aesthetic tastes of a Ruskin,
who would no doubt revile it in characteristic phrase, and this idea
evokes the suggestion from a friend at our elbow that the structure
might be made to contribute very much to the arboreal charms of the
pretty glen if climbing plants were allowed to run up the light pillars of
braced iron rods on which it is upreared. Following the course of Skelton
Beck we reach the seashore and the Company's pier, from which breezy
promenade we made our way to what our American cousins would call
an elevator, by means of which we are simply hoisted up to the level of
the cliff-top, after a nervous fellow-passenger has managed to frighten a
couple of ladies out of the vehicle with his ingenious speculations on our
probable fate in the event of the hydraulic ram failing in its office. No
such calamity occurs, however, and we are free to step out of the machine
and enjoy the glorious prospect which is offered to us from that point of
view. To the north the extensive panorama of sea and shore embraces
the bathing-place of Redcar, the Tees estuary, and the wide sweep of
Hartlepool Bay, the town of that name standing on a promontory which
closes in the view. Southward we are confronted by the bold headland
of Huntcliffe Foot, and nestling under its shadow is the old village of
Saltburn, notorious as a haunt of smugglers in the good old times. The
hull of a wrecked vessel on the beach is suggestive of fearful winter
nights and vile north-easters, and we note with some interest and
curiosity that some humble “improvement commissioner” has converted
the old ship into a restaurant, doubtless to the great joy of Cleveland
bumpkins, who come down from country places to see the “big watter”
and are able to munch their biscuits on board a real ship. Westward
the landscape has a gradual rise to the level of the lofty moorlands of the
Cleveland Hills, where the lucky sportsman once kicked his heel against
the piece of ironstone which revealed the secret of the vast wealth which
lay beneath the soil. On the slopes lie sundry villages, such as Brotton
and Lofthouse, whither our treasure-hunting paterfamilias has gone, care-
less of Godfrey and his brilliant band, to burn his fingers over some
calcining furnace, or thread the mazes of the ironstone mines with which
49
the hills are honeycombed. When he returns we embark in our heavily
laden special for the North, and as we are whirled rapidly from the scene
with occasional glimpses of the purple masses of the Cleveland Hills,
wrapped in the golden mists of a glorious sunset, we do not wonder that
Saltburn has been the most favoured item in the excursion programme of
the Railway Jubilee.
SINCE the Jubilee of the Stockton and Darlington Railway has taken
its place in history, a large number of communications have been
received from noblemen, members of parliament, railway directors, and
others, congratulating the Jubilee Committee on the success of their
labours. In every instance the writers have endorsed the opinion of
Mr Sherriff, M.P., when he wrote to Mr Henry Pease, that “the arrange-
ments appeared to be simply perfect, and their conception and execution
alike justly merit the warm thanks of every one who had an opportunity
of witnessing and benefiting by them.” The warmest encomiums have
been tendered towards Mr Wallace, the architect who had charge of the
decorations; Mr Benjamin Edgington, who constructed the banqueting
marquee, and carried out the principal decorations; Messrs King and
Brymer, who purveyed the banquet ; and to all who occupied positions
of trust and authority under the Jubilee Committee ; while Mr Henry
Pease, the chairman, and Mr J. E. Macnay, the Secretary of that com-
mittee, have received on all hands the assurance that their arduous
labours have met with universal approval and appreciation.
JUBILEE MEMORIAL OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM :
A HISTORY OF THE
STOCKTON AND DARLINGTON RAILWAY ;
AND
A RECORD OF ITS RESULTS.
–sº-
THIS is a handsome Illustrated Volume, prepared under the auspices of
the Directors of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, as a souvenir of
the Railway Jubilee of the 27th September. It may be purchased of
all booksellers, price 7s.6d, or from the publishers,
MESSRS LONGMANS, GREEN & Co.
FROM a multitude of favourable criticisms on this work, the
following are selected because they appeared in the leading
practical and scientific journals:–
From the “Mining Journal and Railway Gazette.”
The great value of Mr Jeans's book results from the unusually favour-
able conditions under which it has been written. The Directors of the
Stockton and Darlington Railway have authorised and afforded all the
necessary facilities for the publication of the volume, primarily with the
view of furnishing a suitable souvenir of the Jubilee, but ultimately to
enable those who are interested in the subject to know something more
than otherwise could be known of the beginnings of the railway. All
the requisite material having been placed at his disposal, Mr Jeans lost
no time in moulding it into shape, and although he mentions that the
time allowed him for the work was very limited, he has certainly per-
formed the task in a very creditable manner. He first sketches the views
entertained with regard to railways previous to their construction, and
then describes the dawn of the new era, the preliminaries to the con-
struction of the first public railway, the beginning of the railway, the
progress of the arrangements, the first Railway Acts, the opening, early
difficulties, and so on. Next he gives a series of brief biographical
sketches of the pioneers of the railway system ; devotes a chapter to the
history of Darlington itself, and concludes the volume with a series of
valuable appendices affording documentary evidence for many of the
facts stated.
. As an addition to our railway literature Mr Jeans's volume is really
invaluable ; no previous writer can claim to have had such exceptional
facilities offered him by the very men best acquainted with the subject
51
for supplying reliable information concerning details, connected with the
inception of railways, and before known only to the favoured few, whilst
the manner in which he has constructed the abundance of facts before
him into a highly interesting and very readable book, will be appreciated
by all who desire to know from what a modest source that railway
system, which has revolutionised the whole civilised world, originally
Sprung.
From the Colliery Guardian.”
The recent Jubilee celebration of the Stockton and Darlington Rail-
way has afforded an appropriate occasion for the publication of an his-
torical account of this—the earliest enterprise of the kind, and the work
of authorship has fallen into suitable hands. Mr Jeans is not unknown
as a writer on kindred subjects, and not only does he possess the neces:
sary qualifications for a work of this kind, but has also evidently entered
upon it con amore. The directors of the railway have afforded him every
facility in their power, and placed at his disposal such official and accre-
dited documents as have enabled him to give facts and figures with un-
impeachable accuracy. The book is a most interesting one, for although
it carries the reader through only half a century of time, it places him
beside the very cradle of railway enterprise. The rapidity with which
the railway system has grown and developed itself is surprising; and its
fathers, although they had a firm conviction that their work was an im-
portant one, and calculated to extend itself far beyond the locality in
which they commenced it, could have had but a faint conception of the
dimensions it was so speedily to assume.
From “Iron.”
Mr J. S. Jeans comes to the fore with two carefully-written volumes,
“The Pioneers of the Cleveland Iron Trade” and “The Jubilee Memorial
of the Railway System,” depicting between them very completely the
men and the means by which the present greatness of Cleveland has
been achieved, and leaving no doubt—if any existed—that the rapid
development of the iron industry of Northern Yorkshire is due, in the
first instance, to the rapid extension of railways which followed the
inauguration of the Stockton and Darlington Railway fifty years ago.
. . . Mr Jeans is deservedly proud of the district he celebrates, and in
his “Jubilee Memorial,” while supplying many useful facts concerning
the growth of the railway system, never forgets that to it is due the
development of a district which contributes a third part to the total iron
produce of England.
The following are quoted from the principal local journals:—
From the “Newcastle Daily Chronicle.”
This literary memorial of the recent Railway Jubilee will be welcomed
by all who desire to possess, in a permanent form, the history of the
Stockton and Darlington Railway—the cradle, as Mr Jeans calls it, of
the present gigantic system of railway locomotion. In spite of having
to deal with an immense mass of materials, Mr Jeans has succeeded in
producing a summary of the rise and development of railways, both
comprehensive and concise. Commencing the story of his “Jubilee
Memorial” at the seemingly pre-historic time when it took twelve days
to travel from Edinburgh to London in winter and ten in summer—a
speed which would hardly satisfy an energetic tortoise now-a-days—the
52
author places before his readers the dawning of the great railway idea.
In his opening chapters, Mr Jeans has graphically sketched the incidents
of that period when, as Tenniel lately hinted, Vulcan was courting the
Goddess of Vapour. From these preliminaries to the construction of
the first public railway is an easy transition. Then we have chronicled
the real beginnings of the railway, the progress of the arrangements, and
the first railway Acts. Succeeding this, Mr Jeans deals with Stephen-
son's mode of procedure as he began to wrestle with the mechanical and
engineering difficulties of the first railway survey. Carefully review-
ing the progress of the works, the writer conducts us gradually to the
momentous 27th of September, 1825, when the first public railway train
carried passengers along the Stockton and Darlington Railway. We
who live in an age of scientific optimism can hardly realise the change
in public opinion with respect to the powers of steam within the “little
half century” which has elapsed since then. Mr Jeans, indeed, quotes
Lord Eldon's well-known remark, “As to railroads and all other schemes
which speculation, running wild, is introducing, I think Englishmen who
were wont to be sober are grown mad.” Happily for England, the mad-
ness which his lordship alluded to was persevered in, and the iron horse,
as we now know it, then being “broken in * for the service of the world,
allowed to drag its first public passenger load to Stockton. After a glance
at the first railway coaches, we learn a few of the early difficulties of the
company, the complaints against it, and the conflict with the coalowners,
Briefly noticing the early fluctuations of railway progress, Mr Jeans
narrates the projection of further railway works, and the extensions in
Cleveland and South Durham. We see beginning to creep onward the
all-embracing network of steam communication, which was to recognise
no geographical barriers, to annihilate distance, and to run a swift race
even with time. After perusing statistics relating to the original esti-
mates and subsequent receipts for traffic, the reader is introduced to the
parentage of the North Eastern Railway system, and to a general survey
of the progress of railways in Great Britain and abroad. The first diviº
sion of Mr Jeans's subject is brought to a conclusion by an account of
the antecedents of the locomotive engine, and the industrial development
consequent upon railway extension. The second division deals with the
pioneers of the railway system, and the third with the place of its birth.
The value of the “Jubilee Memorial” is further enhanced by several
engravings, and the addition of a number of statistical and other appen-
dices. Reviewing Mr Jeans's work as a whole, it must be conceded that
he has accomplished his task in a creditable manner.
From the “Middlesborough Daily Gazette.”
In order that nothing should be wanting to suitably commemorate the
Jubilee, the Directors have had a Jubilee Memorial volume prepared and
presented to the guests at the Jubilee banquet. This handsome volume
is from the pen of Mr J. S. Jeans, whose literary productions on Our
staple trade are already well known in the district. His “Pioneers of
the Cleveland Iron Trade” is recognised as an established authority
respecting the rise and progress of that trade, and the lives and labours
of its great pioneers. The “Jubilee Memorial of the Railway System.”
appears to have been compiled with equal care and accuracy, and will
form a valuable book of reference for railway statistics, not only for this
district, but throughout the country.