The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-10-18 00:00:00

DEATH of MR. ROBERT STEPRUSON, M.P.

The death of Stephenson comes with startling rapidity
upon that of Brunel. Both men of rare genius, and
both occupying a sort of double throne at the heel of
their profession, they have gone to their rest together,
and their rivalry has ceased. Distinguished mons of dis-
tinguished fathers, the two men who in these latter
years have done inost to perfect the art of travel, and in
this way to cultivate social interceum, multiply wealth,
and advance civilization, have been struck down at one
fell swoop in all the maturity of their power. Mr.
SbJplienson's health had been delicate for about two
years, and he complained of failing strength just before
his last journey to Norway, In Norway he became very
unwell ; his liver MSS so much affected that he hurried
home, and when he arrived at Lowestoft he was so weak
that he had to be carried from his yacht to the railway,
and thsnce to his residence in Gleeenter-square, where
his malady grew so as to leave from the first but
faint hopes of his recovery. Ile had not atrength enough
1., resist the disease', and he gradually sunk until at
length he expired on Wednesday morning. If his
loss will be felt severely in his lirufessiuu, it will
be still more poignantly felt in his large circle of
friends and acquaintances, For he was ass., good as he
was great, and the loan was even more to be admired
than the engineer. His benevolence was unbounded,
and every year he expended thousands in doing good
unseen. His chief care in this way was for the children
of old friends who had been kii.d to him in early life,
sending them to the best schools and providing for
theui with characteristic generosity. His own pupils
regarded him with a sort of worship, and the number of
men belonging to the 3tephenson school who have
taken very high rank in their peculiar walk shows how
successful lie was in his system of training, and how
strong was the force of hilt example. Tl.e feeling of his
friends and as .ociatcs was not less warm. A man of the
soundest judgment and the strictest probity, with a
noble heart and most genial manner, he won the confi-
dence of sll who knew him, and perhaps in all London
there were not more pleasant social gatherings than
those which were to be found in his house in Blocester-
square, he himself being the life of the party. With-
out • spark of professional jealously in his own nature,
he wee liked by all his fellow engineers, if they
did not know him sufficiently to bear him affection ;
and we do not believe that even those who had the
inost reason to wish him out of the way, such MI the
promoters of the Sues Canal, which he strenuously op-
'
seed, ever bore him any ill will. Ile has passed away,
if not very full of years, yet very full of honours—the
creator of public works, a benefactor of his race, the
idol of his friends.

RRLICO OF THK PLAGITE OF LONDON.-A few weeks
since, the workmen, in dining out the foundation on the
rut end of Three Nuns-court, by St. Michael's church,
Aldgate, came to a considerable quantity—upwards of a
cart load - of human skulls and bones, about seven feet
from the surface. In 10100 of the papers it has been
conjectiired that they formed part of the sweepings of
some adjacent churchyard after the fire ,g London. This
was more likely the great pit, or "dreadful gulf," as De
Foe calls it, provided for the parishet of Ahigate and
Whitechapi.l, which, during • fortnight after it was
opened, had thrown into it 1.114 bodies, when then were
oblige,' to fill it up. De Foe amble, "1 doubt not hut
there may be some ancient persons alive in the parish
who are better able to chow ill what part of the church-
yard th, pit lay better than I can; the mark of it aho
was many years to be seen in the churchyard, or the cur-
tsey lying in length, parallel with the passage, which
g.,es by the west wall of r the churchyard out of Hounds-
ditch, and turns again into Whitechspel, coming out near
the Three Nuns Inn."

TH6 GROWTH OF DRlCRR.—llress has made • marvel.
lons spring since the introduction of railways. Lulies,
whose mothers med to get all their things into a mode-
rate silted box and • carpet-bag. travel with great piano-
forte-case like packages, PO numerous that they are
obliged to he numbered for fear they forget how many
they hare. And the more they take the more they want
to take, till each lady looks as if she ought to have a
luggage van to herself. Then, to see them attempt
the entry of • moderate ailed carriage ; the utter dis-
proportion of the door to the "object." as it may well
be called, that seeks admission! The absurdity of
fashion might be tolerated if it inconvenienced only the
wearer ; but when one lady extends herself to the size
of two, she necessarily takes up the room of two, and
most exclude some one else from a seat. A family coach
has now no chance of aocomodating a family. One full-
blown sister must go instead of two natural-sized girls.
The only advantage we see in the absurdity is, that it
forms a sort of graduated wale of gentility ; the more
extravagant a woman is in her hoops, the less inclined
we are to think her • lady. It is only the vulgar who
go into extremes, and make themselves look like cur-
tains to bothiug-machincfi.