A trial survey was then begun, but it was conducted with great difficulty, the inhabitants of the district entertaining much prejudice against the scheme. In some places Mr. James and his surveying party had even to encounter personal violence. At St. Helen's one of the chain-men was laid hold of by a mob of colliers, and threatened to be hurled down a coal-pit. A number of men, women, and children assembled, and ran after the surveyors wherever they made their appearance, bawling nicknames and throwing stones at them. As one of the chain-men was climbing over a gate one day, a laborer made at him with a pitchfork, and ran it through his clothes into his back; other watchers running up, the chain-man, who was more stunned than hurt, took to his heels and fled. But that mysterious-looking instrument--the theodolite--most excited the fury of the natives, who concentrated on the man who carried it their fiercest execrations and most offensive nicknames. A powerful fellow, a noted bruiser, was hired by the surveyors to carry the instrument, with a view to its protection against all assailants; but one day an equally powerful fellow, a St. Helen's collier, cock of the walk in his neighborhood, made up to the theodolite bearer to wrest it from him by sheer force. A battle took place, the collier was soundly pommeled, but the natives poured in volleys of stones upon the surveyors and their instruments, and the theodolite was smashed in pieces. Met by these and other obstructions, it turned out that the survey could not be completed in time for depositing the proper plans, and the intended application to Parliament in the next session could not be made. In the mean time, Mr. James proceeded to Killingworth to see Stephenson's locomotives at work. Stephenson was not at home at the time, but James saw his engines, and was very much struck by their power and efficiency. He saw at a glance the magnificent uses to which the locomotive might be applied. "Here," said he, "is an engine that will, before long, effect a complete revolution in society." Returning to Moreton-in-the-Marsh, he wrote to Mr. Losh (Stephenson's partner in the patent) expressing his admiration of the Killingworth engine. "It is," said he, "the greatest wonder of the age, and the forerunner, as I firmly believe, of the most important changes in the internal communications of the kingdom." Shortly after, Mr. James, accompanied by his two sons, made a second journey to Killingworth, where he met both Losh and Stephenson. The visitors were at once taken to where one of the locomotives was working, and invited to "jump up." The uncouth and extraordinary appearance of the machine, as it came snorting along, was somewhat alarming to the youths, who expressed their fears lest it should burst; and they were with some difficulty induced to mount. [Illustration: MAP OF LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY. [Western Part.]]