George Stephenson

A statesman mentioned In Walter Scott’s journal, William Huskisson, ties us to today’s subject, George Stephenson.  Stephenson is the well-known English engineer, who built the locomotive named Rocket, which won its builder the right to supply the Liverpool and Manchester Railway with trains, but cost the former cabinet minister his life.  Huskisson left his train to greet Arthur Wellesley, and failed to see Stephenson’s Rocket heading toward him in time to reach safety.  Stephenson’s life is chronicled in, among other places, Samuel Smiles’ two works “The Life of George Stephenson” and “Lives of the Engineers (George and Robert Stephenson)”.  

Railways evolved quickly, and while the Liverpool and Manchester line was envisioned initially to carry merchandise, it soon served people as well.  And as “Lives of the Engineers” discusses, ‘the number of passengers carried by the Liverpool and Manchester line was so unexpectedly great, that it was very soon found necessary to remodel the entire system.  Tickets were introduced, by which a great saving of time was effected.  More roomy and commodious carriages were provided, the original first-class compartments being seated for four passengers only.  Everything was found to have been in the first instance made too light and too slight.  The prize ‘Rocket,’ which weighed only 4½ tons when loaded with its coke and water, was found quite unsuited for drawing the increasingly heavy loads of passengers.  There was also this essential difference between the old stage-coach and the new railway train, that, whereas the former was “full” with six inside and ten outside, the latter must be able to accommodate whatever number of passengers came to be carried.  Hence heavier and more powerful engines, and larger and more substantial carriages were from time to time added to the carrying stock of the railway…’

George Stephenson was born on June 9^th, 1781.

William Lilly

The astrologer William Lilly died on June 9, 1681.  Lilly's career as an astrologer grew as a result of his work for a politician in 1643.   According to Lilly, in his "Christian Astrology":  'In 1643, I became familiarly known to Sir Bulstrode Whitlock, a Member of the House of Commons.  He being sick, his urine was brought unto me by Mrs. Lisle, afterwards one of the keepers of the Great Seal.  Having set my figure, I returned answer, the sick for that time would recover, but by means of a surfeit would dangerously relapse within one month; which he did, by eating of trouts at Mr. Sand's house, near Leatherhead in Surrey.  Then I went daily to visit him, Dr. Prideau despairing for his life; but I said there was no danger thereof, and that he would be sufficiently well in five or six weeks; and he was.'

Sir Walter Scott employed the work of astrologers in his work.  Guy Mannering, for example, casts a horoscope for the laird of Ellangowan.  Scott’s use of astrology has been noted in as unexpected a place as “A Naval Encyclopedia”: ‘Sir Walter Scott has made ample use of Sir William Lilly, the noted astrologer, in his tales of this period; and it is certain that Lilly was consulted by Charles I. respecting his projected escape from Cariebrook Castle in 1647.’

Saint Columba

Colum Cille, the "dove of the church", or Saint Columba landed in Iona in 563AD.  He passed away on June 9th, in 597AD.  During the 34 years he lived in Scotland, his missionary work introduced Christianity to the Picts. 

Of Irish extraction, Columba came to Scotland with 12 fellow monks, all of whom lived an ascetic life.  He established his church on the island of Iona.  As his life drew to a close, he is said to have that fact, and so walked into his church, and breathed his last by the altar.

References to St. Columba occur frequently in Scottish texts, often associated with Iona.  Walter Scott refers to him in the poem "Glenfinlas":

...'Twas Moy; whom in Columba's isle
The seer's prophetic spirit found,
As with a minstrel's fire the while,
He waked his harp's harmonious sound.


Full many a spell to him was known,
Which wandering spirits shrink to hear;
And many a lay of potent tone,
Was never meant for mortal ear.


For there, 'tis said, in mystic mood,
High converse with the dead they hold,
And oft espy the fated shroud,
That shall the future corpse enfold.


O so it fell, that on a day,
To rouse the red deer from their den,
The Chiefs have ta'en their distant way,
And scour'd the deep Glenfinlas glen....