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to direct its construction. It was his last great work. He died at 

 Nashville on the 6th of April, 1854, a few weeks after completing it. 

 The winter before his death, the Legislature of the State appropria- 

 ted a crypt beneath the building as his future cenotaph ; and his re- 

 mains sleep there. The Capitol itself is his monument. 



The characteristics of Mr. Strickland's mind were directness and 

 simplicity. There was nothing complicated or equivocal about him. 

 A stranger could read him like a book. He had quick powers of ac- 

 curate observation. He saw every thing that was about him, and 

 saw it truly. As he walked in the country, he marked every angle 

 of the road, every change of level, every running stream, every tree 

 taller than the rest. After spending the day with a friend, he could 

 tell you the arrangements of his rooms, the number of windows in 

 each, the height of every ceiling almost to an inch, and every acci- 

 dental crack in the walls. He could labour out his professional esti- 

 mates with singular minuteness and truth ; but he was impatient of 

 the process, and relied very often, and very successfully, on what 

 seemed guess work to others, but was really with him the rapid and 

 almost unconscious application of some well tested formula. 



He was equally quick as a draughtsman: the scene-painters said 

 he always worked with a pound brush. He made an engineering 

 reconnoisance in less time than any man I ever saw, and could trace 

 the line for a canal or rail road almost as soon. 



Of course, he had sometimes the faults of over haste, and perhaps 

 did not give to small appointments that measured attention that best 

 conciliates custom. He saw the direct bearings of a question so 

 clearly at once, that he made too little account of the collateral or re- 

 mote ; and though he could review his first impressions with candour 

 in deference to the judgment of his friends, he rarely did so without 

 their prompting. 



He was not deeply studied : yet he had read and remembered the 

 books of his profession. Like his favourite author, as described by 

 Ben. Jonson, he had small Latin and less Greek ; but he knew some- 

 thing of them, read French easily, and could manage a scrap of Italian 

 when it encountered him. He was very fond of the old English 

 poets, the humourous ones especially : he knew Shakspeare by heart, 

 and would recite page after page of Hudibras. He had an apt wit of 

 his own, sportive and kmd spirited, that never meant to give ofience, 

 but that found utterance sometimes when it might have been discreet- 

 ly silent. He was fond of merry company, and was the king of good 

 fellows when occasion suited ; at the anniversary suppers, which our 



