M. Arago's Biographical Memoir of James Watt. 382 



not except the industrious fleas, and the puppet theatricals (ma- 

 rionettes) ; for the illustrious engineer visited them with all the 

 enthusiasm and joy of a schoolboy. In following, even now, 

 the itinerary of these annual progresses, we should find, in many 

 places, briUiant traces of Mr Watt's visits. At Manchester, for 

 example, we may see the Ram (Belier hydrauliqm), at the sug- 

 gestion of our associate, helping to raise the water of conden- 

 sation of a steam-engine to the feeding reservoir of the boiler. 



Watt usually resided at his country-seat near Soho, called 

 Heathfield, which he bought about the year 1790. The re- 

 spectful veneration which my friend Mr James Watt cherishes 

 for every thing that recalls the memory of his father, procured 

 for me the satisfaction of examining, in the year 1834, the 

 library and furniture at Heathfield, in the precise state in 

 which the illustrious engineer left them. A second property, 

 on the picturesque banks of the Wye in Wales, furnishes to 

 travellers multiplied proofs of the refined taste of Mr Watt 

 and his son, for the improvement of roads, plantations, and all 

 kinds of agricultural operations. 



The health of Mr Watt had improved with his years ; and 

 his intellectual faculties retained all their vigour to the last. 

 At one time our associate imagined that they were declining, 

 and, in keeping with the seal he had adopted (an eye sur- 

 rounded with the word obserr>are\ he determined to satisfy 

 his doubts by making observations on himself; and accord- 

 ingly, when upwards of seventy years of age, he determined to 

 select some kind of study on which he might try his powers, 

 and for a time was in despair, because he could find no subject 

 that was new to him. At length he thought upon the Anglo- 

 Saxon tongue, which is a difficult language ; and immediately 

 it became the subject of the desired experiment, when the fa- 

 cility \vith which he mastered it, soon convinced him there was 

 no ground for his apprehensions. 



During the last few months of his life, Mr Watt was en- 

 gaged in the construction of a machine intended to copy ra- 

 pidly, and with mathematical precision, pieces of statuary and 

 sculpture of all dimensions. This machine, of which it is to be 

 hoped that the arts will not be deprived, must be nearly 

 completed. Many of its productions, upon the whole very 



