R E N N I E. 



Leeds, Musselburgh, Newton Stewart, Boston, and 

 New Galloway, testify suliiciently his judgment and 

 taste in the art of bridge building. The first of these 

 Bridges, which was completed between 17}>9 and 1803, 

 is tin-own over tin- T \vcrd, immediately below its June- 

 linn with tht: Tiviot, and consists of a level roadway 

 vesting on five elliptical arches, each of which has a 

 span of seventy-three feet, and a rise of twenty-one 

 left. Its character is peculiarly suited to the fine 

 scenery which surrounds it, and it is perhaps one of the 

 most beautiful specimens of the art which is to be seen. 

 The writer of this article, when he first had the plea- 

 sure of being 1 introduced to .Mr. Krnnie, stated to him 

 this high opinion of the superiority of Kelso bridge, 

 without being aware that it had been designed by him- 

 self. Mr. Kennie ivas highly gratified by this honest 

 testimony to his talents, and the more so, as he con- 

 sidered the design of Kelso bridge as one of the very 

 best which he ever made. 



We may here mention an anecdote respecting the 

 bridge of Musselburgh, with which Mr. Kennie him- 

 self was much entertained. When he was taking that 

 work off the hands of the contractor, one of the magi- 

 strates who was present took an opportunity of asking 

 a countryman who was passing at the time with his 

 cart, how he liked the new bridge. " Brig/' replied 

 the man, " it's nae brig ava ; ye neither ken whan ye 

 gang on't or whan ye come aff't." The old bridge 

 has a very precipitous roadway, and being in this and 

 in other respects the very counterpart of the new one, 

 the homely opinion given above may be considered as 

 one of the highest compliments that could have been 

 paid to the engineer. 



Mr. Rennie's celebrity as a bridge builder, however, 

 must always be attached to the Waterloo bridge over 

 the Thames, one of the grandest monuments of archi- 

 tectural skill, and of British enterprise. This stupen- 

 dous work, completed in 1817, has not altered more 

 than five inches from a straight line on any one part of 

 it.* One of the best designs of Mr. Rennie was that 

 of a stone bridge over the Thames, on the site of the 

 present London bridge. It was selected by the Com- 

 mittee as the best of at least thirty plans, and is to be 

 executed in Aberdeen granite, of five arches, the middle 

 one of which is to have a span of 150 feet. 



The principal iron bridges designed and constructed 

 by Mr. Rennie, are a small one over the Witham at 

 Boston, which has been engraven in our article BRIDGE, 

 Vol. IV. p. 489, Plate XCIV. ; and the great one at 

 Southwark,f which, notwithstanding the various pro- 

 phecies against its stability, has stood unaffected either 

 by the summer's heat or the winter's cold. Mr. Ren- 

 nie likewise designed another of three arches, of ninety, 

 eighty, and seventy feet span, for the river Goomty at 

 Lucknow, but the Nabob of Oude would not allow it 

 to be erected, after it was sent out by the East India 

 Company. 



In those public works, which come more immediate- 

 ly under the profession of a civil engineer, Mr. Rennie 

 had still more experience, and has been equally suc- 

 cessful. 



Among the canals, the execution of which he person- 

 ally superintended, have been enumerated the Lancas- 

 ter canal, that at Aberdeen, the Grand Western, the 



Kennet and Avon, the Portsmouth, the Birmingham, 

 and the Worcester, % &c. 6tc. * 



Besides the West India docks already described in 

 our account of the Metropolis, (see the article LONDON, 

 Vol. XIII. p. His,) Mr. Rennie is said to have planned 

 the docks at Hull, Greenock, Leith, Liverpool, and 

 Dublin ; together with the harbours of Berwick, Dun* 

 leary, Holyhead, Howth, Newhaven, Queensferry, 

 &c. In addition to these naval works, he planned 

 various important improvements on his Majesty's dock- 

 yards at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, and Sheer* 

 ness, and the new naval arsenal at Pembroke was con- 

 structed from his designs. He made a design also 

 of a new naval arsenal at North-fleet on the Thames, 

 but the sum of eight millions was considered by go- 

 vernment as too great a sum to be expended on the 

 undertaking. 



The greatest of all Mr. Rennie's naval works, how. 

 ever, is undoubtedly the Breakwater at Plymouth, 

 of which we have already given a very full descrip- 

 tion^ 



In concluding this list of Mr. Rennie's labours, 

 which has necessarily become a meagre one, in conse- 

 quence of our having given accounts of them in other 

 parts of our work, we must not omit his drainage of 

 that tract of marsh lands on the river Trent, Witham, 

 New Welland, &c. and ffis plan for draining the Bed- 

 ford level, which has been partly carried into execu- 

 tion. 



These various public concerns are said, by one of 

 Mr. Rennie's biographers, to have cost little less than 

 fifty millions sterling, nearly twenty millions of which 

 were spent under his own superintendence. 



Although Mr. Rennie was a man of robust figure, 

 and of corresponding strength of constitution, yet, 

 during some of the last years of his life he had been 

 afflicted with an inflammation of the liver. The dis* 

 ease, however, began to assume a more serious form, 

 and finally cut him off, on the 16th of October, 1821, 

 in the 60th year of his age. His remains were inter- 

 red in St. Pauls, near those of Sir Christopher Wren, and 

 a plain granite slab, with a suitable inscription, wae 

 laid upon his tomb. 



Mr. Rennie, who married in l?89f and survived his 

 wife, left behind him six children. The eldest of these, 

 Mr. George Rennie, has already exhibited very great ta- 

 lents in his father's profession, and the second son, John, 

 promises to sustain the reputation of the family. 



Mr. Rennie may be justly considered as the first of 

 that school of practical Engineers which has been es- 

 tablished in Great Britain. No mistake can be greater 

 than to suppose, (as has been generally stated,) that 

 Mr. Rennie was a profound mathematician, or a natural 

 philosopher. Had he been either, he would never 

 have executed those great works which have given re- 

 nown to his own name, and to that of his country. 

 When we consider the vast superiority of the French 

 engineers to our own, in theoretical acquirements, and 

 their inferiority to ours in practical knowledge of every 

 kind, we cannot avoid drawing the conclusion, that it 

 is from experience alone that those resources of skill 

 and judgment are to be derived which have given 

 pre-eminence to all the works of British engineers. The 

 experience of foreign countries has shown, that a mere 



An account of this bridge has been given incur article LONDON, Vol. XIII. page 153. 



f See our article LONDOX, Vol. XIII. p. 153, col. 2. 



j .Mr. llennie's biographer, whom we have followed in this enumeration, has added the Brcchin canal, but no such canal niiHg. 



See our article 1'i.v.Mot.xu BaEAKWATEB, Vol. XVI. p. 603. 



