231 



engaged in the surveys for a railway between Exeter and Plymouth, 

 but the necessary funds not being provided, the scheme was abandoned, 

 and the district eventually falling under the control of the Great 

 Western Railway Company, the present line of railway was constructed 

 by Mr. Brunei. 



In the year 1 838 Mr. Rendel removed to London, where he was 

 soon consulted upon many important works, and was engaged in the 

 chief parliamentary contests of that remarkable period in the history 

 of engineering. About this time he designed the Pier at Millbay, 

 where he introduced the system of construction since employed with 

 so much success at the harbours of Holyhead and Portland. En- 

 gagements poured in fast upon him, and his career was for the next 

 few years one of unceasing activity, chiefly in the construction of 

 Harbours or Docks, and the improvement of Rivers and Estuaries. 



In the year 1843, the projected construction of Docks at Birken- 

 head, in Cheshire, of such an extent as to create a formidable rival to 

 Liverpool, brought Mr. Rendel very prominently before the world ; 

 and the protracted contests on this subject will be long remembered 

 in the history of Parliamentary Committees, for the ability with which 

 he defended his positions ; and the evidence given by him and other 

 Engineers, as now collected, forms a valuable record of the state of 

 engineering practice. The almost incessant labour, and the mental 

 anxiety inseparable from this undertaking, were more than even his 

 powerful constitution could support, and it is feared that they tended 

 to shorten his valuable life. 



The daring project of constructing a dock at Great Grimsby, by 

 projecting the works far out upon the mud-banks of the River 

 Humber, was next successfully accomplished ; and he commenced 

 the two great works which alone suffice to hand down his name to 

 posterity, beside those of Smeaton, Rennie, and Telford, the 

 Harbours of Refuge of Holyhead and Portland ; both these 

 works were conceived with the largest views, and have been 

 carried on with great rapidity. In both cases the system was 

 adopted of establishing timber stages over the line of the jetties and 

 depositing the large and small stones together, as they came from 

 the quarries, by dropping them vertically from railway waggons into 

 their positions ; thus bringing up the mass simultaneously to above 

 the level of the sea. In this manner as much as 24,000 tons of 



