xh 



weakness. Henceforward his life was a subdued waiting for the end. He 

 died at Tottenham on the 21st March, 1864. 



A portrait of Luke Howard, bequeathed to one of his friends, is even- 

 tually to be added to the Royal Society's collection. Besides the works 

 above mentioned, he published Essay on the Modifications of Clouds, 

 1832 ; Seven Lectures on Meteorology, 1837 ; a Cycle of Eighteen Years 

 in the Seasons of Britain, &c., 1842 ; Barometrographia Twenty Years' 

 Variation of the Barometer in the Climate of Britain, 1847 ; Papers on 

 Meteorology, 1850-54 ; and The Yorkshireman, a religious and literary 

 Periodical, in 5 vols., 1833-37. 



WILLIAM CHADWELL MYLNE was born in London, on the 6th of April, 

 1781, and died on the 25th of December, 1863. His father, Robert 

 Mylne, F.R.S., a native of Edinburgh, and the representative of a long 

 line of Scotch architects, commenced his career in London in 1759 by 

 building Blackfriars Bridge, and held the appointment of Engineer to the 

 New River Water Works, to which his son, the subject of this notice, suc- 

 ceeded in 1810. 



Mr. Mylne may be said to have been from his cradle bred an engineer. 

 When a boy only sixteen years of age he was engaged with the younger 

 Mr. Golborne in the Fen country in staking out the lands for his father's 

 great scheme of the Eau Brink Cut, an undertaking which, through oppo- 

 sing interests, was defeated at that time, but was eventually carried out by 

 Mr. Rennie in 1817. Subsequently he was occupied on his father's well- 

 known project, the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal, seventy feet in 

 width ; and he was generally engaged in assisting his father in the largest 

 professional practice of that day. 



Succeeding at thirty years of age to the sole conduct of the New River 

 Works, Mr. Mylne had before him an arduous and responsible office. The 

 supply of water to London had hitherto been solely derived from the New 

 River and London Bridge Works ; but the rapid extension of the metro- 

 polis led to the establishment of new companies, which gave rise to serious 

 contests, and for some years involved them in a ruinous competition. Mr. 

 Mylne's ability and energy were soon tried in carrying out extensive changes 

 in the New River Works. The old wooden main pipes, which up to 1810 

 were the principal conduits for the passage of water, were found insuffi- 

 cient to stand the requisite pressure, and it was deemed expedient to sub- 

 stitute pipes of cast iron. This improvement was effected at a cost of 

 nearly half a million sterling ; and the whole was satisfactorily accom- 

 plished under Mr. Mylne's judicious management. 



Notwithstanding the constant and \inremitting engagements of the New 

 River business, Mr. Mylne was occupied in considerable engineering prac- 

 tice, particularly in the Fen country, carrying out Sandys Cut, with several 

 other important drainage works. Combining also the hereditary profes- 

 sion of an Architect, he was engaged in bridge-building, and in the alte- 



