226 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



which always had the warm sympathy and support of Lord Armstrong, 

 renders assistance in a private and unostentatious way to a class who, 

 from the nature of their position, would not be reached by the more 

 public agencies for the relief of those in embarrassed circumstances. 



Nearly forty years ago he determined to build a country house and 

 make an estate worthy of his position. The manner in which he 

 attacked this enterprise is, in its own line, almost as astonishing as 

 anything he ever did. He selected the village of Eothbury as his 

 residence. He had always expressed an affection for this small village 

 among the Northumbrian moors, and used to say that it was the 

 bracing air of Rothbury which turned him from a delicate child into 

 a vigorous man. Here, about the year 1863, he bought an estate, and 

 built a house, which he called " Cragside." This done, he set about 

 transforming the surroundings at vast expense and labour. He 

 reclaimed the waste places, he laid out large gardens; he planted 

 millions of trees ; he made roads and lakes. No geographical difficulty 

 was allowed to daunt him, and the result had been a complete trans- 

 formation of the landscape. Opinions may be divided as to whether so 

 much planting has been an improvement, but, as a monument of big 

 ideas, worked out with consummate energy, the house and estate of 

 Cragside have an unique interest of their own. Much later in his 

 life, in 1894, Lord Armstrong began another building scheme of almost 

 equal magnitude. This was nothing less than the restoration upon the 

 old lines of the ancient castle of Bamburgh. Though he did not live 

 to see this work finished, he was able to go to Bamburgh a few months 

 before his death and inspect the progress of the building. 



Lord Armstrong, though he had long retired from active business, 

 maintained his health and his vigour until 1897. In the August of that 

 year, on the occasion of the visit of the King of Siam to Elswick, he was 

 taken ill, it was thought from the effects of some kind of sunstroke. 

 Henceforth he was an invalid, confined to his room, and only occasion- 

 ally going out for a short drive about his grounds at Cragside. From 

 time to time his health showed improvement, and his understanding 

 remained as clear as ever, but his nerve seemed to be gone, and the 

 smallest exertion fatigued him. In December, 1900, some trivial 

 affection, which his enfeebled frame could not throw off, overtook him, 

 and he died peacefully upon the 27th of December. He was buried on 

 the last day of the nineteenth century in Kothbury Churchyard. 



Though Lord Armstrong died recently, the chief achievements of his 

 life were carried out so long ago that it is quite possible to estimate 

 the value of his work. It may be said of him that he was one of 

 a small band of inventors to whom it has been given to profoundly 

 modify the conditions of human life. As the pioneer of hydraulic 

 machinery and engineering he takes a foremost place among the men of 



