90 MYLNE. 



Mr. Murdock married in the year 1785 the daughter of Captain 

 Paynter, of Redruth, Cornwall, who died at the early age of twenty- 

 four, having had four children. From a Paper read by Mr. William 

 Buckle, of Soho, before a meeting of the Institution of Mechanical 

 Engineers, October 23, 1850. 



ROBERT MYLNE. 



Born January 4, 1733. Died May 5, 1811. 



Eobert Mylne, the architect of Blackfriars Bridge, was born at 

 Edinburgh. His father was an architect, and magistrate of the 

 city; and his family, it has been ascertained, held the office of 

 Master Masons to the Kings of Scotland for a period of five hundred 

 years, until the union of the crowns of England and Scotland. 



On arriving at man's estate, Mylne travelled for improvement ; 

 and his enthusiastic prosecution of his art soon brought him into 

 notice. In 1758 he became a candidate for the honours of the 

 Academy of St. Luke at Rome, and the chief prize in the highest 

 class of architecture was awarded to him ; being the first instance 

 of a native of Great Britain obtaining that honour. 



Mylne resided at Rome during a space of five years, and on his 

 return to England executed a design for Blackfriars Bridge, which 

 was selected from among twenty others. This bridge was com- 

 menced in 1760 ; and on the occasion of the laying of the foundation- 

 stone by the Lord Mayor, among other medals deposited in the 

 stone was a silver one, the memorial of the young architect's first 

 triumph, viz., the medal (one of two) given him by the Academy at 

 Rome. The bridge was completed in 1769 ; the arches are elliptical 

 in shape, and were the first instances in England in which the form 

 of an ellipse was substituted for a semicircle. The total cost of the 

 bridge itself, exclusive of the approaches, amounted to 152,840Z. 



Mylne's reputation was now established, and his services were 

 employed in the erection or improvement of many edifices through- 

 out the United Kingdom. He received at the hands of the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the Lord Mayor, 

 the office of Surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral ; and while holding 

 this appointment, suggested the famous inscription to Sir Christopher 

 Wren ' Si monumentum quoeris circumspiceS He also held the office 

 of Clerk of the Works at Greenwich Hospital for fifteen years, and 

 was Engineer to the New River Water Works from the year 1762 

 until his death, in 1811, when he was succeeded by his son. 



Towards the close of the eighteenth century, he became acquainted 

 with Mr. John Rennie, whose celebrity as an engineer was then ap- 



