CHAP. VI. 



DEATH AND CHARACTER. 



77 



SMEATON'S LATHE. 



of the other interesting remains of the great engineer 

 are equally worthy of preservation. To mechanics, there 

 is a meaning in every one of 

 them. They do not resemble 

 existing tools, but you can see 

 at once that each was made 

 for a reason ; and one can 

 almost detect what the con- 

 triver was thinking about 

 when he made them so diffe- 

 rent from those we are accus- 

 tomed to see. Even in the most 

 trifling matters, such as the 

 kind of wood or metal used, 

 the direction of the fibre of the 

 wood, and such like, each de- 

 tail has been carefully studied. 

 Much even of the household furniture seems to have 

 been employed in their fabrication, possibly to the occa- 

 sional amazement of the ladies in Smeaton's house over 

 the way. We are informed that so much " rubbish," 

 as it was termed, was found in that square tower at 

 his death, that a fire was kindled in the yard, and a vast 

 quantity of papers, letters, books, plans, tools, and scraps 

 of all kinds, were remorselessly burnt. 



We have said that Smeaton was a born mechanic ; 

 and a mechanic he remained to the last. He contrived 

 and constructed for the pure love of it. Among the 

 traditions which survive about him at Whitkirk, is 

 this, that when new gates were erected at the entrances 

 to Temple Newsam Park, near his house at Austhorpe, 

 he volunteered to supply the designs, and they were 

 made and hung after his plans. The people of the 

 neighbourhood, however, think his most wonderful work 



with a greater amount of friction on 

 the other wheels. The metal-work 

 is of brass, iron, and steel, all nicely 



finished ; and the whole is very com- 

 pact, curious, and thoroughly Smea- 

 ton-like. 



