118 



YOUNG RENNIE AT SCHOOL, 



TAUT VII. 



(JHAPTEK III. 



YOUNG KENNIE AT SCHOOL, WORKSHOP, AND COLLEGE. 



FARMER RENNIE died in the old house at Phantassie 

 in the year 1766, leaving a family of nine children, four 

 of whom were sons and five daughters. George, the 

 eldest, was then seventeen years old. He was discreet, 

 intelligent, and shrewd beyond his years, and from that 



RENNIE'3 BIRTHPLACE, PHANTASSTE. 



[By E. M. Wimperis, after a Drawing by J. S. Smiles.] 

 l 



time forward he managed the farm and acted as the 

 head of the family. The year before his father's death 

 he had made a tour through Berwickshire, for the pur- 

 pose of observing the improved methods of farming 

 introduced by some of the leading gentry of that county, 



