128 YOUNG RENNIE AT SCHOOL, PART VII. 



does not say much for his musical taste. When he had 

 left Edinburgh, however, and entered seriously upon the 

 business of life, the extensive nature of his engagements 

 so completely occupied his time that in a few years, flute, 

 fiddle, and bagpipes were laid aside altogether. 



During the three years that he attended college, our 

 student was busily occupied in the summer vacation- 

 extending from the beginning of May to the end of 

 October in each year in executing millwork in various 

 parts of the country. Amongst the undertakings on 

 which he was thus employed, may be mentioned the 

 repair or construction of the Kirkaldy and Bonnington 

 Flour Mills, Proctor's Mill at Grlammis, and the Carron 

 Foundry Mills. When not engaged on distant works, 

 his brother George's house at Phantassie was his head- 

 quarters, where he prepared his designs and specifications. 

 He had the use of the workshop at Houston Mill for 

 making such machinery as was intended for erection in 

 the neighbourhood; but when he was employed at some 

 distant point, the work was executed in the most con- 

 venient places he could find for the purpose. There 

 were as yet no large manufactories in Scotland where 

 machinery of an important character could be turned out 

 as a whole ; the millwright being under the necessity of 

 sending one portion to the blacksmith, another to the 

 founder, another to the brass-smith, and another to the 

 carpenter, a state of things involving a great deal of 

 trouble and often risk of failure, but which was eminently 

 calculated to familiarize our young engineer with the 

 details of every description of work required in the 

 practice of his profession. 



His college training having ended in 1783, and being 

 desirous of acquiring some knowledge of English en- 

 gineering practice, Eennie set out upon a tour in the 

 manufacturing districts. Brindley's reputation attracted 

 him first towards Lancashire for the purpose of inspecting 

 the works of the Bridge water Canal. There being no 



