CHAP. IV. THE ALBION MILLS. 141 



neer was amongst the foremost in his efforts to extin- 

 guish the conflagration ; but in vain. The fire had made 

 too great progress, and the Albion Mills, Eennie's pride, 

 were burnt completely to the ground, and never rebuilt. 



The Albion Mills, however, established Mr. Rennie's 

 reputation as a mechanical engineer, and introduced him 

 to extensive employment. His practical knowledge of 

 masonry and carpentry also served to point him out 

 as a capable man in works of civil engineering, which 

 were in those days usually entrusted to men bred to 

 practical mechanics. There was not as yet any special 

 class trained to this latter profession, the number of 

 persons who followed it being very small ; and these 

 were usually determined to it by the strong instinct of 

 constructive genius. Hence the early engineers were 

 mainly self-educated Smeaton, like Watt, being origin- 

 ally a mathematical instrument maker, Telford a stone- 

 mason, and Brindley and Rennie millwrights ; force of 

 character and bent of genius enabling each to carve out 

 his career in his own way. The profession of engineer- 

 ing being still in its infancy in England, there was very 

 little previous practice to serve for their guide, and they 

 were called upon in many cases to undertake works of 

 an entirely new character, in which, if they could not find 

 a road, they had to make one. This threw them upon 

 their own resources and compelled them to be inventive : 

 it practised their powers and disciplined their skill, and 

 in course of time the habitual encounter with difficulties 

 brought fully out their character as men as well as their 

 genius as engineers. 



When the ruins of the Albion Mills had been cleared 

 away, Mr. Rennie obtained leave from the owners to 

 erect a workshop upon a part of the ground, wherein he 

 continued for the rest of his life to carry on the business 

 of a mechanical engineer. But from an early period the 

 civil, branch of the profession occupied a considerable 

 share of his attention, and eventually it became his 



