CHAP. VI. SOUTHWARK BRIDGE. 187 



Duke. At the opening, the Prince Regent offered to 

 confer the honour of knighthood on the engineer, who 

 respectfully declined it. Writing to his friend Whid- 

 bey, he said, " I had a hard business to escape knighthood 

 at the opening." He was contented with the simple, 

 unadorned name of John Rennie, engineer and architect 

 of the magnificent structure which he had thus so suc- 

 cessfully brought to completion. Waterloo Bridge is 

 indeed a noble work, and probably has not its equal for 

 magnitude, beauty, and solidity. Dupin characterised 

 it as a colossal monument worthy of Sesostris or 'the 

 Caesars ; and what most struck Canova during his visit 

 to England was, that the trumpery Chinese bridge, then 

 in St. James's Park, should be the production of the 

 Government, whilst Waterloo Bridge was the enterprise 

 of a private company. Like all Rennie' s works, it was 

 built for posterity. That it should not have settled 

 more than a few inches not five in any part after 

 the centres were struck, is an illustration of solidity and 

 strength probably without a parallel. We believe that 

 to this day not a crack is visible in the whole work. 



The necessity for further bridges across the Thames 

 increased with the growth of population on both sides of 

 the river ; and in the year 1813 a Company was formed 

 to provide one at some point intermediate between 

 Blackfriars and London Bridge, of which Mr. Rennie 

 was appointed the engineer. The scheme was at first 

 strongly opposed by the Corporation on the ground of 

 the narrowness of the river at the point at which 

 it was proposed to erect the new structure ; but the 

 public demands being urgent, they at length gave way 

 and allowed the necessary Act to pass, insisting, how- 

 ever, on the provision of a very large waterway, so 

 that the least obstruction should be offered to the navi- 

 gation. Mr. Rennie prepared a design to meet the 

 necessities of the case, and in order to secure the largest 

 possible waterway, he projected his well-known South- 



