204 RENNIE'S LAST WORKS PART VII. 



CHAPTER XL 



MR. KENNIE'S LAST WORKS His DEATH AND CHARACTER. 



ON undertakings such as these, of great magnitude and 

 importance, was Mr. Rennie engaged until the close of 

 his useful and laborious life. There was scarcely a pro- 

 ject of any large public work on which he was not 

 consulted ; sometimes furnishing the plans, and at other 

 times revising the designs of others which were sub- 

 mitted to him. Numerous works of minor importance 

 also occupied much of his attention, as is shown by 

 the extent of his correspondence and the number of 

 his reports, which contain an almost complete reposi- 

 tory of engineering practice. Whilst he was engaged 

 in designing and superintending the construction of 

 his great London Bridges, the formation of Plymouth 

 Breakwater, the building of the docks at Sheerness, 

 the cutting of the Crinan Canal, and the drainage of 

 the Fens by the completion of the Eau Brink Cut, 

 he was at the same time consulted as to many im- 

 portant schemes for the supply of large towns with 

 water. His report on the distribution of the water 

 supplied by the York Buildings Company in the 

 Strand in which he proposed for the first time to 

 appropriate a distinct service to the several quarters 

 of the district supplied was a masterpiece in its 

 way ; and the principles he then laid down have been 

 generally followed by subsequent engineers. He also 

 reported on the improved water-supply of Manchester, 

 Edinburgh, Bristol, Leeds, Doncaster, Greenwich and 

 Deptford, and many other large towns in England 



