270 



RENNIE'S LAST WORKS- 



VII. 



a rival to his own Breakwater at Plymouth. At Cher- 

 bourg he was joined by Mr. Whidbey, who had come 

 over in a vessel of war to meet him. Mr. Rennie 

 returned to England after less than a month's tour ; 

 and though he had made a labour of his pleasure-trip, 

 the change of air and scene did him good, and he 

 entered with zest upon the business of clearing off 

 the formidable arrears of work which had accumulated 

 during his absence. We may add, as an illustration of 

 his habit of turning everything, even his pleasure, to 

 account, that one of the first things he did on his return 

 home was to make an elaborate report to Lord Melville, 

 then First Lord of the Admiralty, of the results of his 

 investigations of those foreign harbours which he had 

 visited in the course of his journey. 



After a few years' more devoted application, his health 

 again began to give way. When consulted by Mr. Fol- 

 jambe of Wakefield, in June, 1820, respecting a railway 

 proposed to be laid down in that neighbourhood, he 

 excused himself from entering upon the business because 

 his hands were so full of work and his health was so 

 delicate. Shortly after, we find him writing to a friend 

 that the new works executed by him during the past 

 year had cost about half a million, besides those in 

 progress at Sheerness, which would cost a million. He 

 was then busy with his investigations relative to New 

 London Bridge, the report on which he prepared whilst 

 laid up with gout. He persisted in going abroad as 

 long as he could, and went to his doctor in a carriage for 

 advice, instead of letting the latter come to him. But 

 resistance, however brave, was useless against disease, 

 and at length he was compelled to succumb. To the 

 last he went on issuing instructions to his inspectors 

 in different parts of the country relative to the works 



humble dimensions which it pre- 

 sented when Mr. Rennie visited the 

 place. The whole cost of the works 



amounted to upwards of seven mil- 

 lions sterling. 



