284 KENNIE'S LAST WORKS. PART VII. 



diate personal gain, no consideration would induce him 

 to recommend or countenance in any way the construc- 

 tion of cheap or slight work. He held that the engineer 

 had not merely to consider the present but the future 

 in laying down and carrying out his plans. Hence his 

 designs of docks and harbours were usually framed so as 

 to be capable of future extension ; and his bridges were 

 built not only for his own time, but with a view to the uses 

 of generations to come. In fine, Mr. Rennie was a great 

 and massive, yet a perfectly simple and modest man ; and 

 though his engineering achievements may in some mea- 

 sure have been forgotten in the eulogies bestowed upon 

 more recent works, they have not yet been eclipsed, nor 

 indeed equalled ; and his London bridges not to men- 

 tion his docks, harbours, breakwater, and drainage of 

 the Lincoln Fens will long serve as the best exponents 

 of his genius. 



The death of this eminently useful man was felt 

 to be a national loss, and his obsequies were honoured 

 by a public funeral. His remains were laid near those 

 of Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's Cathedral, the 

 dome of which overlooks his finest works. The same 

 motto might apply to him as to the great architect near 

 whose remains his lie " Si monumentum quaeris, cir- 

 cumspice." 



