With Portrait, Svo, Cloth, Price 12s. 6d, 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



OP 



SIR JOHN RENNIE, 



PAST PKESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, F.R.S., 

 ETC., ETC. 



EDITED BY HIS SON, C. G. C. BENNIE. 

 OPmONS OF THE PRESS. 



"At once modest and manly, simple in phraseology, and sound in scientific conceptions, 

 bright with reference to some of the most famous spots in the world, to many of the most 

 noted characters of English society within the present century, and to most of the chief engi- 

 neering woi-ks of our time, the autobiography of Sir J. Eennie is a work of singular interest. 

 Written in idiomatic English of unusual purity, the narrative is light and graceful ; while 

 the scientific descriptions of the numerous works constructed, designed, and reported upon by 

 its author attain the clearness of a good specification without ceasing to be readable. The 

 volume is a work of unusual merit. We cannot venture on any prediction as to the manner 

 in which it will be received by the public ; but we certainly hold that the degi-ee of popular 

 favour which it attains will "be a pretty accurate gauge of the extent to which the public 

 taste has been vitiated by the supply of sensational publications and slip-slop writing to which 

 these instructive pages present so marked a contrast." — Athenceum, Oct. 23, 1875. 



" Sir J. Rennie's autobiography will be read with interest by every member of the profes- 

 sion. Written entirely from memory, and presented to the public unrevised, it bears striking 

 testimony to the mental powers of the writer, then in his seventy-fourth year. As already 

 stated, he had retired from the active duties of his profession, but he still contemplated, even 

 at that advanced age, writing a work on the drainage of the fens and hydraulics generally, as 

 well as a complete history of engineering." — Engineering, Oct. 15, 1875, 



" The boldness of his views may be exemplified by his quiet obiter dictum, after a visit to 

 the Netherlands, that 'the whole of the sea-coast of Holland requires to be remodelled ;' but 

 he is not ready merely to suggest. In the course of his narrative he sketches out a plan for 

 reclaiming land, abolishing superfluous channels of great rivers, joining islands with the con- 

 tinent, and achieving results which would soon take the sting out of old Andrew Marvel's 



^^'^'^^^ '• " ' Holland, that scarce deserves the name of land, 



Is but the offacouring of the British sand.' " 



Daily News, Oct. 27, 1876. 



" Sir J. Rennie's name is associated with many of the most important engineering works 

 in this country, and the history of his professional life now before us is replete with interest, 

 especially for members of his own profession." — Standard, Oct. 25, 1875. 



" This record of the professional career of one among the most illustrious engineers of the 

 present century was written by Sir J. Rennie in 1867, shortly after he had retired from active 

 life, and in his seventy-third year. It had to be composed, he tells us, entirely from memory, 

 as he had not a single date, or note-book, or journal to refer to. Of its value and interest, 

 both to members of his own profession and to the public at large, it would be difficult to 

 speak too highly." — Echo, Nov. 16, 1875. 



" The autobiography is a work of unusual interest and unquestionable merit. Its style is 

 simple and natural ; its language has an elegance which breathes of a less feverish, though not 

 less manly, tone of society than that which marks the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 

 His accounts of voyages and travels, of famous places which he has visited, and famous men 

 he has known, have a charm which is even more sensible to those familiar with what he 

 describes than to those to whom the account has the charm of novelty. Above all, the kindly 

 tone of his mind, and the clear penetration of his professional glance, are apparent in every 

 paae."— £«//j6'/-, Oct.'SO, 1875. 



