Lives of the Engineers, with an Account of Their Principal Works: Comprising Also a History of Inland Communication in Britain, Volume 2

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J. Murray, 1861 - Engineers
 

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Page 106 - And since your leddyship is pleased to speak o' parting wi' us, I am free to tell you a piece o' my mind in another article. Your leddyship and the steward hae been pleased to propose that my son Cuddie suld work in the barn wi' a newfangled machine * for dighting the corn frae the chaff, thus impiously thwarting the will of Divine Providence by raising wind for your leddyship's ain particular use by human art, instead of soliciting it by prayer, or waiting patiently for whatever dispensation of...
Page 135 - Pennant's remark that he remembered it " a deep hollow road, and full of sloughs, with here and there a ragged house, the lurking-place of cut-throats ; insomuch," he adds, " that I never was taken that way by night in my hackney-coach to a worthy uncle's, who gave me lodgings in his house in George Street, but I went in dread the whole way.
Page 223 - It is reported in old times, upon the saide rock there was a bell, fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea, giving notice to the saylers of the danger. This bell or...
Page 187 - London. 4to. 1836. /^ANOVA, when he was asked, during his visit to England, ^-^ what struck him most forcibly? is said to have replied — that the trumpery Chinese bridge, then in St. James's Park, should be the production of the government, whilst that of Waterloo was the •work of a private company.
Page 379 - Findhorn being in a flood, they were obliged to go up its banks for about twenty-eight miles to the bridge of Dulsie before they could cross. I myself rode circuits when I was Advocate-Depute between 1807 and 1810. The fashion of every Depute carrying his own shell on his back, in the form of his own carriage, is a piece of very modern antiquity.
Page 132 - There be many smiths in the town that use to make knives and all manner of cutting tools and many lorimers that make bits, and a great many nailers. So that a great part of the town is maintained by smiths. The smiths there have iron out of Staffordshire and Warwickshire and sea coal out of Staffordshire.
Page 88 - In consequence of the foregoing, I conclude myself nine-tenths dead ; and the greatest favour the Almighty can do me, as I think, will be to complete the other part; but as it is likely to be a lingering illness, it is only in his power to say when that is likely to happen.
Page 306 - Having acquired," he says in his Autobiography, " the rudiments of my profession, I considered that my native country afforded few opportunities of exercising it to any extent, and therefore judged it advisable (like many of my countrymen) to proceed southward, where industry might find more employment and be better remunerated.
Page 411 - Corpaeh formed the southernmost point of the intended canal. It is situated at the head of Loch Eil, amidst some of the grandest scenery of the Highlands. Across the Loch is the little town of Fort William, one of the forts established at the end of the 1 'The Origin and Progress of the Mechanical Inventions of James Watt.
Page 43 - There were still many who persisted in asserting that no building erected of stone could possibly stand upon the Eddystone ; and again and again the engineer, in the dim grey of the morning, would come out and peer through his telescope at his deep-sea lamp-post. Sometimes he had to wait long, until he could see a tall white pillar of spray shoot up into the air. Thank God ! it was still safe. Then, as the light grew, he could discern his building, temporary house and all, standing firm amidst the...

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