LIFE OF JOHN RENNIE. CHAPTER I. SCOTLAND AT THE MIDDLE OF LAST CENTURY. JOHN RENNIE, the architect of the three great London bridges, the engineer of the Plymouth Breakwater, of the London and East India Docks, and various other works of national importance, was born at the farm-steading of Phantassie, in East Lothian, on the 7th of June, 1761. His father was the owner of the small estate of the above name, situated about midway between Haddington and Dunbar, at the foot of the gently-sloping hills which rise from it towards the south, the village of East Linton lying close at hand on the further bank of the little river Tyne. The property had been in the family for generations, and Mr. Rennie had the reputation of being one of the best farmers in the neighbourhood. But the art of agriculture, like every thing else in Scotland, was in |