Meikle quietly pocketed the affront, but set his machinery to work early next morning; and when the butler got out of bed, he found himself up to his knees in water, so successfully had the engineer performed his promise. Meikle lived to an extreme old age, and was cheerful to the last. He was a capital player on the Northumbrian bagpipes. The instrument he played on was made by himself, the chanter being formed out of a deer's shankbone. When ninety years old, at the family gatherings on "Auld Hansel Monday," his six sons and their numerous families danced about him to his music. He died in 1811, in his ninety-second year, and was buried in Prestonkirk churchyard, close by Houston Mill, where a simple monument is erected to his memory.' Such was the master who first trained and disciplined the skill of John Rennie, and implanted in his mind an enthusiasm for mechanical excellence. Another of his apprentices was a man who exercised almost as great an influence on the progress of mechanics, through the number of first-rate workmen whom he trained, as did Rennie himself in the art of engineering. We allude to Peter Nicholson, an admirable mechanic and draughtsman, the author of numerous works on carpentry and architecture, which to this day are amongst the best of their kind. We now pursue the career of Andrew Meikle's most distinguished pupil. 1 It is remarkable that Scotch biography should be altogether silent respecting this ingenious and useful workman. In the most elaborate of the Scotch biographical collections— that of Robert Chambers, in four large volumes-not a word occurs relating to Meikle. An article is devoted to Mickle, the translator of another man's invention in the shape of a a poem, the 'Lusiad; but the name of the inventor of the thrashing-machine is not even mentioned; affording a singular illustration of the neglect which this department of biography has heretofore experienced, though it has been by men such as Meikle that this country has in a great measure been made what it is. CHAPTER III YOUNG RENNIE AT SCHOOL, WORKSHOP, AND COLLEGE. FARMER RENNIE died in the old house at Phantassie in the year 1766, leaving a family of nine children, four of whom were sons and five daughters. George, the eldest, was then seventeen years old. He was discreet, intelligent, and shrewd beyond his years, and from that RENNIE'S BIRTHPLACE, PHANTASSIE. time forward he managed the farm and acted as the head of the family. The year before his father's death he had made a tour through Berwickshire, for the purpose of observing the improved methods of farming introduced by some of the leading gentry of that county, and he returned to Phantassie full of valuable practical information. The agricultural improvements which he was shortly afterwards instrumental in introducing into East Lothian were of a highly important character; his farm came to be regarded as a model, and his reputation as a skilled agriculturist extended far beyond the bounds of his own country, insomuch that he was resorted to for advice as to farming matters by distinguished visitors from all parts of Europe.1 Of the other sons, William, the second, went to sea: he was taken prisoner during the first American war, and was sent to Boston, where he died. The third, James, studied medicine at Edinburgh, and entered the army as an assistant-surgeon. The regiment to which he belonged was shortly after sent to India: he served in the celebrated campaign of General Harris against Tippoo Saib, and was killed whilst dressing the wound of his commanding-officer when under fire at the siege of Seringapatam. John, the future engineer, was the youngest son, and he was only five years old at the death of his father. He was accordingly brought up mainly under the direction of his mother, a woman possessed of many excellent practical qualities, amongst which her strong common sense was not the least valuable. The boy early displayed his strong inclination for mechanical pursuits. When about six years old, his best loved toys were his knife, hammer, chisel, and saw, by means of which he indulged his love of construction. He preferred this kind of work to all other amusements, taking but small pleasure in the ordinary sports of boys of his own age. His greatest delight was in frequenting the smith's and carpenter's shops in the neighbouring village of Linton, watching the men use their tools, and 1 Amongst Mr. Rennie's other illustrious visitors in his later years was the Grand Duke Nicholas (afterwards Emperor) of Russia, who stayed several nights at Phantassie, and during the time was present at the celebration of a "hind's wedding." trying his own hand when they would let him. But his favourite resort was Andrew Meikle's millwright's shop, down by the river Tyne, only a few fields off. When he began to go to the parish school, then at Prestonkirk, he had to pass Meikle's shop daily, going and coming; and he either crossed the river by the planks fixed a little below the mill, or by the miller's boat when the waters were high. But the temptations of the millwright's workshop while passing to school in the mornings not unfrequently proved too great for him to resist, and he played truant; the delinquency being only discovered by the state of his fingers and clothes on his return home, when an interdict was laid against his "idling" away his time at Andrew Meikle's shop. The millwright, on his part, had taken a strong liking for the boy, whose tastes were so congenial to his own. Besides, he was somewhat proud of his landlady's son frequenting his house, and was not disposed to discourage his visits. On the contrary, he let him have the run of his workshop, and allowed him to make his miniature water-mills and windmills with tools of his own. The river which flowed in front of Houston Mill was often swollen by spates or floods, which descended from the Lammermoors with great force; and on such occasions young Rennie took pleasure in watching the flow of the waters, and following the floating stacks, fieldgates, and other farm wreck along the stream, down to where the Tyne joined the sea at Tyningham, about four miles below. Amongst his earliest pieces of workmanship was a fleet of miniature ships. But not finding tools to suit his purposes, he contrived, by working at the forge, to make them for himself; then he constructed his fleet, and launched his ships, to the admiration and astonishment of his playfellows. This was when he was about ten years old. Shortly after, by the advice and assistance of his friend Meikle, who took as much pride in his performances as if they had been his own, Rennie made a model of a windmill, another of a fire-engine (or steam-engine), and a third of Vellore's pile-engine, displaying upon them a considerable amount of manual dexterity; some of these early efforts of the boy's genius being still preserved. Though young Rennie thus employed so much of his time on this amateur work in the millwright's shop, he was not permitted to neglect his ordinary education at the parish school. That of Prestonkirk was kept by a Mr. Richardson, who seems to have well taught his pupil in the ordinary branches of education; but by the time he had reached twelve years of age he seems almost to have exhausted his master's store of knowledge, and his mother then thought the time had arrived to remove him to a seminary of a higher order.' He was accordingly Though a poor country, as we have seen, Scotland was already rich in parish and burgh schools; the steady action of which upon the rising generation was probably the chief cause of that extraordinary improvement in all its branches of industry to which we have above alluded. John Knox-himself a native of East Lothian-explicitly set forth in his first 'Book of Discipline'-"That every several kirke have ane schoolmaister appointed," "able to teach grammar and the Latin tongue, if the town be of any reputation;" and if an upland town, then a reader was to be appointed, or the minister himself must attend to the instruction of the children and youth of the parish. It was also enjoined that "provision be made for the attendance of those that be poore, and not able by themselves nor their friends to be sustained at letters;" "for this," it was added, "must be carefully provided, that no father, of what estate or condition that ever he may be, use his children at his own fantasie, especially in their youthhead; but all must be compelled to bring up their children in learning and virtue." During the troubles in which Scotland was involved, almost down to the Revolution of 1688, although attempts were made to establish a school in every parish, they seem to have been attended with comparatively small results; but at length, in 1696, the Scottish Parliament was enabled, with the concurrence of William of Orange, to put in force the Act of that year, which is regarded as the charter of the parishschool system in Scotland. It is there ordained "that there be a school settled and established, and a schoolmaster appointed in every parish not already provided, by advice of the heritors and minister of the parish." The consequence was, that the parish schools of Scotland, working steadily upon the rising generation, all of whom passed under the hands of the parish teachers during the preceding half-century, had been training a population whose intelligence was greatly in advance of their material condition as a people; and it is in this circumstance, we apprehend, that the true explanation is to be found of the rapid start forward which the whole country now took, dating more particularly from the year 1745. Agriculture was naturally the first branch of industry to exhibit signs of decided improvement; to be speedily followed by like advances in manufac |