Independently of his duties connected with northern lights, Mr. Stevenson,
in his general capacity as a civil engineer, was frequently a co-operator with
Rennie, Telford, and the other chief engineers of the day. He also, after the
peace of 1815, was the principal adviser in the construction of those new roads,
bridges, harbours, canals, and railways, towards which the national energy and
capital were now directed. Even the beautiful approach to the city of Edinburgh from the east, by the Calton Hill, was planned by him, and executed
under his direction. "While his impress was thus stamped upon the public
works of Scotland, he was often consulted upon those of England and Ireland;
and his ingenious plans of simplifying and adapting, which he had so success-
fully employed upon one element, were followed by those which were equally
fitted for the other. In this way, his suggestion of the new form of a suspension bridge applicable to small spans, by which the necessity for tall piers is
avoided, was partially adopted in the bridge over the Thames at Hammersmith.
While planning a timber bridge for the Meikle Ferry, he also devised an arch
of such simple construction, composed of thin layers of plank bent into the
circular form, and stiffened by king-post pieces, on which the level roadway
rests, that this form of bridging has come into very general use in the construction of railways.
As an author Mr. Stevenson has riot been particularly fertile. He sat down to draw a plan instead of excogitating a theory, and his published work was the erection itself, instead of a volume to show how it might be accomplished. Still, however, he has written sufficiently for one who did so much. Independently of his large work upon the Bell Rock lighthouse, he wrote several articles in the "Encyclopædia Britannica," and Brewster's "Edinburgh Encyclopædia," and other scientific journals. In 1817 he published a series of letters in the "Scots Magazine," giving an account of his tour through the Netherlands, and a description of the engineering works connected with the drainage and embankment of Holland. His professional printed reports and contributions are also sufficient to occupy four goodly quarto volumes. Owing, however, to the obstacles under which his early education was impeded, he had not acquired that facility in composition which a commencement in youth is best fitted to impart, so that we question whether, in his great achievement of the Bell Rock, his book or his lighthouse occasioned him most trouble. In 1815 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; he afterwards joined the Geological Society of London, and the Wernerian and Antiquarian Societies of Scotland.
In private life Mr. Stevenson was endeared to all who knew him, by his lively intelligent conversation, kind disposition, and benevolent deeds, while his whole course was a beautiful illustration of the Christian character superinduced upon the highest scientific excellence. And as he had lived, so he died, at the ripe age of seventy-nine, at peace with the world he was leaving, and rejoicing in the hope of a better to come. His decease occurred at his residence in Baxter's Place, Edinburgh, on the 12th of July, 1850. His most fitting monument is an admirable marble bust likeness, executed by Samuel Joseph, at the command of the Commissioners of the Board of Northern Lights, and placed by them in the library of the Bell Rock lighthouse.
STRUTHERS, John.—"It is said that the solitary and meditative generation of cobblers have produced a larger list of murders and other domestic crimes than any other mechanical trade except the butchers; but the sons of
