It is, however, unnecessary here to venture upon the
further history of steam navigation.
In the midst of these repeated inventions and experiments,
Murdock was becoming an old man. Yet he never ceased to take an
interest in the works at Soho. At length his faculties
experienced a gradual decay, and he died peacefully at his house
at Sycamore Hill, on the l5th of November,1839, in his
eighty-fifth year. He was buried near the remains of the great
Boulton and Watt; and a bust by Chantrey served to perpetuate the
remembrance of his manly and intelligent countenance.
Footnotes for Chapter V.
[1] Fletcher's Political Works, London, 1737, p. 149,
[2] One of the Murdocks built the cathedral at Glasgow, as well
as others in Scotland. The famous school of masonry at Antwerp
sent out a number of excellent architects during the 11th, 12th,
and 13th centuries. One of these, on coming into Scotland,
assumed the name of Murdo. He was a Frenchman, born in Paris, as
we learn from the inscription left on Melrose Abbey, and he died
while building that noble work: it is as follows:--
"John Murdo sumtyme cait was I And born in Peryse certainly, An'
had in kepyng all mason wark Sanct Andrays, the Hye Kirk
o'Glasgo, Melrose and Paisley, Jedybro and Galowy. Pray to God
and Mary baith, and sweet Saint John, keep this Holy Kirk frae
scaith."
[3] The discovery of the Black Band Ironstone by David Mushet in
1801, and the invention of the Hot Blast by James Beaumont
Neilson in 1828, will be found related in Industrial Biography,
pp.
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