The Life of Joseph Locke; Civil Engineer

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIV. LAST DAYS. MR. LOCKE'S whole existence had been one essentially of bodily no less than mental exertion. Physical inactivity would have been to him, no less than intellectual torpor, a mere death-in-life. We have seen how, when'the dignity consequent upon attained superiority required that he should retire from the more turbulently active pursuit of his profession, he found a vent for the energies of his practical mind in criticising the estimates of Government, or making a sudden sally upon the placid optimism of easy-going directors. So we cannot wonder if we find, when his professional occupations no longer led him on to the roofs of houses, or to the summit of mountains, or into the depths of tunnels, that he sought compensation for the loss of engineering surveys in the exercise of manly sports. He no longer walked from Warrington to Birmingham in three days, but he strode across the heather on the slopes of Queensbury with as determined and untiring, if not so elastic, a step as when he had stormed Shap Fell, level in hand, or tracked out afoot the straight, steep lines of the Caledonian. If he did not tire out assistants and contractors, he tired out dogs and keepers. He had made several attempts to purchase an estate in Scotland; but he had somehow never met with one for sale that satisfied him. On his estate at Honiton there was no residence. This made him all the more desirous to have one north of the Tweed on which there was one. Still, though insisting upon this point, he wanted it more for the sake of adjoining moorland than as a country seat. He loved his shooting, and cared to surround himself and guests with the comforts of home whilst the shooting season lasted. But it is quite certain that he would have made use of it for no...