been deformed by petty
decorations. In his third letter the Doctor grew more scientific, and
even more confused. He was very angry with Mr. Mylne's friends for
asserting that though a semi-ellipse might be weaker than a semicircle,
it had quite strength enough to support a bridge. "I again venture to
declare," he wrote--"I again venture to declare, in defiance of all this
contemptuous superiority" (how arrogant men hate other people's
arrogance!), "that a straight line will bear no weight. Not even the
science of Vasari will make that form strong which the laws of nature
have condemned to weakness. By the position that a straight line will
bear nothing is meant that it receives no strength from straightness;
for that many bodies laid in straight lines will support weight by the
cohesion of their parts, every one has found who has seen dishes on a
shelf, or a thief upon the gallows. It is not denied that stones may be
so crushed together by enormous pressure on each side, that a heavy mass
may be safely laid upon them; but the strength must be derived merely
from the lateral resistance, and the line so loaded will be itself part
of the load. The semi-elliptical arch has one recommendation yet
unexamined. We are told that it is difficult of execution."

In the face of this noisy newspaper thunder, Mylne went on, and produced
one of the most beautiful bridges in England for L152,640 3s. 10d.,
actually L163 less than the original estimate--an admirable example for
all architects, present and to come. The bridge, which had eight arches,
and was 995 yards from wharf to wharf, was erected in ten years and
three quarters. Mylne received L500 a year and ten per cent. on the
expenditure. His claims, however, were disputed, and not allowed by the
grateful City till 1776. The bridge-tolls were bought by Government in
1785, and the passage then became free. It was afterwards lowered, and
the open parapet, condemned by Johnson, removed. It was supposed that
Mylne's mode of centreing was a secret, but in contempt of all quackery
he deposited exact models of his system in the British Museum. He was
afterwards made surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, and in 1811 was
interred near the tomb of Wren. He was a despot amongst his workmen, and
ruled them with a rod of iron. However, the foundations of this bridge
were never safely built, and latterly the piers began visibly to
subside. The semi-circular arches would have been far stronger.

T