on the 25th of February, having remained sensible to the last, and almost to the last having entertained hopes of his own recovery. At the time of his decease, Mr. Watt was unavoidably absent, at Broseley in Shropshire, on business connected with the engine; but Dr. Ash and Dr. Darwin, with both of whom Dr. Small had always lived on terms of the greatest intimacy, Mr. Boulton, Mr. Keir, and other attached friends, constantly attended him in his last illness. 66 Mr. Keir has regretted, to a certain extent not without reason, that "Dr. Small, although possessed of various and "eminent talents to instruct mankind, has left no trace "behind of all that store of knowledge and observation which “he had acquired, and from which his friends never left him "without drawing fresh information." But the panegyric is not slight which he pronounces, when he adds;-"He lives only in the memory of those friends who knew his worth, "and of the poor, whom his humane skill was ever ready to "rescue from disease and pain." "It is needless," writes the same gentleman in announcing his death to his brother, the Rev. Robert Small of Dundee, "to say how universally he is "lamented; for no man ever enjoyed or deserved more the "esteem of mankind. Mr. Boulton and myself, who were "more particularly blest with his intimacy and friendship, "are struck with a grief suitable to the loss which we have "sustained, and which we know can never be repaired. We "loved him with the tenderest affection, and shall ever "revere his memory." "His numberless virtues," says Mr. Boulton, "I should be happy to fall heir to, they being the 66 only legacy that could reconcile me to his death." "Messrs. "Keir, Darwin, Day, and self," adds Mr. Boulton at a later date, "have never yet agreed about a monument for the "church; but as there is nothing which I wish to fix in my "mind so permanently as the remembrance of my dear de"parted friend, I did not delay to erect one to his memory "in the prettiest but most obscure part of my garden; a part "that is modelled, at least characterised, since you were here. "'Tis a sepulchred grove, in which is a building adapted for contemplation; from one of its windows, under a Gothic 66 "arch formed by trees, you see the church in which he was "interred, and no other object whatsoever except the monu"ment. It is a sarcophagus standing upon a pedestal, on "which is written M: S: Gulielmi Small, M.D. MDCCLXXV. "and upon the pedestal are inscribed some verses written by "Dr. Darwin, a copy of which, with a slight sketch of the "view from one of the windows of the building, I herewith "send you : "Ye gay and young, who, thoughtless of your doom, "Where Melancholy broods o'er many a tomb Mould'ring beneath the yew's unwholesome shade; "If chance ye enter these sequester'd groves, "And day's bright sunshine for a while forego, "For Science, Virtue, and for SMALL she mourns." Mr. Day also, who had hastened to England from Brussels as soon as he heard of the severe illness of his friend, (although unfortunately too late to be present with him in his last hour), and whose mind was long in recovering from the gloom caused by the loss of one whom he had always venerated as a wise and faithful instructor, composed the following epitaph on his "guide, philosopher, and friend:" "Beyond the rage of Time, or Fortune's power, *That of St. Philip, Birmingham. "O taught on reason's boldest wings to rise, "O friend to truth, to virtue, and mankind! The "sepulchred grove" of Soho has fallen; the "sarco“phagus,”—or, rather, cenotaph,—has perished; and the romantic grounds surrounding Mr. Boulton's mansion, with their woods and waters, little more than a century ago an unpeopled and uncultured waste, then transformed into a series of smiling gardens and shaded lawns, have now become the site of other houses, multiplying in proportion to the immense development of the steam-engine and its results in that central and busy district of our great manufacturing country. But not so soon will be forgotten the refinement of mind, the ardour in scientific pursuits, the community of sentiments, and the warmth of friendship, which long cheered those scenes with their sunshine, and seem still to visit them with a distant gleam. 66 The passing of the Act of Parliament which ensured to Mr. Watt and his assignees the exclusive right to “make, use, exercise, and vend" the steam-engines of his invention, now enabled him to arrange finally with Mr. Boulton the system on which their partnership and proposed manufacture of engines should be conducted. Of the great difficulties that still remained to be overcome in the further prosecution. of their undertaking, we may form some faint estimate from the remarkable fact, that "at the period of the construction "of the first steam-engine upon the new principles at Soho, "the intelligent and judicious Smeaton, who had been invited "to satisfy himself of the superior performance of the engine by his own experiments upon it, and had been convinced of "its great superiority over Newcomen's, doubted the practicability of getting the different parts executed with the requi"site precision; and augured, from the extreme difficulty of 66 66 * Account of the Life and Writings of Thomas Day, Esq.' (by Mr. Keir), p. 93. 1791. "arch formed by trees, you see the church in which he was "interred,* and no other object whatsoever except the monu"ment. It is a sarcophagus standing upon a pedestal, on "which is written M: S: Gulielmi Small, M.D. MDCCLXXV. "and upon the pedestal are inscribed some verses written by "Dr. Darwin, a copy of which, with a slight sketch of the "view from one of the windows of the building, I herewith "send you: "Ye gay and young, who, thoughtless of your doom, "Where Melancholy broods o'er many a tomb 66 Mould'ring beneath the yew's unwholesome shade; "If chance ye enter these sequester'd groves, "And day's bright sunshine for a while forego, “Here, while no titled dust, no sainted bone, "For Science, Virtue, and for SMALL she mourns." Mr. Day also, who had hastened to England from Brussels as soon as he heard of the severe illness of his friend, (although unfortunately too late to be present with him in his last hour), and whose mind was long in recovering from the gloom caused by the loss of one whom he had always venerated as a wise and faithful instructor, composed the following epitaph on his "guide, philosopher, and friend:" "Beyond the rage of Time, or Fortune's power, *That of St. Philip, Birmingham. |