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He was a man of original genius, full of information on a variety of subjects, agreeable in conversation and good natured, but with a singular vanity as to personal appearance. Though one of the coarsest looking men I ever knew, he talked so much of polish and refinement that it tempted Mr. William Clerk, of Eldin, to make a very clever clay model of his ungainly figure.
Being critical rather than instructive, it is not to be classed with the essay of Clerk of Eldin; but it is one of the most important contributions to the investigation of tactical questions ever published in the English tongue. On it are based nearly, or quite, all the unfavourable views expressed concerning the British tactics at Trafalgar.
Clerk, Esq., of Eldin who, though he had never been to sea, composed a quarto treatise on fleet-fighting, which to this day remains a text-book; and he also originated a nautical manoeuvre, which has given to England many a victory over her foes.
And there is no doubt that the man and the boy met with common ambitions, and a common bent, to the practice of that which had not so long before acquired the name of civil engineering. For the profession which is now so thronged, famous, and influential, was then a thing of yesterday. My grandfather had an anecdote of Smeaton, probably learned from John Clerk of Eldin, their common friend.
John Clerk of Eldin stood his friend from the beginning, kept the key of the model room, to which he carried 'eminent strangers, and found words of counsel and encouragement beyond price. 'Mr.
Clerk of Eldin had already invented the system of "breaking the line" in naval engagements a system that was first practised with complete success by Lord Rodney in his engagement off Martinico in 1780. The subject interested Mr.
Wardrop, of Torbane Hill, which you might palm off upon most laymen as a Rembrandt; and close by, you saw the white head of John Clerk, of Eldin, that country gentleman who, playing with pieces of cork on his own dining-table, invented modern naval warfare.
The effect of this undeniable evidence on the two lettered sages may be left to the reader's imagination. The late excellent and venerable John Clerk of Eldin, the celebrated author of Naval Tactics, used to tell this story with glee, and being a younger son of Sir John's was perhaps present on the occasion. Rutherfurd's Dream The legend of Mrs.
On looking at the notes of introduction which Pleydell had thrust into his hand, Mannering was gratified with seeing that they were addressed to some of the first literary characters of Scotland. 'To David Hume, Esq. To John Home, Esq. 'To Dr. Ferguson. 'To Dr. Black. 'To Lord Kaimes. 'To Mr. Button. 'To John Clerk, Esq., of Eldin. 'To Adam Smith, Esq. 'To Dr. Robertson.
On looking at the notes of introduction which Pleydell had thrust into his hand, Mannering was gratified with seeing that they were addressed to some of the first literary characters of Scotland. 'To David Hume, Esq. To John Home, Esq. 'To Dr. Ferguson. 'To Dr. Black. 'To Lord Kaimes. 'To Mr. Button. 'To John Clerk, Esq., of Eldin. 'To Adam Smith, Esq. 'To Dr. Robertson.
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