he ventured, before he had recovered, to go to Norwood, to make a sketch of a
scene which he had particularly admired; but he paid dear for his enthusiasm,
by a return of the disease, against which his enfeebled constitution had no power
to rally. Even then, his dying gaze was still in quest of the beauty and grandeur which he had so loved to delineate; and in a thunder-storm which occurred
while he was dying, he besought his sisters to raise him up in bed, that he
might see its passing splendour and its effects before he had himself departed.
Thus he passed away, on the 17th of August, 1831, at his lodgings, in South
Lambeth, at the age of forty-five.
NICHOLSON, Peter.—This skilful architect, whose long life was one of continued usefulness, and whose scientific knowledge was constantly turned to practical results, was born in the parish of Prestonkirk, East Lothian, on the 20th of July 1705. Even before he had reached his ninth year he had unconsciously chosen his future profession, as was manifested by his drawings and models of the numerous mills in the neighbourhood of Prestonkirk. When a young schoolboy, his scientific tastes so strongly predominated, that mathematics formed the chief object of his study; and his proficiency was so much beyond his years, that having on one occasion borrowed from an elder boy Commadine's "Euclid," translated by Cann, in which the engraved diagrams of the 18th proposition of the third book were wanting, he supplied the loss by constructing them from the proposition itself. His ardour in these studies was only increased by the difficulty he experienced in obtaining or borrowing works upon the subjects of his inquiry.
At the age of twelve, Peter Nicholson was taken from the parish school of Prestonkirk, where he had been a pupil for three years, that he might assist in the occupation of his father, who was a stone-mason. But having no liking for this uncongenial work, Peter betook himself to that of a cabinet-maker; and having served a four years' apprenticeship to it at Linton, he repaired to Edinburgh, and afterwards to London, working in both capitals as a journeyman. In the latter city he also commenced teaching at an evening school, in Berwick Street, Soho, and his success in this new profession enabled him to abandon the making of chairs and tables for more intellectual pursuits, as was shown by his first publication, "The Carpenter's New Guide," in 1792, the plates of which were engraved by his own hand. In this work, the originality and inventiveness by which he was afterwards distinguished, were shown in his new method in the construction of groins and niches. His next productions in authorship were the "Student's Instructor," the "Joiner's Assistant," and the "Principles of Architecture " the last-mentioned work, in three volumes, 8vo, having commenced its serial appearance in 1794, and been completed in 1809.
After a residence of eleven years in London, Mr. Nicholson returned to Scotland in 1800, and dwelt eight years in Glasgow, a city already rising into eminence, and which his scientific skill as an architect greatly aided to adorn and benefit. His chief works in Glasgow were the wooden bridge across the Clyde; Carlton Place—that may be termed the commencement of these splendid modern residences in which the city is now so abundant; and the large structure that terminates the second quadrangle of the university. Why a Grecian building should have thus raised its front so scornfully over the Gothic walls and pepper-box pinnacles which it seems to sneer at, even as would a spruce, well-dressed cit of the present day at a serge-clothed, flat-capped, and bearded
