Sir John, a Scotch lawyer, was the second son of James Skene of Ramore, and of Janet the second daughter of Alexander Burnet of Leys. He thus derived his lineage from the ancient family of Skene of Skene. We may place his birth about the year 1540. He is said to have been partly educated at King's College, Aberdeen; but he is known to have been incorporated at St. Andrews in the year 1556; and in this university he took the degree of A.M. In 1564 and 1565 he taught as one of the regents of St. Mary's College. According to Dempster, he spent a great part of his youth in Norway, Denmark, and Poland, and had thus an opportunity of acquiring a familiar acquaintance with modern languages, as well as of extending his knowledge of men and manners. Skene has incidentally mentioned that he was in Switzerland in 1568, and that he was at Cracow in Poland during the following year. He has likewise stated that he returned home after a peregrination of seven years, and that he returned from the famous university of Witteberg, honoured with an annual pension from the elector of Saxony, and imbued with some knowledge of the civil law. He appears to have begun his travels in 1557, and to have returned in 1574. On revisiting his native country, he finally made choice of the legal profession, and was admitted as an advocate on the 19th of March 1575. He speedily acquired some degree of distinction as a lawyer.

The earl of Morton, then regent of the kingdom, had formed a plan for reducing the laws into a more easy form and method. The execution of the plan was committed to Skene and to Sir James Balfour, president of the court of session. Among other ostensible coadjutors, we find Lord Glamis, chancellor, Lord Ruthven, and William Baillie of Provand, who likewise attained to the dignity of president. The only result of this commission is supposed to have been the compilation of a book which passes under the title of Sir James Balfour's Practicks. "If I might be allowed to indulge in conjecture," says Mr. Thomson, "I should be inclined to suppose, that the conception or project of this digest of the laws may have originated with Balfour; that his own exile afterwards precluded him from continuing to take any part in its execution; that the active drudgery of the proposed investigation was devolved upon younger men; and that the unfinished result of their labours is perhaps no other than the volume of Practicks to which the name of Sir James Balfour has been traditionally annexed." It is at least evident that the work must have been interpolated; for, as Lord Hailes has remarked, it mentions certain acts of parliament, and the names of certain peers, that did not exist till after the death of Balfour. Of this compilation, which was not printed till 1754, the value has never been highly estimated. The labours of Skene, whatever may have been their nature or extent, were, on the 10th of June 1577, rewarded by the grant of an annual pension of "ten chalders of meal," payable out of the revenues of the abbey of Aberbrothock.

In the year 1589 he was employed in another capacity. Sir James Melville was selected by the king as his ambassador to the court of Denmark, for the purpose of negotiating a marriage with a Danish princess; and he required the advice and assistance of a lawyer, with a special reference to the Danish claims on Orkney. "When I schew his maieste," says Melville, "that I wald tak with me, for man of law, Mester Jhon Skein, his maieste thocht then that ther wer many better lawers. I said that he was best acquainted with the conditions of the Germanes, and culd mak them lang harangues in Latin, and was a gud trew stout man, lyk a Dutche man. Then his maieste was content that he suld ga ther with me." Melville was however supplanted, and the Earl Marischal having been placed at the head of the embassy, Skene accompanied him to Denmark. Dr. Craig, physician to the king, addressed a letter to Tycho Brahe, recommending to his friendly attentions Skene, Swinton, Nicolson, and Fowler, who were all attached to this mission.

In the course of the same year, Skene was conjoined with David Makgill for executing the office of his majesty's advocate; and in 1590 he was associated with Colonel Stewart in an embassy to some of the princes of Germany. During the same year he was employed on an embassy to the States-General. In 1592 an act of parliament authorized the chancellor, assisted by other commissioners, of whom Skene was one, to institute a general examination of the municipal laws, to consider what laws and acts should be known to the king's subjects, and to take the necessary steps for printing them. The most laborious part of this undertaking devolved upon Skene; and after an interval of five years, he published "The Lawes and Actes of Parliament maid be King James the First and his Successors, Kingses of Scotland: vised, collected, and extracted furth of the Register." Edinb. 15 Martii a.d. 1597, fol. According to our present mode of reckoning, the book was published in the year 1598. With a separate title, it includes a treatise "De Verborum Significatione. The Exposition of the Termes and difficil Wordes, contained in the foure bivkes of Regiam Majestatem, and others, in the Actes of Parliament, Infestments, and used in practicke of this Realme, with diverse rules and common places, or principalles of the Lawes: collected and expounded by M. John Skene, Clerke of our Soveraigne Lordis Register, Councell, and Rolles."

In September 1594 he had been appointed to the office of Clerk Register, in the room of Alexander Hay of Easter Kennet, whom he also succeeded as one of the Judges of the Court of Session. He was admitted on the 30th of November. For his preferment he is said to have been indebted to the influence of Walter Stewart, prior of Blantyre, who had married a sister of Skene's wife, Helen the daughter of Sir James Somerville of Cambusnethan. In 1596 he was nominated one of the commissioners of the exchequer, commonly described as the Octavians; but being viewed by the people as a dangerous junto, they relinquished their office in the course of the following year. In 1604 he was associated with other commissioners for discussing the terms of a union between the two kingdoms.

About the beginning of the year 1607 he had prepared another work for the press; and "the meanness of his estate and fortune not answering to his wit, ingenuity, and literature," the privy council, after having examined it, addressed a letter to the king, requesting him to provide the means for its publication. His manuscript was afterwards presented to parliament, and having been highly approved, was ordered to be printed. With the view of defraying the expense, and procuring some remuneration to the editor, a sum of money was ordered to be paid by the sheriffs, bailies, stewards, and other judges, and likewise by the prelates, earls, lords, and boroughs of the kingdom. A commission was appointed for the purpose of fixing the rate of the different contributions. James Carmichael, minister of Haddington, was selected as the fittest person for correcting the press; and on the 13th of October 1608, the privy council requested the presbytery to grant him leave of absence for the period of about two months. This period must however have been too short for correcting one half of the work. It was at length published, under the title of "Regiam Majestatem. Scotiae veteres Leges et Constitutiones, ex Archivis publicis et antiquis libris manuscriptis collectae, recognitae, et notis juris civilis, canonici, Nort-

---

1 Moysie's Memoirs of the Affairs of Scotland, p. 84. Edinb. 1830, 4to. 2 Maidment's Analecta Scotica, vol. i. p. 31. 3 Brunton and Haig's Historical Account of the Senators of the College of Justice, p. 232. 4 McCrie's Life of Melville, vol. ii. p. 318. 5 Hale's History of the Common Law of England, p. 188. 6 Lyttelton's Hist. of Henry II., vol. ii. p. 267. 7 See Lord Hales's Examination of some of the Arguments for the high Antiquity of Regiam Majestatem, p. 7. Edinb. 1769, 4to. 8 Cragii Jus Feudale, p. 51. 9 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 564. 10 See Sir Francis Palgrave's Introduction to the Rotuli Curiae Regis, p. xxix. gister; but his attempt was defeated by the dexterity of Sir Thomas Hamilton, afterwards successively earl of Melrose and of Haddington. "Thinking to get his son provided to his office," says Spotswood, he "had sent him to court with a diminution of the place, but with a charge not to use it, unless he found the king willing to admit him: yet he, abused by some politic wits, made a resignation of the office, accepting an ordinary place among the Lords of Session. The office upon his resignation was presently disposed to the advocate; which grieved the father beyond all measure. And the case indeed was pitiful, and much regretted by all honest men; for he had been a man much employed, and honoured with divers legations, which he discharged with good credit, and now in age to be circumvented in this sort by the simplicity or folly of his son, 'twas held lamentable. The king being informed of the abuse by the old man's complaint, was very careful to satisfy him, and to have the son reconciled to his father, which after some travel was brought to pass: yet so exceeding was the old man's discontent, as within a few days he deceased." Grief however is seldom so rapidly fatal. Skene resigned his office in the year 1612, and he survived till the 16th of March 1617.

At that period the legal profession not unfrequently opened the road to emoluments and wealth comparatively great. He acquired the demesnes of Currichill and Redhall in the county of Edinburgh, and Edinganoch in the county of Aberdeen. His title on the bench was Lord Currichill. His son Sir James Skene succeeded him on the 12th of June 1612, and became president of the Court of Session on the 14th of February 1626. On the 15th of October 1633, he died in his own house near the grammar school. The second son, named John, was appointed one of the principal clerks of Session in 1614. He purchased the estate of Hallyards. About twenty years ago, his last descendant, Elizabeth Skene, bequeathed to the Advocates Library a collection of family papers, together with a very curious collection of ancient music, which appears to have belonged to this ancestor. The Skene Papers have been carefully bound in a folio volume; and the music has very recently been published by Mr. Dauney, who has added a copious and elaborate introduction, together with notes and illustrations. Alexander, the third son of Sir John Skene, was clerk of the registration of hornings. Beside these three sons, he had four daughters. The eldest daughter became the wife of Alexander Hay of Fosterscat, a judge and privy councillor. The second daughter was married to Sir William Scott of Ardross; the third to Robert Lermont, advocate, brother to Lermont of Balcomy; and the fourth to Sir Robert Richardson of Pencaitland.

The clerk register had a brother named Alexander, who was likewise an advocate and an author. For some time at least, he must have adhered to the popish church; for we find that in 1561 he was committed to prison by the magistrates of Edinburgh for attending mass, but was released at the intercession of William Skene. This was apparently his brother, who was commissary of St. Andrews, and professor of law in that university. Of his method of teaching, we find an account in the very curious Diary of a pupil, who relinquished the study of law for that of divinity. "In the third and fourth years of my course, at the direction of my father, I hard the commissar, Mr. Wilyeam

---

1 Spotswood's Hist. of the Church of Scotland, p. 517. 2 Ancient Scottish Melodies, from a manuscript of the reign of King James VI., with an introductory Enquiry illustrative of the History of the Music of Scotland, by William Dummer, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. Edinb. 1838, 4to. 3 Cowper's Account of Sir John Skene, Lord Currichill, Clerk Register, his Predecessors and Successors, MS. The author of this account, Robert the brother of Sir John Cowper of Gogar, died at Balberton near Edinburgh in 1726, in the ninety-first year of his age. 4 Mc-Crie's Life of Andrew Melville, vol. i. p. 113. 5 Diary of James Melville, p. 23. Edinb. 1829, 4to.

Indeed to avoid interruptions and accidents, it is always desirable that any crossings with a railway should take place on different levels. The like may be said of canals, which besides, cannot, without some kind of moveable bridges, be crossed closely above by any sort of road, and in fact can only be crossed quite on the same level by some water course; not to say any thing of fording or wading through them. ly increase the expense, owing to the necessity of constructing a bridge of much larger dimensions than would be required were a proper oblique arch introduced, which, from its exerting its thrust in the most advantageous direction, is stronger than any other of the same magnitude. For, besides endeavouring to preserve a certain degree of equilibrium amongst the several parts of an arch, it is considered still more necessary to the insuring the greatest strength, especially where the span is considerable, and the upper passage narrow, that the beds of the courses of the stones should be everywhere at right angles, both to the soffit or under surface of the arch, and also to every vertical plane running in the direction of the road or other passage carried over the bridge. There is no difficulty in fulfilling or combining these conditions in a square bridge, but it is very different with the oblique sort.

Writers on the theory of bridges for the most part say nothing of the oblique arch; and the few who do mention it, generally content themselves with slurring it over in such brief, vague, or general terms, as to be nearly unintelligible. Those again who have professedly drawn up what they reckon practical rules for workmen, have, for the most part, tacitly assumed it as perfectly ascertained and indisputable, that the conditions above mentioned may, with only a little more labour, be equally well attained in the case of the oblique, as in that of the square bridge, by merely making the courses of the stones to form portions of the thread of a square threaded screw, or rather, perhaps, of a thread somewhat of the dovetailed form; the highest part of each thread, or that on the crown of the arch, being at right angles to the direction of the road. Such, in particular, is the doctrine laid down by Mr. Nicholson, and also by Mr. Fox; and it is not a little amusing, that the honour of inventing this supposed valuable theory has been warmly disputed between these gentlemen, or at least their friends. When the soffit is to be a cylindrical surface, the side of the screw-thread may, it is true, be readily formed so as to be everywhere at right angles to the soffit; and, as all the beds of the courses of the stones would have the same curvature, the stones might be conveniently prepared beforehand, which is a great recommendation to the scheme. But unfortunately, the other, and by far the more important condition of the two, namely, to have the beds of the courses everywhere at right angles to the direction of the upper passage, can by no means be accurately fulfilled by the figure of the screw; for no two parallel planes can both of them cut the same thread of the screw at right angles, if they intercept a less portion of it than a revolution, so that a thread which has the proportions per position or direction at the crown of the arch, can have it at no other point; its direction on the one side of the crown being too much inclined to the course of the under passage, whilst, on the other side, it is too little inclined.

However, although it thus appears that the principle of the screw thread cannot well serve the purpose of the skew bridge, especially when the obliquity is great; yet there can be no question that the beds of the courses of the stones might always be formed with such a curvature as would make them very nearly fulfil both the conditions above specified; but as the several parts of this curved surface, if different from that of a screw, would necessarily be far from being uniform, the stones, owing to their requiring to be of so many different shapes, could not, without immense labour of measurements, drawings, and innumerable patterns, be prepared beforehand; and, therefore, most probably, the easiest way of putting such a scheme in practice, would be to prepare the stones no faster than they are required in building, and then it would be easy to form each stone in such a manner, that two of its opposite sides, or at least the middle parts of these sides, should be as nearly as possible at right angles, both to the soffit, and also to the direction of the passage over the bridge. In this way of working, the soffit need not be restricted to the cylindrical form, because it may suit equally well though of a very different figure. We are aware, that something similar to the method just mentioned has been already acted on, and has also been heartily ridiculed as unscientific and unsystematic; but it will be quite in time to condemn it when once a better shall have been substituted in its stead: for, most assuredly, if closely followed up, it should form an incomparably more perfect structure than that with the screw thread. The like remarks are equally applicable when the material is brick.

Some bridges may be said to consist generally of a platform supported by a set of curved iron ribs, which either abut like a stone arch against the piers, or, if the curvature be small, and especially if there be nothing to abut against, each rib has its extremities connected and kept from spreading, by a straight rod crossing the span underneath. Ribs of this last construction are often used as beams for supporting floors in large buildings; for, being in effect beams of great depth, they only rest or press downwards upon the piers or walls supporting them, and so have no horizontal thrust. Curved iron ribs, whether with or without the rods, are equally applicable to the oblique as to the square arch, since each rib may always be placed in a plane, which is both vertical, and runs in the direction of the upper passage. The horizontal rods, though generally of unnecessarily great strength throughout the most part of their length, are commonly rendered very weak near their extremities, owing to their either being very needlessly pierced with large holes near the ends, or by being very much reduced there, for the purpose of being formed into a screw. Common sense, one would think, could not fail to hint to even the most inexperienced, that to resist a longitudinal pull, there is no use in having one part of the rod stronger than another; because one weak part will render it as likely to fail, as if the whole were equally weak. Neither is it necessary that such rods should be stronger at the middle to sustain their own weight, since they are commonly suspended there by a vertical strap.

It is evident that the opposite horizontal thrusts of an arch, formed of any other materials as well as iron, might, in a similar manner, be made to annihilate or counteract each other by means of horizontal rods beneath, so that a common square arch, having the thrusts obviated in this way, could be used instead of a skew bridge, wherever there is sufficient head-room for the horizontal rods, and likewise space for carrying out a mere wall as far as will square the faces of the arch, and support its weight at the two projecting corners; no additional embankment being required where there is no thrust.

An elegant mode of constructing arches of brick, without requiring the aid of anything like ordinary centring on the great scale, has been introduced by Mr. Brunel, and is equally applicable to the oblique as to the square bridge. The principle of this, as originally adopted, and its sufficiency tested in constructing the shaft of the Thames Tunnel, depends on the cohesive power of Roman cement, coupled with a system of ties, the most eligible material for which Mr. Brunel found to be hoop iron. After the piers have been constructed in the usual manner, a mould, curved according to the figure of the arch, is fixed to, and stretched

---

1 The mode of attaining an equilibrium in an oblique arch, is a subject on which no one, so far as we know, has entered. It seems generally to be taken for granted, that the obliquity makes no difference; but though in this we cannot acquiesce, our limits will not admit of attempting to discuss the question.

2 See Philosophical Magazine for April 1836, January and March 1837, and Reports of British Association for 1838. between these piers, and upon this a narrow arch or rib of brick is carried over and keyed, using cement, with the occasional insertion of ties. The adhesion of the cement to the brick being greater than the cohesion of the brick itself, enables the rib to be carried to any extent of which the strength of the material will admit. When once a sufficient number of such ribs have been successively constructed, side by side, like so many beams stretched between the piers, they will be in a state to receive and support all the other materials necessary to complete the structure.

The bridge of the Santissima Trinita at Florence, though of rubble construction, affords a magnificent example of the strength of cementitious architecture, and of the durability of the materials; the arches being composed of a mass of irregular stones so strongly united by mortar, as to have the consistence of a single stone. It is evidently a matter of perfect indifference whether such arches were square or oblique. A very ancient bridge, said to have been built by the Romans, over the Danube at Ratisbon, has wonderfully resisted the ravages of time. It consists of gray freestone and thin bricks, firmly united by pozzolano cement.

On several lines of railway, an ingenious mode of constructing arches of laminated ribs of wood or iron has been introduced by Mr. Green, and is alike applicable to the oblique as to the square arch. At the Ouseburn, close to the east side of the town of Newcastle, is one of the great viaducts constructed in this manner by Mr. Green, on the Shields railway. The piers and abutments are of stone, with large projecting buttresses on each side, whilst the arches, which are circular, are of Memel timber. Each arch is one hundred and sixteen feet in span, and consists of three separate and parallel curved ribs, and each rib, which is four feet in depth by twenty-two inches in thickness, is composed of sixteen layers of three-inch planks laminating over each other, and these again, whilst being bent over a curved frame or centre into the form of the required arch, were firmly fixed together by means of oaken pins and iron straps. The three ribs of each arch are connected by diagonal braces, and their ends rest in large iron sockets fixed on the stone piers or abutments. From the upper sides of the ribs a series of very strong struts, braces, and framing, bound with iron straps and bolts, is carried up, filling the spandrels, to support the platform or roadway, which is formed of longitudinal beams; these again are covered with three-inch planks to carry the rails. Hitherto almost all wooden bridges had been constructed of straight timbers, upon the same principles as are used in roofing; and on account of the shrinkage from the frequent joggles and the weight of the structure, the roadway and framing generally became bent or crippled. But the ribs constructed by Mr. Green make a very close approach to solid pieces of timber. Their strength is very little impaired by the joining of the planks, which are from twenty to forty-five feet in length by eleven inches in breadth; particularly since great care has been taken that no two junctions of their ends might occur at the same place. In forming a rib, the first layer of planks consists of two whole deals in breadth, and the next of one whole and two half deals, and so on alternately, until the rib is completed. This construction is supposed to be better able to resist the load which it may have to bear at a given point, than can be done by the same quantity of materials in a different form. The struts which discharge the weight from the spandril beams upon the ribs, stand at right angles to the latter, and divide them into equal parts. The strength, durability, and beauty, can only be exceeded by arches of stone. The whole of the timber was subjected to Kyan's process, and between every two deals was introduced a layer of brown paper dipped in tar, to exclude moisture. The bridge across the Ouseburn has five wooden arches of one hundred and sixteen feet span, and four of stone of forty-three feet span. Each of the Skinner's wooden arches required three centres, which were made so light as to admit of being shifted from one arch to another without being taken to pieces. The total length of this bridge is nine hundred and fifty feet, and greatest height one hundred and eight feet. At Willington, four miles farther east, on the same railway, is a still longer bridge of the same construction.

Mr. Green has applied the same principle to the construction of iron bridges with laminated ribs of that metal. Wrought iron bars from 1½ to 4 inches square, according to the span of the arch, and from fifteen to twenty-five feet in length, grooved on the under, and tongued on the upper side, are laid one over another, and bent over a centre until the rib is formed. The bars are bound together with iron straps at intervals of from four to six feet apart. A considerable saving of expense, and great lightness, as compared with stone or ordinary iron bridges, may thus be attained.