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Lyttelton Times, Volume XVII, Issue 978, 26 March 1862, Page 3

Anecdotes op Brindley.—Some curious anecdotes have, however, been preserved of his appearance as a wituess on Canal Bills before Parliament. When asked, on one occasion, to produce a drawing of an intended bridge, he replied that lie had no plan of it on paper, but he would illustrate it by a model. Fie went out and bought a large cheese, which lie brought into the room and cut into two equal parts, saying, "Here is my model." The two halves of the cheese represented the semicircular arches of his bridge; and by laying over them some rectangular object he could thus" readily communicate to the 'Committee the position of the river flowing underneath and the canal passing over it. On another occasion, when giving his evidence, he spoke so frequently about " puddling," describing its uses and advantages, that some of the members expressed a desire to know what this extraordinary mixture was that could be applied to so many and important purposes. Preferring, a practical illustration to a verbal description, Brindley caused a mass of clay to be brought into the committee room, and moulding it in its raw unlempered state into the form of a trough, he poured into it some water, which speedily ran through and disappeared. He then worked the clay up with water to imitate the process of puddling, and again forming it into a trough, filled if With water, which was now held in without a particle of leakage. " Tims is it," said Brindley, " that 1 form a water-tight trunk to carry water over rivers and valleys, wherever they cross the path of the canal." On another occasion, when Brindley was giving evidence before a committee of the House of Peers as to the lockage of his proposed canal, one of Uieir lordships asked him, " But what is a lock?" on which the engineer took a piece of chalk from his pocket and proceeded to explain it by means of a diagram which lie drew upon the'floor, and niade the matter clear at once.— Lives of the Engineers by S. Smiles.

A Core fok Chukch Slkeveiis.—The old monks1 seats in Westminster Abbey, in Henry Vll.'s chapel, were placed on ait axis which passed through the contre. As long as they remained awake, nothing happened, but directly they W(?Ilt tl) sleel)' the'seat upset and tumbled them out. This unclerical merriment was also provided for at the .Church.-of Bishop's, Stortf'ord, where the scats were similarly 'constructed. The idea is worthy of introduction into some of our modern "sensation" churches.— Court Journal,