Volume 3 > Half-Volume 5

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dents 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 skill as an architect greatly
aided to adorn and benefit. His chief works in
Glasgow were the wooden bridge formerly across
the Clyde; Carl ton Place, which may be termed the
commencement of these handsome modern residences
in which the city is now so abundant; and the large
structure that terminates the second quadrangle of
the university.
The next residence of Mr. Nicholson was Carlisle,
where, through the recommendation of his country-
man Telford�who, like himself, had commenced
life as a stone-mason�he was appointed architect of
the county of Cumberland, and in this situation he
superintended the building of the new court-houses
in the county town. While here he also obtained
rewards from the Society of Arts for an improvement
in hand-railing, and for the invention of an instru-
ment called the centrolinear. After remaining two
years in Carlisle, he returned in 1810 to London, and
resumed the work of authorship, in which his pen
was both active and prolific, as appears by the list
of his works at this period. These were, the Archi-
tectural Dictionary, in two volumes large quarto, the
publication of which extended from 1812 to 1819;
Mechanical Exercises, and the Builder and Work-
man's New Director. Besides these practical works
connected with his own profession as an architect,
Mr. Nicholson turned his attention to subjects of a
more purely scientific character, and was author of
the Method of Increments, Essays on the Combina-
torial Analysis, Essay on Involution and Evolution
(for which he received the thanks of the Academic
des Sciences at Paris), Analytical and Arithmetical
Essays, and the Rudiments of Algebra. In 1827 he
commenced the publication of a work entitled the
School of Architecture and Engineering, which he
designed to complete in twelve numbers at is. 6d.
each; but in consequence of the bankruptcy of the
publishers, only five numbers appeared. This failure,
combined with the pecuniary loss it occasioned him,
so annoyed Mr. Nicholson, that in 1829 he removed
from London to Morpeth, and afterwards, in 1832, to
Newcastle-on-Tyne, where his time was chiefly spent
in teaching, for which purpose he opened a school
in the Arcade; and in the production of various
scientific works. Here, also, his well-established
reputation procured his election as president and
honorary member of several societies connected with
architecture, civil engineering, and the fine arts.
But notwithstanding such a long life of interesting
and multifarious authorship, his pecuniary profits by
no means kept pace with his merits; and while he
was the means of enriching others by his discoveries
and instructions, he obtained little else for his own
share than the reputation of a highly-talented origi-
nator. His writings, twenty-seven in number, were
thus justly characterized in a petition from the in-
habitants of Newcastle to his majesty in 1835, for
the grant of a pension to Nicholson from the privy-
purse:�"The works of Peter Nicholson, while they
have contributed to the advancement of knowledge,
have tended to raise the English mechanic to that
pre-eminence he has attained over the other artificers
of Europe; and, while they have been honoured with
the proudest marks of distinction by the various
learned societies of this kingdom, have yet failed
to produce to their author those benefits which are
necessary for his existence; and it must ever be a
source of regret that an individual who, having de-
voted his best energies to the advancement of science,
should be left at the close of a long and laborious
life, and in his seventy-third year, to struggle in
penury and want." This application to the royal
bounty was made after an attempt of Nicholson's
grateful friends in Newcastle had failed to raise for
him an annuity by a general subscription. On this
occasion the sum of ,�320 had been subscribed,
which only sufficed for present emergencies. Mr.
Nicholson left Newcastle for Carlisle in October,
1841, and died there, June 18, 1844, in the seventy-
ninth year of his age. He was twice married. By
his first wife, who died at Morpeth in 1832, he had
one son, Michael Angelo, author of the Carpenter
and Joiner's Companion, who died in 1842; by his
second marriage Mr. Nicholson had a son and
daughter, who survived him.
NICOLL, REV. ALEXANDER, D.C.L., canon
of Christchurch, and regius professor of Hebrew in
the university of Oxford, was the youngest son of
John Nicoll, at Monymusk, in Aberdeenshire, where
he was born, April 3, 1793. He was carefully
reared by his parent in the principles of the Scottish
Episcopal church; and, while little more than four
years of age, was placed at a private school con-
ducted by a Mr. Sivewright, where he received the
first rudiments of learning. Two years afterwards
he was put to the parish school, taught by Mr. Duff,
who grounded him in classical literature. His be-
haviour at school was that of a modest, assiduous
student, and nothing but a reprimand ever disturbed
the composure which was natural to him. At this
school his attainments were such as to attract the
notice of the clergymen of the presbytery in the
course of their professional visitations. In 1805 he
removed to the grammar-school of Aberdeen, at
which city his elder brother, Mr. Lewis Nicoll,
advocate, was able to take charge of his personal
conduct. At the commencement of the winter ses-
sion of the same year he became a candidate for a
bursary at the Marischal College, and obtained one
of the smallest in the gift of that institution. He
therefore attended the classes of Latin and Greek
during the session 1805-6, at the close of which he
gained the prize of the silver pen, always bestowed
on the best scholar. This honour, being as usual
announced in the provincial newspapers, caused him
to be noticed by various eminent individuals as a
young man of peculiar promise. Before the next
session he had studied mathematics at home, and
pursued a course of miscellaneous reading. Besides
attending the classes formerly mentioned, he entered
in 1806 that of mathematics, then taught by Dr.
Hamilton, the well-known expositor of the national
debt; and also attended the prelections of Mr. Beattie
in natural and civil history. During the ensuing
vacation he directed his attention to drawing, and
produced several maps sketched in a very neat
manner.
Soon after the commencement of his third college
session in 1807, Bishop Skinner, of Aberdeen, in-
formed him that there was a vacancy at Baliol College,
in one of the exhibitions upon Snell's foundation,
which he thought might be obtained. By the advice
of his elder brother he proceeded to Oxford, with a
letter of recommendation from Bishop Skinner to
Dr. Parsons, the master of the college, and was at once
elected to the vacant exhibition. Having been put
under the charge of a tutor (the Rev. Mr. Jenkyns),
he commenced his studies with great eagerness, par-
ticularly in the department of Greek, where his chief