SEMPLE, George. A Treatise on Building in Water. In two parts. Part I – Particularly relative to the Repair and Re-building of Essex Bridge, Dublin, and Bridge-Building in general, with Plans properly suited to the Re-building of Ormond Bridge. Part II – Concerning an Attempt to contrive and introduce quick and cheap Methods, for errecting substantial Stone-buildings and other works in fresh and salt Water, quaking Bogs or Morasses, for various purposes; fully laid down and clearly demonstrated

BY SWIFT’S BUILDER

 ... Principally addressed and peculiarly adapted to young and inexperienced Readers. Illustrated with sixty-three Copper-Plates. Dublin: Printed for the Author by J.A. Husband, (No. 28) Abbey-Street, 1776. First edition. Quarto. pp. [8], 157, [1], 63 (plates). Inserted leaf after the final contents leaf “The Author to the Reader / Postscript.” Nineteenth century half calf over patterned paper boards, title and author in gilt on red morocco labels on spine. Old light damp staining. A very good copy. Very scarce.
George Semple (1700-1781), architect, engineer and master-builder was the most distinguished member of a family who were for centuries builders in Dublin. They are to be found in the Guild of Plasterers, Carpenters and Masons from before 1744. Jonathan Swift in his will left money for the building of a hospital for the insane, St. Patrick’s Hospital usually called Swift’s Hospital was built on land donated by the directors of Dr. Steevens’s and adjacent to it.
“He left the little wealth he had,
To build a house for fools and mad,
And showed by one satiric touch,
No nation wanted it so much”.

The architect for this project was George Semple. He had another connection with Swift, his earliest known work is the granite steeple of 100 feet in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which he designed and erected in 1749. Swift as far back as 1714, by obstruction and procrastination, prevented Archbishop King from adding such a spire in ‘brick’. He must therefore have known Semple and approved of his work. George built houses in Dublin and at least one country mansion. His magnum opus was the rebuilding of Essex Bridge. The present bridge is the third on the site, the first was built in 1676, by Humphrey Jervis, Lord Mayor of Dublin, from stones obtained from the ruins of St. Mary’s Abbey. This structure had many faults and was frequently damaged by floods. A major failure of part of two spans occurred in 1751, and Semple repaired the old bridge within ten days for the sum of one hundred guineas. So successful was his repair that he was given the contract to rebuild the whole bridge. In 1753 he began demolition of the existing structure. He travelled to London where he bought £40 worth of books on engineering matters. He was however very disappointed on his return to Dublin, realising that these books were virtually useless: “I cannot describe the indignation and sorrow I felt at finding an art of such public utility as that of building bridges confessedly is so shamefully neglected. Eventually he managed to acquire a copy of ‘Architecture Hydraulique’ by Belidore, although in French, which he could not read, the plans were sufficient for his purpose”. Its design was based on the magnificent Westminster Bridge, and it had five semicircular arches. Semple preferred to build timber cofferdams, which were pumped dry, thus enabling in-situ construction to proceed below water level. On 10 April 1755 “the (new) Bridge was left open for the use of the Public in general”, at a cost of £20,661 and was completed in two years and eight days. Zozimus (Michael Moran), the blind balladeer, often took his stand on the bridge. Unfortunately the city planners replaced Semple’s bridge in 1873, with what is now called Grattan Bridge. The lack of reference books on bridge building prompted Semple to undertake the present work. It is a pioneering study, and surely, is one of the most adventurous classics of engineering technical writing, in which the author gives a very full and vivid description of the rebuilding of Essex Bridge.

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