To return to the history of the Eddystone Lighthouse. When the proposal relating to the rebuilding of this edifice was made to Smeaton, and when he had duly weighed the subject in his own mind, he delivered his decided opinion that the building ought to be constructed entirely of stone. Some opposition was at first raised against this idea, but the proprietors were at length so well satisfied with the plans submitted to their inspection, and with the plain, straightforward reasoning of Smeaton on the matter, that they left the whole affair in his hands. Their chief objection had arisen from the opinion, supported by that of the best judges, that the safety and continuance of Rudyerd's lighthouse during so many years, had in a great measure depended on the elasticity of the materials of which it was composed, which enabled it to give way to the shocks of the sea. Indeed it was affirmed, that in violent storms the motion of that wooden edifice was so great that trenchers and other articles were thrown from the shelves in the upper rooms. Smeaton answered to this, that the great agitation of the late building arose from its want of weight, as well as want of strength; that the edifice he had in view would be much heavier and much stronger, so that the building would not give way to the sea, but the sea would give way to the building.

In the spring of 1756 Smeaton first visited and examined the Eddystone rock, proving, as his predecessors had done, the extreme difficulty of gaining a landing, or of remaining long enough on the rock to carry on his observations. These difficulties suggested to him the important and valuable expedient of keeping a vessel fixed within a quarter of a mile of the rock, which should be capable of lodging the workmen and their tools, and thus enable them to take immediate advantage of any favourable opportunity of putting out their boat and conveying materials at once to the Eddystone, instead of having to take the voyage from Plymouth on each occasion.

The first actual work done on the rock was in August, 1756. Two companies of workmen were employed, each remaining at the work a week, that every opportunity might be made the most of, and the men relieved by visits to the shore. A sloop, a large yawl with sails and oars, and a boat, were employed to expedite the work. The sloop formed the lodging for the company working at the rock, and was anchored at a short distance from it. The sloop was afterwards replaced by a larger store vessel, called the Neptune Buss. The weather from the 27th of August to the 14th of September happened to be favourable to the work, so that the companies were employed on it at every tide. After this, unsettled weather began to prevail, so that Smeaton was obliged to be satisfied with the progress already made, which consisted in the mere preparation of the House-rock for the intended edifice, by cutting two new steps in the lowest part of the sloping side of the rock, and forming anew the five steps which remained of the efforts of Rudyerd. Dove-tailed recesses were also cut in all these steps for the reception of the stone-work. The remaining part of the autumn was spent in expediting necessary work on shore, such as completing the work-yard with its machinery and conveniences, and then preparing the granite and Portland stone, of which the lighthouse was to be made. The desirability of doing as much of the work as possible on shore, became more and more apparent, as experience showed the dangers and accidents likely to occur at the rock. During this winter Smeaton began seriously to consider the great importance to his work, of getting the most perfect cement possible, to resist the extreme violence of the sea. He found that nothing of the resinous or oily kind would answer, as it was impossible to get a dry surface at the rock. He therefore went through a complete set of experiments on cements with a view to produce one which would, in despite of water almost continually driven against it with every degree of violence, become so firm in its consistence and adhesion to the stone, that it should compose one even regular surface with the stone, without needing hoops of iron or copper to surround the horizontal joints. In this endeavour he considered himself at length completely successful.

At the beginning of June, 1757, Smeaton renewed his work at the Eddystone rock. The first proceedings were to fix some timbers to the east side of the rock merely as a defence to the boats, which were frequently damaged by running against the sharp edges; and also to erect shears, windlass, &c. The first stone was laid in its place on the 12th of June. This stone weighed two tons and a quarter, though the ordinary weight of the stones did not exceed one ton each. The first course consisting of four stones was finished during the next day. By Smeaton's plan the stones were most ingeniously dove-tailed together and into the rock, so that when once fixed, it was impossible for one stone to be separated from the rest. The second course of stones was not completed until the 30th of the same month; several accidents having occurred to hinder the progress of the work; yet Smeaton was in no wise disheartened, for in establishing these two courses he considered the most difficult and arduous part of the work to be already accomplished, since these courses brought him up to the same level where his predecessor Mr. Rudyerd had begun. On the 11th of July the third course, consisting of twenty-five pieces, was completed, and on the 31st the fourth course of twenty-three pieces. The fifth course was closed in on the 5th of August. When the sixth course was completed, which was on the 11th of that month, Smeaton had the satisfaction to find that the sea did not now invariably wash over every part of their work at each tide, which had always hitherto been the case in the course of laying the previous courses. The greatest difficulties were now considered to be successfully surmounted, as each succeeding course gave them more time and more room, and they had brought their work to a level with the highest part of the rock.

Up to this point all the courses had been begun by the stones that were securely dove-tailed into the rock, and further made fast by oak-wedges and cement. To receive these wedges, two grooves were cut in the waist of each stone, from the top to the bottom of the course, of an inch in depth and three inches in width. The care with which the foundation-work was carried on may be gathered from Smeaton's description of the manner of laying each stone. 'The stone to be set being hung in the tackle, and its bed of mortar spread, was then lowered into its place, and beat with a heavy wooden maul, and levelled with a spirit level; and the stone being accurately brought to its marks, it was then considered as set in its place. The business now was to retain it exactly in that position, notwithstanding the utmost violence of the sea might come upon it, before the mortar was hard enough to resist it. The carpenter now dropped into each groove two of the oaken wedges, one upon its head, the other with its point downwards, so that the two wedges in each groove would lie heads and points. With a bar of iron about two inches and a half broad, a quarter of an inch thick, and two feet and a half long, the ends being square, he could easily (as with a rammer) drive down one wedge upon the other; very gently at first, so that the opposite pairs of wedges being equally tightened, they would equally resist each other, and the stone would therefore keep place. A couple of wedges were also, in like manner, pitched at the top of each groove; the dormant wedge, or that with the point upward, being held in the hand, while the drift-wedge, or that with its point downward, was driven with a hammer. The whole of what remained above the upper surface of the stone was then cut off with a saw or chisel: and generally, a couple of thin wedges were driven very moderately at the butt-end of the stone; whose tendency being to force it out of its dove-tail, they would, by moderate driving, only tend to preserve the whole mass steady together, in opposition to the violent agitation that might arise from the sea.' In addition to this, a couple of holes having been bored through every piece of stone, one course was bound to another by oak trenails driven stiffly through, and made so fast that they could more easily be torn asunder than pulled out again. 'No assignable power,' says Smeaton, 'less than what would by main stress pull these trenails in two could lift one of these stones from their beds when so fixed, exclusive of their natural weight, as all agitation was prevented by the lateral wedges.' The stone being thus fixed, a proper quantity of mortar was liquefied; and the joints having been carefully pointed, up to the upper surface, this mortar or cement was poured in with iron ladles so as to occupy every void space. The more consistent parts of this cement naturally settled to the bottom, and the watery parts were absorbed by the stone: the vacancy thus left at the top was repeatedly refilled, until all remained solid; the top was then pointed, and, when necessary, defended by a coat of plaster. When the whole of the foundation was in this manner brought to a level, some other means was necessary of attaining the like degree of security. For this purpose the central stone of the sixth course had a hole of one foot square cut quite through the middle. Eight other depressions of one foot square and six inches deep were also sunk at equal distances in the circumference. A plug of strong hard marble, from the rocks near Plymouth, one foot square and twenty-two inches in length, was set with mortar in the central cavity, and fixed firmly therein with their wedges. This course was thirteen inches in height, so that the marble plug, which reached through it, stood nine inches above the surface. Upon this the centre-stone of the seventh course was fixed, having a similar hole made in its centre, bedded with mortar and wedged as before. By this means no force of the sea acting horizontally upon the centre-stone, less than what was capable of cutting the marble plug in two, was able to move it from its place; and to prevent the stone the more effectually from being lifted, in case its bed of mortar should happen to be destroyed, it was fixed down by four trenails. The stones surrounding the central stone were dove-tailed to it in the same manner as before, and thus the courses proceeded with no other interruption than arose from the nature of the situation.

Smeaton tells us that when the work had proceeded so far as to afford a level platform, the pleasure he took in it, and the novelty of the thing, led him to walk to and fro upon it with much complacency. But making a false step, and not being able to recover himself, he tumbled over the brink of the work down among the rocks on the west side. The tide had then retreated, so that no serious result happened, but in his fall he dislocated his thumb, and as no medical aid could be procured, he set it himself, and then returned to his work. It was more than six months, however, before he recovered the full use of his thumb.

Owing to very boisterous weather, and repeated losses of the necessary materials left on the rock, the seventh course was not laid until the 7th of September. But Smeaton had the satisfaction to find that all the work actually completed, stood the utmost severity of the weather unmoved. At this time the sea became so calm that the work proceeded rapidly, and for three days in succession the top of the work was not wetted. The eighth course was completed on the 13th, but the weather again becoming unfavourable, the ninth was not finished until the 30th, and here Smeaton found it desirable to close the operations for this year.

The ensuing winter was of so stormy a nature as severely to test the strength of the work at the Eddystone. Smeaton went early in the spring to view it, and says, 'I was much surprised, notwithstanding what had been reported of the soundness of the work, to find it so perfectly entire, for, except a small spawl which had been washed from the rock itself, the whole did not seem to have suffered a diminution of so much as a grain of sand since I left it on the 1st of October: on the contrary, the cement, and even the grouted part, appeared to be as hard as the stone itself, the whole having become one solid mass, and, indeed, it had quite that appearance, as it was covered with the same coat of sea-weed as the rock, the top of the work excepted, which was washed clean and white.'

Various disasters to the vessels, moorings, &c. near the rock retarded the work in the spring of 1758. It was not till the 10th of July that the eleventh course was finished. Twelve days afterwards the twelfth course was laid down. After this the work went on better, so that on the 8th of August the fourteenth course was completed, and with it what was called the fundamental solid. From hence begins the building also called the Solid, which includes the passage from the entry-door to the well-hole for the stairs. It was now necessary for the sake of the well-hole to omit the centre-stone. The four stones surrounding the centre were therefore fastened together by what are called hook-scarf joints, so as to compose, in effect, one stone. Means were also taken to prevent them from shifting, or being lifted out of their position.

From the 9th to the 20th of August there was an uninterrupted continuance of fine weather, so that great progress was made. By the latter day the eighteenth course was completed, which reunited the building into a complete circle, by covering the passage to the staircase. Over the head of the entry-door the figures 1758 were cut in deep characters. During another month, by great exertions, the twenty-fourth course was reached and completed. This course finished the Solid, and formed the floor of the store-room, so that Smeaton had every reason to be satisfied with the work of this season; yet as he had been long meditating on the advantage to the public which would accrue from setting up a light during that very winter, he resolved to make a vigorous effort to get the store-room completed and a light erected above it.

The building had hitherto been carried up solid as high as there was any reason to suppose it exposed to the heavy stroke of the sea, i. e. to thirty-five feet four inches above its base, and twenty-seven feet above the top of the rock, on the common spring-tide high-water mark. At this height it was reduced to sixteen feet eight inches diameter; and it was necessary to make the best use of this space, and make all the room and convenience therein that was possible, consistent with the still necessary strength. The rooms being made twelve feet four inches in diameter would leave twenty-six inches for the thickness of the walls. These walls were made of single blocks in the thickness, so shaped that sixteen pieces formed a complete circle, and from their figure composed a stout wall. These pieces were cramped together with iron, and also secured to the lower courses by marble plugs as before. To hinder the passage of wet through the upright joints, flat stones were introduced into each joint so as partly to be lodged in one stone, partly in another, thus making it tolerably certain that the rooms would be kept comfortable and dry in all weathers. On the 30th of September the twenty-eighth course was completely set. This and the next course received the vaulted floor, which made the ceiling of the store-room and floor of the upper store-room. For further security, therefore, there was a groove cut round the upper surface of this course, in which was placed a circular chain of great strength. Upon this chain, in the groove, was poured melted lead, until the cavity was filled up. The next course was then laid on, and this was also secured by a chain in like manner, it being considered that the courses on which the floors rested demanded every possible security. The formation of the floors, and the care taken to avoid the danger of lateral pressure on the walls, is worthy of notice. Each floor rested upon two courses; being firmly supported by a triple ledge going circularly round the two supporting courses. 'Had each floor,' says the architect, 'been composed of a single stone, this lying upon the horizontal bearings furnished by these ledges, would, while it remained entire, have no lateral pressure or tendency to thrust out the sides of the encompassing walls; and that in effect the several pieces of which the floors were really composed might have the same property as whole stones, the centre stone was made large enough to admit of an opening, from floor to floor, to be made through it; and being furnished with dove-tails on its four sides, like those of the entire solid, it became the means by which all the stones in each floor were connected together; and consequently, the whole would lie upon the ledges like a single stone, without any tendency to spread the walls. But if by the accident of a heavy body falling, or otherwise, any of those stones should be broken, though this might not destroy its use as a floor; yet the parts would then exert their lateral pressure against the walls; and, therefore, as a security against this, it became necessary that the circle of the enclosing walls should be bound together, and the building, as it were, hooped.' Thus assiduously did Smeaton urge forward the work, yet without neglecting any of the necessary precautions for its safety. By the 10th of October he had nearly completed all the necessary arrangements for establishing a light and light-keepers at the Eddystone during the same winter, when he received an unexpected and painful refusal from the Corporation of Trinity-House, to the effect that 'on reading the Acts of Parliament, the application from the merchants and owners of ships, and Winstanley's narrative of the first lighthouse erected there, they are of opinion that a light cannot be exhibited on the Eddystone Rock till the lighthouse is re-built.'

Smeaton employed the winter of 1758-9 in London, preparing everything for the final work at the Eddystone the ensuing season. He formed and made out designs for the iron rails of the balcony, the cast iron, the wrought iron, and the copper-works of the lantern, &c. There was a violent storm on the 9th of March, 1759, which it was supposed might have damaged the unfinished lighthouse, as it had done very great damage to the ships and houses at Plymouth. As soon as it was possible to effect a landing the works were visited and a report sent to Smeaton. From this he found, with pleasure, that not only the solid but the hollow work remained perfectly sound and firm; all the mortar having become quite hard, and every part of the work just as it was left by the workmen in October.

The commencement of the work for the next and last season, took place on the 5th of July. On the 21st of the same month the second floor was finished, and by the 29th the fortieth course of stone was laid down, and the third floor finished.

The main column of the lighthouse was completed on Friday, August 17th. It contained in all forty-six courses of stone, and reached the height of seventy feet. The beds for the light-keepers were fixed in the uppermost room, and the kitchen with its fire-place in the room below it, whereas in the former house, the kitchen had been the upper room, doubtless, because the funnel for the smoke would be shorter. But Smeaton having been informed that with the former arrangement the beds and bedding were in a very damp and disagreeable state, proposed to remedy the evil by allowing the copper funnel to pass through the bed-room, and thus to dry the air. This plan completely answered the desired end; though it must be observed, that the whole edifice, even those portions of it which were continually subject to the action of the waves, were much more impervious to moisture than Rudyerd's edifice; as may naturally be imagined from the difference of material used in the building of the lighthouse, and the well-known quality of granite to resist humidity. In the upper room, therefore, were fixed three cabin-beds to hold one man each, with three drawers and two lockers in each to hold his separate property. In the kitchen, besides the fire-place and sink, were two settles with lockers, a dresser with drawers, two cupboards and one platter-case. In the lantern a seat was fixed to encompass it all round, except at the doorway, and this served equally to sit upon, or to stand and snuff the candles; also to enable a person to look through the lowest tier of glass-panes at distant objects, without having occasion to go on the outside of the lantern into the balcony.

Besides the windows of the lantern ten other windows were constructed for the edifice, namely, two for the store-room, and four each for the other two rooms. In fixing the bars for these windows, an accident occurred which had nearly proved fatal to Smeaton, and which he thus describes:—'After the boat was gone, and it became so dark that we could not see any longer to pursue our occupations, I ordered a charcoal-fire to be made in the upper store-room, in one of the iron-pots we used for melting lead, for the purpose of annealing the blank ends of the bars; and they were made red hot altogether in the charcoal. Most of the workmen were set round the fire, and by way of making ourselves comfortable, by screening ourselves and the fire from the wind, the windows were shut; and, as well as I remember, the copper cover or hatch put over the man-hole of the floor of the room where the fire was; the hatch above being left open for the heated vapour to ascend. I remember to have looked into the fire attentively to see that the iron was made hot enough, but not over-heated: I also remember I felt my head a very little giddy; but the next thing of which I had any sensation or idea, was finding myself upon the floor of the room below, half drowned with water. It seems, that without being further sensible of anything to give me warning, the effluvia of the charcoal so suddenly overcame all sensation that I dropped down upon the floor; and had not the people hauled me down to the room below, where they did not spare for cold water to throw in my face and upon me, I certainly should have expired upon the spot.'

By unremitting exertions on the part of Smeaton and his work-people, the balcony-rails, the lantern, with the cupola and gilt ball, the lightning-conductor, and, in fact, all the remaining parts of the lighthouse, with the stores and necessary furniture, were set in their places by the 16th of October, on which day a light was once more exhibited on the Eddystone Rock.

It may be imagined that Smeaton took peculiar pleasure in this beautiful monument of his skill and ingenuity. He slept in the lighthouse, viewed it from sea and land, and made every observation that an ingenious and clever man might be expected to make. The account he gives of its appearance after a storm, as he viewed it with his telescope from the garrison at Plymouth, is this: 'Though I had had many opportunities of viewing the unfinished building, when buried in waves in a storm at S. W., yet never having before had a view of it under this circumstance in its finished state, I was astonished to find that the account given by Mr. Winstanley did not appear to be at all exaggerated. At intervals of a minute, and sometimes two or three, I suppose when a combination happens to produce an overgrown wave, it would strike the rock and the building conjointly, and fly up in a white column, enwrapping it like a sheet, rising at least to double the height of the house, and totally intercepting it from sight; and this appearance being momentary, both as to its rising and falling, one was enabled to judge of the comparative height very nearly, by the comparative spaces alternately occupied by the house, and by the column of water, in the field of the telescope.'

The year 1759 closed with a series of very stormy weather, and as this was the first winter's trial of the lighthouse, it may be supposed that there was some anxiety among the more timid and doubting of those concerned in it. Especially was the courage of the light-keepers put to the test. When a boat could come near them after one of these storms, a letter was sent by Henry Edwards, one of the light-keepers, to the manager of the works acquainting him that they had had such bad weather, and that the sea ran over the house in such a manner, that for twelve days together they could not open the door of the lantern or any other. 'The house did shake,' says the poor light-keeper, 'as if a man had been up in a great tree. The old men were almost frightened out of their lives, wishing they had never seen the place, and cursing those that first persuaded them to go there. The fear seized them in the back, but rubbing them with oil of turpentine gave them relief.'

Meanwhile the lighthouse itself bore the storm admirably, and suffered nothing from it. Two years afterwards a tempest of unusual violence occurred, causing much loss of life and property at Plymouth. Eighty thousand pounds' worth of damage were done in the harbour and sound, and a friend of Smeaton's, after writing a full description of the several disasters, adds, 'In the midst of all this horror and confusion, my friend may be assured that I was not insensible to his honour and credit, yet in spite of the high opinion that I had of his judgment and abilities, I could not but feel the utmost anxiety for the fate of the Eddystone. Several times in the day I swept with my telescope from the garrison, as near as I could imagine, the line of the horizon, but it was so extremely black, fretful, and hazy, that nothing could be seen, and I was obliged to go to bed that night with a mortifying uncertainty. But the next morning early, I had great joy to see that the gilded ball had triumphed over the fury of the storm, and such an one as I had no conception of. I saw the whole so distinctly from the bottom to the top, that I could be very sure the lantern had suffered nothing. It is now my most steady belief, as well as everybody's here, that its inhabitants are rather more secure in a storm, under the united force of wind and water, than we are in our houses from the former only.'

After this trial of the strength of the lighthouse, there seems no longer to have been any apprehension concerning it. The light-keepers even became attached to the spot, and found it a remarkably healthy and comfortable abode. There were often as many as half a dozen applications for the office, although the salary was only twenty-five pounds per annum.

One of the light-keepers, after a residence of fourteen years on the rock, became so much attached to the place, that for two summers he gave up his turn of going on shore to his companions, and declared his intention of doing so on the third; but being over-persuaded he went on shore to take his month's turn. At the lighthouse he had always been a decent, sober, well-behaved man; but he had no sooner got on shore than he went to an alehouse and became intoxicated. This he continued the whole of his stay; which being noticed, he was carried in an intoxicated state on board the Eddystone boat and delivered in the lighthouse, where he was expected to grow sober; but after lingering for two or three days, he expired. Vacancies, however, seldom occurred in the lighthouse. Smeaton mentions several men who had served there to his knowledge ten, fifteen, or twenty years.

Having thus conducted our readers to the close of Smeaton's arduous undertaking, and noticed its complete success, we may proceed to describe the more remarkable lighthouses erected in other portions of the kingdom subsequent to the labours of this celebrated engineer.



CHAPTER VI.

THE NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSES.

Importance of Lighting the Scottish Coast—Formation of Board of Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses—Early Proceedings of the Board—Principal Northern Lighthouses—The Isle of May Lighthouse—Loss of two Frigates—Application of the Admiralty to the Lighthouse Board, by whom the Duties and the Island of May are purchased—Numerous Shipwrecks on the Island of Sanday—Foundation-stone of Start-Point Lighthouse laid—Rev. W. Traill's Address upon the occasion—Subsequent Proceedings on Sanday Island—North Ronaldsay Lighthouse—Melancholy Accident—Importance of the Northern Lighthouses.

The coast of Scotland is deservedly celebrated for the skill and enterprise of its lighthouse system. This coast, extending to about two thousand miles in circuit, is, perhaps, the most dangerous of any in Europe. Previous to the erection of efficient lighthouses, it was frequently strewed with wrecks, and proved how inadequate to the protection of the mariner were the few feeble lights which were then under the controul of private or local trusts. Accordingly, in the year 1786, the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses were, by Act of Parliament, erected into a board, consisting of his Majesty's advocate and solicitor-general, the chief magistrates of the principal burghs of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Campbeltown, and the sheriffs or judges ordinary of maritime counties. The preamble to the act states, 'That it would conduce greatly to the security of Navigation and the Fisheries if four lighthouses were erected in the northern parts of Great Britain;' namely, one on Kinnaird Head, in Aberdeenshire, one on the Orkney Islands, one on the Harris Isles, and one at the Mull of Kintyre, in Argyleshire. Such appears to have been the state of trade in Scotland about sixty years ago, that the erection of four lighthouses was all that was contemplated. But no sooner were these four lights erected than their importance to navigation was immediately acknowledged, and frequent applications were made on the part of the shipping interest to erect others. Accordingly as the funds of the board allowed, lighthouses or other means of exhibiting lights have been erected upon many promontories of the main land, or upon islands and reefs lying off the coast of Scotland, including the Isle of Man.

These lighthouses being for the most part situated in remote and inaccessible districts, it was resolved 'that the engineer should charter a vessel annually, to carry a full complement of stores and other necessaries for the use of the lights, and such artificers, implements, and materials, as might from time to time be found necessary for making repairs at the lighthouses;' the engineer was also to pay an annual visit to each lighthouse, and report upon the state and condition of the buildings, and the conduct of the light-keepers.

No public lights on the Scotch coast are in the hands of private individuals. All the light-dues collected from the general shipping in Scotland are received by the commissioners for public use. There are now twenty-five land-lights under the charge of the commissioners, for which due-lights are levied; and there are twenty-eight local or harbour-lights under the management of trustees and corporate bodies, maintained by the dues levied on the trade of the respective ports where the lights are situated, and on vessels resorting to them. Some of these lights are established by Acts of Parliament, others are secured by ancient charters to the fraternities of the ports, and others were erected and are maintained by the ship-owners and merchants of the ports.

The earliest public light on the Scottish shores is that situated on the Island of May. This island holds a prominent position at the entrance of the Frith of Forth, and from its connection also with the estuary leading to the capital of Scotland and the principal ports of her commerce, the want of a light seems to have been experienced at an early period. Over the entrance-door of the old lighthouse-tower a stone, neatly cut into the figure by which the sun is usually represented, bears the date 1635.

Much dissatisfaction was produced after the Union, in consequence of English and Irish vessels being charged with double rates as foreigners. The light being also a coal-fire exposed in an open chauffer, was found to be insufficient. Accordingly, in the year 1786 the Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh made certain representations to the proprietor which induced him to increase the magnitude of the light; the chauffer was accordingly enlarged to the capacity of a square of three feet; and instead of about two hundred tons of coal per annum, formerly consumed, the quantity of fuel was now doubled. From this period the light of May became the most powerful coal-light in the kingdom, although from its exposure it was still found to be very unsteady in bad weather, when most required by the mariner. Lime-kilns and other accidental open fires upon the neighbouring shores, were also apt to be mistaken for the Isle of May chauffer. To obviate such dangerous mistakes, there was no other method but the introduction of a light from oil, with reflectors inclosed in a glazed light-room. Related ineffectual applications to the Duke of Portland (who by marriage had obtained possession of the light and Isle of May) served only to illustrate how very objectionable it is to allow lighthouses and other public works to be carried on by a private individual for his sole profit. It happened, however, that among numerous other disasters, two of his Majesty's ships, valued at not less than a hundred thousand pounds, were, on the 19th December, 1810, wrecked near Dunbar, in consequence, it is believed, of the light of a lime-kiln on the coast of Haddingtonshire having been mistaken for the coal-light of the Isle of May. This disaster attracted the notice of the Admiralty to the Isle of May light, when it was proposed to place it under the control of the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses. After many negotiations an Act of Parliament was passed in the session of 1814, empowering the commissioners to purchase the light duties and the Island of May, for the sum of sixty thousand pounds. This was accordingly done, and on the completion of the purchase, the first act of the commissioners was to reduce the light-duty to all British vessels, so that English and Irish ships were no longer treated as foreigners, by paying double duty. Immediate measures were also taken for altering and improving the light; a new lighthouse was erected, and a light from oil, with reflectors, was exhibited on the 1st February, 1816, after the existence of a coal-light during one hundred and eighty-one years. The old lighthouse-tower was reduced in height, and converted into a guard-room for the use and convenience of pilots and fishermen.

Soon after the establishment of the Board of Commissioners, repeated applications were made for the erection of new lighthouses, in order to avert the misfortunes which occurred every year, especially on the low shores of the northern isles of Orkney. In the year 1789 a lighthouse had been completed at North Ronaldsay, but the experience of twelve years had proved that this was not calculated to prevent the numerous wrecks on the islands of Sanday and Stronsay. In 1796, when the engineer was on his annual visit, he was struck at seeing the wreck of three homeward-bound ships upon the island of Sanday, though situate only about eight miles southward of the lighthouse of North Ronaldsay. In the three following years no fewer than eight ships were wrecked upon the same fatal island. It was therefore resolved, in 1801, that a stone-tower or beacon should be erected upon the Start Point, which forms the eastern extremity of the low shores of the Island of Sanday; the building to be constructed in such a manner that it might, if necessary, be converted into a lighthouse.

In the year 1802, Mr. Stevenson, the engineer of the Northern Lighthouses, sailed on his annual voyage of inspection, taking with him a foreman and sixteen artificers to commence the works at Start Point. The vessel reached Orkney by the 20th April, and even at this advanced part of the season the islands were covered to the depth of six inches with snow. This, at any time, is rather uncommon in Orkney; but such had been the severity of this season in the northern regions, that a flock of wild swans, which in severe winters visit these islands, were still seen in considerable numbers upon the fresh-water lakes of Sanday. Those large birds are supposed to migrate from Iceland, but are rarely seen in Orkney later than the month of March; so that their appearance in the latter end of April was regarded as a mark of a very severe and long-continued winter in the higher latitudes.

There being no workable sand-stone on Sanday island, a quarry was opened on the contiguous island of Eda, where it occurred of a tolerably good quality. In order to render the building substantially water-tight, it had been originally intended to make it wholly of hewn-stone built in regular courses; but the quarry of Eda being about fourteen miles distant from the works, the stones had to be conveyed by sea through rapid tides; and there being but indifferent creeks or havens, both at the quarry and at the Start Point, it was found necessary to make only the principal stones of hewn work, while the body of the work was executed in rubble building, for which excellent materials were at hand, consisting of a sort of sand-stone slate or micaceous schist. The encroachments of the sea had heaped up immense quantities of these stones at high-water mark all round the Start Point, the shores of which appeared like the ruins of the wall of some large city.

By the middle of the month of May sufficient materials were collected for commencing the building. The workmen having expressed a wish to have the foundation-stone of the beacon laid with masonic ceremony, preparations were accordingly made. 'The year of our Lord 1802' was cut upon the foundation-stone, in which a hole was perforated for depositing a glass phial containing a small parchment-scroll, setting forth the intention of the building, the official constitution of the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, and the name of their engineer. It also contained several of the current coins of George III. in gold, silver, and copper. The day fixed for the ceremony was the 15th of May. The weather was dry and tolerably agreeable, though cold with snow upon the ground; the thermometer stood at 35 deg. in the shade at noon. The influx of so many strangers to the island for this work, and the novelty of the intended ceremony, caused most of the inhabitants to be present to witness it. Every thing being prepared, the engineer, assisted by the foreman of the works, applied the square and plummet-level to the foundation-stone in compliance with ancient custom. The phial was then deposited in the cavity prepared for it in the stone, and carefully covered up with sand, when the masonic ceremony was concluded in the usual manner. The Rev. Walter Traill, minister of the parish, then offered up a most impressive prayer, imploring the blessing of heaven upon the intended purposes of the building, and then delivered the following address:—

'This moment is auspicious. The foundation-stone is laid of a building of incalculable value;—a work of use, not of luxury. Pyramids were erected by the pride of kings, to perpetuate the memory of men, whose ambition enslaved and desolated the world. But it is the benevolent intention of our government, on this spot, to erect a tower—not to exhaust, but to increase the wealth and protect the commerce of this happy kingdom. To the goodness of GOD, in the first place, we are indebted for a degree of prosperity unknown to other nations. In the next place, we owe our happiness to our insular situation, and attention to maritime affairs. Faction and civil war have at this period laid waste the fairest countries of Europe; while peace has flourished within our walls. Agriculture, commerce, and their kindred arts, have prospered in our land. British oak hath triumphed; victory hath been attached to the British flag; and British fleets have ridden triumphant on the wings of the wind. Consider the great national objects for which this building will be erected. To protect commerce, and to guard the lives of those intrepid men who for us cheerfully brave the fury of the waves and the rage of battle. The mariner when he returns to the embraces of his wife and children, after ascribing praise to the Great Giver of safety, shall bless the friendly light which guided him over the deep, and recommend to the protection of heaven those who urged, who planned, and who executed the work. This day shall be remembered with gratitude. It shall be recorded, that at the beginning of a new century the pious care of government was extended to this remote island. These rocks, so fatal to the most brave and honourable part of the community, shall lose their terror, and safety and life shall spring from danger and death. Even you, my friends, who are employed in the execution of this work, are objects of regard and gratitude. You have, for a season, left the society of your families and friends, to perform a work of high interest to your country and to mankind. I am confident that you will act, in all respects, so as to deserve and obtain the esteem of the people who now surround you. I hope that they will discharge to you every duty of Christian hospitality, and that you will have no occasion to feel that you are strangers in a strange land. It becomes us to remember that all the affairs of men are dependent on Providence. We may exert talents and industry, but God only can bless our exertions with success. Let our trust be in Him. Let us humbly hope that He will bless this day and this undertaking. Through His aid may there arise from this spot a tower of safety and protection to the mariner of every tongue and nation.'

The whole of this scene is described as being very impressive; to which the plain, decent, and respectable appearance of the people collected on the occasion not a little contributed.

By continuing steadily at work during the summer-months, the beacon was finished in September. It was terminated, at the height of one hundred feet above the medium level of the sea, with a circular ball of masonry measuring fifteen feet in circumference.

The completion of this beacon did not, however, prevent the frequent occurrence of shipwreck upon the island. It had even become proverbial with some of the inhabitants to observe, 'that if wrecks were to happen, they might as well be sent to the poor island of Sanday as anywhere else.' 'On this and the neighbouring islands,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'the inhabitants have certainly had their share of wrecked goods; for here the eye is presented with these melancholy remains in almost every form. For example, although quarries are to be met with generally in these islands, and the stones are very suitable for building dikes, yet instances occur of the land being enclosed, even to a considerable extent, with ship-timbers. The author has actually seen a park paled round, chiefly with cedar-wood and mahogany from the wreck of a Honduras built ship; and in one island, after the wreck of a ship laden with wine, the inhabitants have been known to take claret to their barley-meal porridge, instead of their usual beverage. On complaining to one of the pilots of the badness of his boat's sails, he replied to the author with some degree of pleasantry, "Had it been His (God's) will that you came na here wi' these lights, we might a' had better sails to our boats, and more o' other things." It may further be noticed, that when some of Lord Dundas's farms are to be let in these islands, a competition takes place for the lease; and it is understood that a much higher rent is paid than the lands would otherwise give, were it not for the chance of making considerably by the agency and advantages attending shipwrecks on the shores of the respective farms.'

In his Report to the Board in the year 1805, Mr. Stevenson proposed that the Start Point beacon should be converted into a lighthouse, and that the north Ronaldsay light should be discontinued, and its tower converted into a beacon, as wrecks were found to happen comparatively seldom upon that island, while hardly a year passed without instances of this kind in the Island of Sanday; for owing to the projecting points of this strangely formed island, the lowness and whiteness of its eastern shores, and the wonderful manner in which the scanty patches of land are intersected with lakes and pools of water, it becomes even in day-light a deception, and has often been fatally mistaken for an open sea. After taking the opinion of persons acquainted with the navigation of these seas, the change was adopted; the works at the Start Point were commenced early in the summer of 1805; by the month of November the light-room was finished, and the light exhibited on the 1st January, 1806.

A melancholy story is connected with the completion of the lighthouse on this fatal island. The principal mason and his assistants being desirous of returning home, proceeded to Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, from whence they were most likely to get a passage to the southward. The party consisted of six in number; and the foreman's brother, wishing to go directly to his native place, took his passage in a vessel bound from Stromness to Anstruther, while the rest embarked on board a schooner bound for Leith.

The vessel sailed with a fair wind early on the 24th December, 1806. On the following morning they got sight of Kinnaird Head lighthouse in Aberdeenshire, and had the prospect of speedily reaching the Frith of Forth; but the wind having suddenly shifted to the south-east, and increased to a tremendous gale, the vessel immediately put about, and steered in quest of some safe harbour in Orkney. At two o'clock in the afternoon she passed the Portland Frith, and got into the bay of Long Hope, but could not reach the proper anchorage; and at three o'clock both anchors were let go in an outer roadstead. The storm still continuing with unabated force, the cables parted or broke, and the vessel drifted on the island of Flotta. The utmost efforts of those on board to pass a rope to the shore, with the assistance of the inhabitants of the island, proved ineffectual; the vessel struck upon a shelving rock, and, night coming on, sunk in three fathoms water.

Some of the unfortunate crew and passengers attempted to swim ashore, but in the darkness of the night they either lost their way, or were dashed upon the rocks by the surge of the sea; while those who retained hold of the rigging of the ship, being worn out with fatigue and the piercing coldness of the weather during a long winter night, died before morning,—when the shore presented the dreadful spectacle of the wreck of no fewer than five vessels, with many lifeless bodies.

During successive years the commissioners erected a number of lighthouses, and laboured with anxious care to render them as efficient as possible. In some cases where the nature of the accommodation at the lighthouse stations would permit, a guard-room was provided for pilots, and shipwrecked mariners were lodged, and, in necessitous cases, they have even been allowed a sum of money to clothe and carry them to their respective homes. 'In this way,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'it has not unfrequently fallen to the lot of the keepers of the northern lighthouses, to save the lives of perishing seamen, to succour many poor fishermen and pilots, as well as the half-starved and unlucky individuals of water-parties, when driven by stress of weather to these lone places of abode for safety and shelter. In these varied forms, it will not be too much to suppose, that the practice of protecting the navigator in distress, which is said to have formed a chief part of the design of the fire-towers and nautical colleges of the ancients, is thus in some measure restored.'



CHAPTER VII.

THE BELL-ROCK LIGHTHOUSE AS A TYPE OF SCOTTISH LIGHTHOUSES.

History of the Inch-Cape or Bell-Rock Lighthouse as a Type of the Northern Lighthouses—Position and Dangerous Character of the Bell Rock—Ballad of Sir Ralph the Rover—Proposal to erect a Lighthouse—Mr. Robert Stevenson selected as Engineer—Survey of the Rock—Exhibition of a Floating Light—Preparations for the Lighthouse—First Season on the Rock—Alarming Situation of the Engineer and Men—Effects of the Stormy Sea on the Rock—Erection of Beacon—Winter Employment—The Second Season—A new Tender employed—Praam-boats and Stone-lighters—Progress of the Work—Remarkable appearance of the Rock—Foundation Stone laid—First continuous Course of Masonry—Its Contents—Third Season—Progress of the Work—Winter Operations—Fourth Season—The Beacon used as a Dwelling—Its Interior described—The Engineer's Cabin—The Lighthouse nearly finished—Mr. Smeaton's Daughter visits the Works—Last Stone laid—Light advertized—Lighthouse described—Action of the Sea and of Stormy Weather upon the Lighthouse—Internal Economy of the Lighthouse—Arrangements on Shore—Signals—Curious Accident—The Carr Rock Beacon.

'Pharos loquitur.

'Far in the bosom of the deep O'er these wild shelves my watch I keep, A ruddy gem of changeful light, Bound in the dusky brow of night. The seaman bids my lustre hail, And scorns to strike his timorous sail'[5].

The most celebrated lighthouse in Scotland is that situated on the dangerous reef called the Inch Cape or Bell Rock. This lighthouse may fairly aspire to the title of the Eddystone of Scotland, whether we regard its high importance to navigation, the danger and difficulty of its erection, the beauty of its form, or its interesting history.

The Inch Cape or Bell Rock is situated on the northern side of the entrance of the Frith of Forth at a distance of eleven miles from the promontory called the Red Head, in Forfarshire. The dimensions of the north-eastern or higher compartment of the rock where the lighthouse is built are about four hundred and twenty-seven feet in length and two hundred and thirty feet in breadth. Besides these dimensions, the south-western reef extends about one thousand feet from the main rock. The greatest length of the rock, which may be said to be dangerous to shipping, is about one thousand four hundred and twenty-seven feet, and its greatest breadth about three hundred feet. It is about twelve feet under water at the ordinary height or perpendicular rise of spring tides. In point of situation, this rock is one of the most dangerous on the coast of Great Britain; for while it lies in one of the most frequented estuaries, it is much lower in the water than any rock on which lighthouses are usually erected; and hence the mariner had formerly no warning of his danger when in its vicinity. Indeed, in fine weather the sea is often so smooth, that the place of the rock could not be pointed out from the appearance of the surface. The Bell Rock was therefore considered for ages as the chief obstruction to the navigation of the Frith of Forth, and the want of some mark to point out its position was long lamented. Tradition says, that the abbots of the ancient monastery of Aberbrothock succeeded in fixing a bell upon it in such a way as to be rung by the agitation of the waves. It is further stated, that a band of pirates having carried off the bell, were in a subsequent voyage all lost on the Bell Rock. This legend is beautifully told by Mr. Southey in the following ballad.

SIR RALPH THE ROVER.

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea, The ship was still as she could be; Her sails from heaven received no motion, Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock, The waves flow'd over the Inchcape Rock; So little they rose, so little they fell, They did not move the Inchcape bell.

The abbot of Aberbrothok Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock; On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, And over the waves its warning rung.

When the rock was hid by the surge's swell, The mariners heard the warning bell; And then they knew the perilous rock, And blest the abbot of Aberbrothok.

The sun in heaven was shining gay, All things were joyful on that day; The sea-birds scream'd as they wheel'd round, And there was joyaunce in their sound.

The buoy of the Inchcape bell was seen, A darker speck on the ocean green; Sir Ralph the Rover walk'd his deck, And he fix'd his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring, It made him whistle, it made him sing; His heart was mirthful to excess, But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape float, Quoth he, 'My men, put out the boat, And row me to the Inchcape Rock, And I'll plague the abbot of Aberbrothok.'

The boat is lower'd, the boatmen row, And to the Inchcape Rock they go; Sir Ralph bent over from the boat, And he cut the bell from the Inchcape float.

Down sunk the bell with a gurgling sound, The bubbles rose and burst around; Quoth Sir Ralph, 'The next who comes to the rock Won't bless the abbot of Aberbrothok.'

Sir Ralph the Rover sail'd away, He scour'd the seas for many a day; And now grown rich with plunder'd store, He steers his course for Scotland's shore.

So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky, They cannot see the sun on high; And the wind hath blown a gale all day, At evening it hath died away.

On the deck the Rover takes his stand, So dark it is they see no land: Quoth Sir Ralph, 'It will be lighter soon, For there is the dawn of the rising moon.'

'Canst hear,' said one, 'the breakers roar? For methinks we should be near the shore;' 'Now where we are I cannot tell, But I wish we could hear the Inchcape bell!'

They hear no sound, the swell is strong, Though the wind hath fallen they drift along, Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock, 'Oh Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock.'

Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair, He curst himself in his despair; The waves rush in on every side, The ship is sinking beneath the tide.

But even in his dying fear One dreadful sound could the Rover hear, A sound as if with the Inchcape bell, The devil below was ringing his knell.

But whatever may be the truth of these traditions, it is certain that for a long period, perhaps centuries, no permanent distinguishing mark was attached to the rock until the building of the present lighthouse, whose history we have now briefly to state.

On the appointment of a board for the erection of lighthouses in Scotland, the public anxiously expected that some means would be taken to guard the mariner from this fatal rock; but the difficulties of the undertaking, the great expense, and the inadequate funds of the board, all contributed to promote delay. In the winter of 1799 the northern coast of Great Britain was visited with a dreadful storm, and no less than seventy vessels were wrecked upon the coast of Scotland. This calamity excited so strong a sensation that the attention of the board was at once directed to this object; and in 1802 application was made to Parliament to enable the commissioners of the northern lighthouses to levy certain additional duties, and empower them to borrow a sum of money for this work. The Act was not obtained until 1806; but when obtained, this highly important work was immediately undertaken.

A variety of plans were submitted to the consideration of the lighthouse board. The beacons of spars which had been erected on the rock had been washed away, and many persons feared that a more solid structure would share the same fate. Considering that the rock was frequently under water to the depth of twelve feet, some proposed to erect a building which should stand on pillars of cast-iron or of stone. The commissioners, however, wisely referred the matter to Mr. Robert Stevenson the engineer, who was to survey the rock, and report upon the practicability of erecting a lighthouse upon it. The survey was accordingly made; and during its progress, many instances were discovered of the extent of loss which this reef had occasioned, and many articles of ships' furnishings were found, as well as various coins, a bayonet, a silver shoe-buckle, and many other small objects. The result of this survey was a report from Mr. Stevenson to the effect, that a work of stone similar to that of the Eddystone lighthouse was practicable; and having sent in his plans, the commissioners submitted them to Mr. Rennie, who gave them his cordial concurrence; and the work was accordingly proceeded with.

The time that remained after the passing of the Act in 1806 was employed in making the necessary preparations for the summer of the next year; and the commissioners being authorized to collect duties on the exhibition of a floating light, a vessel was employed to serve the double purpose of a floating light, and a tender for the workmen employed in the building. Accordingly in July a Dutch fishing vessel was moored off the Bell Rock, at the distance of about two miles, in a depth of about twenty fathoms water; her crew consisting of a master, eight able seamen, and a boy. This strong crew was necessary, in case the vessel should accidentally drift from her station, and to enable them to light or lift their moorings after every gale of wind. The vessel was rigged with three masts, on each of which a lantern was so placed that the light could be seen in all directions.

The stones and machinery were prepared in a work-yard provided for the purpose at Arbroath, the nearest harbour on the adjacent coast. In this place barracks were erected for the workmen, that they might at all times be ready night or day to go off to the Bell Rock. A sloop, named the 'Smeaton,' (in honour of the great engineer who had left so splendid a pattern for the present structure,) had been built expressly for the Bell-Rock service, to be employed as a tender for the floating light, and as a stone-lighter for the use of the work: it served also to convey the workmen to and from the rock.

On the 17th August 1807 the work on the rock was begun. The first employment was to bore a sufficient number of holes for receiving the ends of beams, for the support of a wooden beacon or workshop and temporary residence for the workmen. But this was no easy task. The hard compact nature of the sand-stone of which the rock is composed soon blunted the tools, and rendered necessary the constant employment of a smith with his forge. But the operations of this useful artificer were even more difficult than those of the stone-cutters. It often happened that after the flood-tide had obliged the pickmen to strike work, a sea would come rolling over the rocks, while the smith was in the middle of a 'favourite heat,' dashing out the fire, and endangering his indispensable instrument, the bellows; or if the sea was smooth, the smith had often to stand at work knee deep in water, and the tide would rise imperceptibly, first cooling the exterior of the fire-place or hearth, and then quickly blackening and extinguishing the fire from below. Mr. Stevenson describes it as amusing to witness the perplexing anxiety of the smith when coaxing his fire, and endeavouring to avert the effects of the rising tide. Sometimes, while his feet were immersed in water, his face was not only scorched but continually exposed to volumes of smoke and sparks of fire. A great object therefore, of the beacon was to remove the smith above the reach of the highest tide.

One effect of visiting the rock at every tide, and carrying on this noise and traffic, was to banish the herd of seals which had hitherto frequented it as a resting-place during low water. As many as fifty or sixty of these animals had been seen at one time on the rock, but now not more than one or two occasionally appeared, and these confined their visits to the detached outlayers of the rock, from whence they would gaze on the workmen with that look of curiosity so remarkable in this animal. Mr. Stevenson was desirous of protecting them, in hopes of taming them, so as to gain that facility of studying their habits which was afforded at Small's Lighthouse, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, a favourite resort of seals, where, by gentle treatment, they had become so tame and familiar as to eat bread out of the hands of the light-keepers.

The operations of this season were difficult and hazardous, the men having to row in boats at every tide from the rock to the floating-light; and the wind often shifting suddenly, the exertion of rowing was very great, although the distance was but two miles. When at the rock, the men had presently to work knee-deep in water; and the roughness of the sea was often such as to suspend the work for days together, during which time the floating-light would roll so unmercifully, that to put out a boat would have probably ensured its instant destruction.

During this early stage of the work there was a moment of appalling danger, which must be noticed in detail. On the 2nd of Sept. 1807, there were thirty-two persons upon the rock; and while all the artificers were busily occupied, a gale arose, during which the 'Smeaton' broke adrift from her moorings. In this perilous predicament, placed upon an insulated rock far out in the ocean, which, in the progress of the flood-tide, was to be laid under water to the depth of at least twelve feet, in a stormy sea, the feelings of the engineer may be better conceived than described. There were, at this period, only two boats attached to the rock, whose complement, even in fair weather, did not exceed twenty-four sitters; but to row to the floating-light, with so much wind, and so heavy a sea, a complement of eight men for each boat was as much as could possibly be attempted, so that, in this way, about one half of those employed on the rock must be left unprovided for. Under these circumstances, had Mr. Stevenson ventured to despatch one of the boats, in expectation of either working the 'Smeaton' sooner up towards the rock, or in hopes of getting her boat brought to the assistance of the rest, this must have given an immediate alarm to the artificers, each of whom would have insisted upon taking to his own boat, and leaving the eight artificers belonging to the 'Smeaton' to their chance.

The unfortunate circumstance of the 'Smeaton' and her boat having drifted, was for a considerable time, known only to Mr. Stevenson and to the landing-master, who removed to the further part of the rock, where he kept his eye steadily upon the progress of the vessel. While the artificers were at work, chiefly in sitting and kneeling postures, excavating the rock, or boring with the tools, and while their numerous hammers, and the sound of the smith's anvil continued, the situation of things did not appear so awful. In this state of suspense, with almost certain destruction at hand, the water began to rise upon those who were at work on the lower parts of the sites of the beacon and lighthouse. From the run of the sea upon the rock, the forge-fire was sooner extinguished than usual; and the volumes of smoke having ceased, objects in every direction became visible from all parts of the rock. After having had about three hours' work, the men begun, pretty generally, to make towards their respective boats for their jackets and stockings, when, to their astonishment, instead of three, they found only two boats, the third being adrift with the 'Smeaton.' Not a word was uttered by any one, but all appeared to be silently calculating their numbers, and looking to each other with evident marks of perplexity depicted on their countenances. The landing-master, conceiving blame might be attached to him for allowing the boat to leave the rock, still kept at a distance. At this critical moment Mr. Stevenson was standing upon an elevated part of the rock, where he endeavoured to mark the progress of the 'Smeaton,' not a little surprised that her crew did not cut the praam adrift which greatly retarded her way. The workmen looked steadfastly at their leader, and turned occasionally towards the vessel still far to leeward. All this passed with the most perfect silence, and the melancholy solemnity of the group was such that, Mr. Stevenson states, it left an impression never to be effaced from his mind.

In the meantime Mr. Stevenson was considering various schemes which might be adopted for the general safety of the party, in hopes that the 'Smeaton' might be able to pick up the boats to leeward when they were obliged to leave the rock. He was, accordingly, about to address the artificers on the perilous nature of their situation, and to propose that all should unstrip their upper clothing, when the higher parts of the rock were laid under water,—that the seamen should remove every unnecessary weight and encumbrance from the boats, and a specified number of men should go into each boat, and that the remainder should hang by the gunwales, while the boats were to be rowed gently towards the 'Smeaton,' as the course of the 'Pharos' or floating-light lay rather to windward of the rock. But, when he attempted to speak, his mouth was so parched that his tongue refused utterance, and he says, 'I now learned by experience that the saliva is as necessary as the tongue itself for speech.' He then turned to one of the pools on the rock, and drank a little salt-water, which produced immediate relief; and his delight was in no small degree increased when, on rising from this nauseous beverage, some one called out, 'A boat!' 'A boat!' and on looking round, at no great distance, a large boat was seen through the haze making towards the rock.

The effect of this accident was, that when the bell rung next morning, and the workmen were mustered, out of twenty-six, only eight, besides the foreman and seamen, appeared on deck to accompany the engineer to the rock. 'The use of argument to persuade the men to embark in cases of this kind would have been out of place, as it is not only discomfort, or even the risk of the loss of a limb, but life itself, that becomes the question.' The boats proceeded with the eight willing workmen: four hours were passed upon the rock, and, on returning to the 'Pharos,' the eighteen men who remained on board seemed quite ashamed of their cowardice; and on again proceeding to the rock, they were the first to embark. This was the only instance of refusal to go to the rock.

Shortly after this occurrence, the whole party on board the Pharos was exposed to a fearful gale, which kept them from the rock during ten days and exposed them to imminent danger. The floating-light broke adrift, but, providentially, no damage was sustained. This circumstance, however, imparted a character of extreme hazard to life on board the floating-light, that it was difficult to provide sailors to man her. On landing upon the rock the effects of the gale were at once apparent. Six large blocks of granite, which had been landed by way of experiment, had been removed from their places, and by the force of the sea thrown over a rising ledge into a hole at the distance of twelve or fifteen paces; a sufficient evidence of the violence of the storm and the agitation of the sea on the rock. The smith's forge was also shifted from its place—the ash-pan of the hearth with its ponderous cast-iron back had been washed from their places of supposed security, the chains of attachment broken, and these weighty articles found at a very considerable distance in a hole of the rock.

Although the sea often had a most frightful appearance, yet the beacon divested the Bell Rock of many of its terrors: its beams afforded an excellent guide to shipping, and old sailors frequently expressed their admiration at the change of circumstances which led to their cruising with so much confidence both by day and night in the immediate vicinity of this dangerous rock. It also had a beneficial influence on all who were actively engaged about the lighthouse by inducing a greater confidence of safety, so that at all times when a boat could be put to sea or approach this sunken reef, there was not that actual danger in landing which formerly presented itself, because in the event of the tender going adrift or a boat happening to be wrecked upon the rock, the beacon could be looked to as a refuge till assistance arrived.

On the 6th October, 1807, the works were relinquished for the season. The time which had been spent in the rock amounted only to one hundred and eighty hours, of which one hundred and thirty-three, or about thirteen and a half days of ten hours each, could be said to have been actively employed, and yet during this period, besides the erection of the principal beams of the beacon-house, some considerable progress had been made in preparing the site of the lighthouse. 'This reason's work,' says the engineer, 'affords a good example of what may be executed under similar circumstances, when every heart and hand is anxiously and zealously engaged, for the artificers wrought at the erection of the beacon as for life; or somewhat like men stopping a breach in a wall to keep out an overwhelming flood.'

During winter the men were busy in the work-yard preparing the stones and laying them course by course upon a stone basement, equal to the foundation course of the lighthouse. Here the stones were fitted into their places, and carefully numbered and marked as they were to lie in the building; a necessary operation, the several courses being dove-tailed and connected together, so as to form one mass from the centre to the circumference of the building. The stones were also bored or fixed with trenails of oak and joggles of stone, after the manner of the Eddystone lighthouse, and in this state they were laid aside, and in readiness for being shipped in lighters for the rock.

Considering the importance of a light on the Bell Rock, it was at first determined that the whole outward casing of the lighthouse should be of granite, and that sand-stone should be used only for the interior work; but from the difficulty of procuring a sufficient supply of granite, it was afterwards found necessary to restrict the use of it to the lower courses of the building. The granite was from the Rubislaw quarry, and was so compact, that it contained only about thirteen and a half cubic feet to the ton. The sand-stone was from the Mylnefield quarry, and contained fifteen feet to the ton.

As soon as the weather would permit, the operations of the second season commenced at the rock. The arrangements for carrying on the works were made on an improved scale. A new vessel (named the Sir Joseph Banks) was provided as a tender for lodging the workmen off the rock, instead of the floating-light. The new tender was well supplied with cooking apparatus, provisions, water, fuel, &c.; the space not used as birthage, &c. was occupied with casks of lime, cement, and other articles required for the work. The advantage of this new arrangement was, the ease with which the tender could be brought to the lee side of the rock, to take the people on board at any emergency; whereas, the floating-light, being moored as a guide to shipping, could not be moved about so easily, to serve the purposes of the workmen. Every precaution was also taken to render the praam-boats or stone-lighters buoyant, for such was the presentiment of danger attached to the landing department, that, in addition to a water-tight lining, each praam was provided with twelve strong empty casks, which were stored in the hold, and were sufficient to float and render her buoyant in case of accident. The praams therefore became so many life-boats, moored in the neighbourhood of the rock. The Sir Joseph Banks was also furnished with large landing boats and a life-boat.

The beacon had resisted the wintry storms tolerably well. Indeed, the force of the waves upon the rock was not so great as might have been expected, from an interesting and unlooked-for cause, namely, the extensive beds of marine plants which grow upon it. 'It often happened,' says Mr. Stevenson, 'when heavy seas were rolling along the Bell Rock, which at a distance threatened to overrun the whole, that, upon reaching these beds of fuci, with which the flat and level parts of the rock were thickly coated, the velocity and force of the waves were immediately checked, and in a great measure destroyed.'

On the 25th of May 1808, the operations of the second season were commenced with very different feelings, to those experienced during the previous year, when every step was attended with a great degree of doubt, uncertainty, and danger; but the preparations and precautions, which had been so wisely adopted, gave a security and promptness to the work, which relieved all concerned in it of much anxiety. Landing upon the rock was at all times difficult, but, so long as the boats were kept from striking upon it, the spray which came on board was but little heeded.

During the early part of this season the work proceeded as follows: The workmen landed on the rock at low water, and immediately began to bale out the water from the foundation pit, while the pumps were also kept in action. The work was proceeded with on the higher parts of the foundation as the water left them. The pumps being placed diagonally, about twenty men were employed to work each pump; and thus this great body of water, extending over a circular area of forty-two feet diameter, and of the average depth of two feet, could be drawn off in half an hour. The men then proceeded, for about two hours and a half, to level the foundation with their picks, some of the sailors being employed in clearing away the chips, and conveying the iron tools to and from the smiths on the beacon, where they were sharpened. When the sea broke in and overflowed the pit, the party returned in boats to the tender.

The appearance of the rock about this time is thus described: 'Its surface was crowded with men, the two forges flaming, the one above the other, upon the beacon, while the anvils thundered with the rebounding noise of their wooden supports, and formed a curious contrast with the clamour of the surges.' Sometimes, when the sea was smooth, the beacon had the appearance of being afloat upon the water, with a number of men supporting themselves in every variety of attitude and position; while from the upper part of this wooden house, such volumes of smoke ascended from the forges, that strangers at a distance often mistook it for a ship on fire. When working by such light at night, the rock presented a remarkable aspect to the distant shipping, the numerous lights flitting about, apparently below the surface of the water, having a curious and fanciful appearance. To the workmen themselves, the effect of extinguishing the torches was sometimes startling, and made the darkness of the night quite horrible, while the sea would assume that phosphoric appearance so familiar to the sailor, and dash upon the rock like so much liquid fire.

As the work proceeded, the smiths were sometimes left on the beacon throughout the day, and the noise of their anvils was an excellent guide to the boats in foggy weather. This circumstance confirmed the engineer, as to the propriety of erecting in the lighthouse large bells, to be tolled by machinery day and night, during the continuance of foggy weather, by which the mariner may be forewarned of too near an approach to the rock.

The foundation pit having assumed the appearance of a large even platform, and the tides being favourable, it was determined to lay down the first course, which consisted of a few irregular and detached stones for making up certain inequalities in the interior parts of the site of the building. Having taken the dimensions of the first or foundation stone, a model of its figure was made, and this was taken by the engineer in a fast-rowing boat to the work-yard at Arbroath: two men were immediately set to work upon one of the blocks from the Mylnefield quarry, and as the stone-cutters relieved each other, and worked without intermission, the stone was soon prepared, and sent off next day in one of the stone-lighters. On the 9th July the stone was placed in a praam-boat, decorated with colours for the occasion. Flags were also displayed upon the beacon and from the shipping in the offing. The stone was gently lowered into the water, which occupied the site of the building, amidst the cheering of all present. The stone was necessarily landed at high water, for want of a sufficient length of railway for conveying it along the rock at low water to the site of the building.

On the 10th July the sailors displayed their flags at all points, and as many as could be spared from the floating-light and the tenders landed to witness the long desired ceremony of laying the first stone of the lighthouse. The importance of the building was such, that but for the perilous and uncertain nature of any arrangement which could have been made for this ceremony, instead of its having been performed only in the presence of those immediately connected with the work, and a few casual spectators from the neighbouring shore, reckoning in all about eighty persons, many thousands would have attended upon an occasion which must have called forth the first dignitaries of the country in conferring upon it the highest honours of masonry.

At eleven o'clock the foundation stone was laid to hand. It was square in form, and contained about twenty cubic feet, and had no other inscription than the date 1808. The engineer, attended by his three assistants, applied the square, the level, and the mallet, and pronounced the following benediction: 'May the Great Architect of the universe complete and bless this building.' Three hearty cheers were then given, and success to future operations drunk with the greatest enthusiasm. When the tide began to overflow the site the whole party returned to the ship; prayers were read, and every heart, doubtless, felt more than usually thankful.

The first continuous course was now landed on the rock and laid down. Mr. Stevenson gives an enumeration of the various kinds and quantity of the work in this single course. Although only one foot in thickness it contained five hundred and eight cubic feet of granite in outward casing; eight hundred and seventy-six cubic feet of Mylnefield stone in the hearting; one hundred and four tons of solid contents; one hundred and thirty-two superficial feet of hewing in the face-work; four thousand five hundred and nineteen superficial feet of hewing in the beds, joints, and joggles; four hundred and twenty lineal feet boring of trenail holes; three hundred and seventy-eight feet lineal cutting for wedges; two hundred and forty-six oaken trenails; three hundred and seventy-eight oak-wedges in pairs.

In the work-yard about sixty men were employed in hewing and preparing the various courses of the solid part of the building. The second course, which contained some very weighty stones, was laid down upon the platform in the middle of the yard, each stone being carefully fitted and marked as it was to lie in the building.

By the end of this season the building was brought to a level with the highest part of the margin of the foundation pit, or about five and a half feet above the lower bed of the foundation-stone. The number of hours work upon the rock this season at low water amounted to about two hundred and sixty-five, of which number only eighty were employed in building.

The third season was commenced early in the spring of 1809. The first works consisted in laying down mooring-chains with floating-buoys, for mooring the stone-lighters and praam-boats; the beacon was also fitted out as a more permanent residence for the workmen, in order to lessen the amount of sickly motion which is so distressing to landsmen in a rough sea. By the end of June the men were able to work upon the masonry while the rock was under water; and on the 8th July, for the first time, the tide ceased to overflow the building at low water. With considerable exertion the solid part of the building, which reached to the height of thirty feet, was completed by September. By continuing the works a month or two longer a much greater height might have been attained, but as the engineer foresaw that a diligent employment of the next season would suffice for the completion of the work, he deemed it advisable to leave the house in its present solid defensible posture, on which the sea had much less hold, than if part of the hollow portion had been built.

The winter months were occupied in preparing the upper courses; but in consequence of severe frosts, several excellent and valuable stones from the Mylnefield quarry were destroyed by absorption of moisture from the air, which moisture expanding in the act of freezing, split the stones, and rendered them useless. It was therefore determined to construct the cornice of the building, and the parapet of the light-room of the Liver Rock, of the Craig-Leith quarry, celebrated for its durability and beauty, and for its property of not being liable to be affected by the action of frost. These stones were prepared at Edinburgh during the winter, and the iron frame-work, and the several compartments of the light-room got ready.

Having during two seasons landed and built upwards of one thousand four hundred tons of stone upon the rock, while the work was low down in the water, and before the beacon was habitable; and finding that it did not now require more than about seven hundred tons to complete the masonry, there was every prospect of finishing the lighthouse during the season. But as the success of the work depended wholly upon the stability of the beacon, every possible attention was bestowed upon it, and visits made to the rock during the winter months when the weather would allow.

On the 10th of May operations for the season were commenced. The building to the height of fifteen feet above the rock was found to be thickly covered with fuci: on the east side the growth of sea-weed was observed to the full height of thirty feet, and even on the top or upper bed of the last-laid course it had grown so as to render walking somewhat difficult. The men therefore set to work to scrape off the sea-weed, in order to apply the moulds of the first course of the staircase. The engineer had also to fix the position of the entrance-door, which was regulated chiefly by the appearance of the growth of the sea-weed on the building, indicating the direction of the heaviest seas, on the opposite side of which the door was placed.

The artificers now took permanent possession of the beacon, and were all heartily rejoiced at getting rid of the trouble of boating, and the sickly motion of the tender. The beacon, which has been so often named, and which proved a source of so much comfort to the men, and of benefit and dispatch to the work, stood well during the five years that its services were required. In its present complete form it consisted of three floors, one of which was occupied as the cook-house and provision store; the second, which was much encumbered by the meeting of the principal beams, formed only two cabins, one for the engineer, and the other for the foreman. In the third compartment were three rows or tiers of beds, capable of accommodating about thirty men. Below these three floors was the temporary floor at the height of twenty-five feet above the rock, used for preparing mortar and for the smith's workshop. The beacon was connected with the building by a gangway, or bridge of timber.

Mr. Stevenson has given an interesting description of his cabin in the beacon, where he had passed many weeks 'in a kind of active retirement, making practical experiment of the fewness of the positive wants of man.' This cabin measured not more than four feet three inches in breadth on the floor; and though, from the oblique direction of the beams of the structure, it widened towards the top, yet it did not admit of the full expansion of his arms when he stood on the floor, while its length was little more than sufficient for suspending a cot-bed during the night. This was tied up to the roof during the day, thus leaving free room for the admission of occasional visitants. 'His folding-table was attached with hinges immediately under the small window of the apartment, and his books, barometer, thermometer, portmanteau, and two or three camp-stools, formed the bulk of his moveables. His diet being plain, the paraphernalia of the table were proportionably simple, though every thing had the appearance of comfort, and even of neatness, the walls being covered with green cloth formed into panels with red tape, and his bed festooned with curtains of yellow cotton-stuff. If, in speculating upon the absolute wants of man in such a state of seclusion, one was reduced to a single book, the Sacred Volume, whether considered for the striking divinity of its story—the morality of its doctrine—or the important truths of its Gospel, would have proved by far the greatest treasure.'

As the building rose in height the action of the sea upon it was regarded with much interest. When the wind was blowing, accompanied with a heavy surf upon the rock, the appearance towards high water is described as being very grand and wonderful. Waves of considerable magnitude rose as high as the solid or level of the entrance-door which was to the leeward; but on the windward side the sprays flew like lightning up the sloping sides of the building, occasionally wetting the artificers, and interrupting their operations on the top of the walls.

In the early part of July, the works being nearly completed, great interest was excited by a visit from Mrs. Dickson, the only daughter and surviving relative of Mr. Smeaton. She was conveyed to the building on board the 'Smeaton,' which had been thus spontaneously named by the engineer from the sense of the obligation which a public work of the description of the Bell Rock owed to the labours and abilities of Mr. Smeaton. Mrs. Dickson seemed to be quite overcome with the many concurrent circumstances which tended in a peculiar manner to revive and enliven the memory of her departed father.

The 29th of July was a day of great rejoicing at the Bell Rock. The last stone was landed, and that it might lose none of its honours, the same praam-boat with which the first stone of the building had been landed was appointed also to carry the last. The weather being remarkably fine, all the ships and the craft hoisted flags; the praam which carried the stone was towed by the seamen in gallant style to the rock, and on its arrival cheers were given as a finale to the landing department. On the next day, the ninetieth or last course of the building having been laid, the lintel of the light-door room, being the finishing stone of the exterior walls, was laid with due formality by the engineer, who at the same time pronounced the following benediction, 'May the Great Architect of the Universe, under whose blessing this perilous work has prospered, preserve it as a guide to the mariner.'

The remaining details, referring chiefly to the completion of the interior of the lighthouse, are not of general interest. They were so far advanced by the end of the year 1810, that the light was advertised to the public to be exhibited every night from the 1st of February 1811. The advertisement stated the following particulars:—'The light will be from oil, with reflectors placed at the height of about one hundred and eight feet above the medium level of the sea. To distinguish this light from others on the coast, it is made to revolve horizontally, and to exhibit a bright light of the natural appearance, and a red-coloured light alternately, both respectively attaining their greatest strength, or most luminous effect, in the space of every four minutes; during that period the bright light will, to a distant observer, appear like a star of the first magnitude, which after attaining its full strength is gradually eclipsed to total darkness, and is succeeded by the red-coloured light, which in like manner increases to full strength and again diminishes and disappears. The coloured light, however, being less powerful, may not be seen for a time after the bright light is first observed. During the continuance of foggy weather and showers of snow, a bell will be tolled by machinery, night and day, at intervals of half a minute.' By this management the light was found to be so powerful as to be seen and readily distinguished at the distance of six or seven leagues in a clear atmosphere. On the exhibition of this light the floating light was discontinued.

Having thus traced the building through some of its principal stages, a brief view in its complete state may here be desirable. This lighthouse is a circular building, forty-two feet in diameter at the base and thirteen feet in diameter at the top. The masonry is one hundred feet high, and the whole structure, with the light-room, measures one hundred and fifteen feet. The ascent from the rock to the entrance-door is by a kind of trap-ladder, which is a difficult mode for any but the light-keepers, who are accustomed to it. Other persons are generally hoisted up in a chair by a moveable crane. From the entrance a circular stair leads to the first apartment, which contains the water, fuel, &c. The communication with the other apartments is by means of wooden steps. The three lower apartments have two windows each, and the upper rooms four windows each. All the windows have double sash-frames, glazed with plate-glass, besides storm-shutters of timber. The light-room is octagonal, twelve feet across and fifteen feet high. It is framed of cast iron and glazed with polished plate-glass, each plate measuring two feet six inches by two feet three inches, and being one-fourth of an inch thick. It is covered with a dome and terminates in a ball. It is also furnished with a lightning-conductor. In the year 1816, the whole exterior surface having become much discoloured by the sprays of the sea, was painted in oil of one uniform tint.

In the course of the first winter some interesting observations were made upon the action of the weather and the general appearance of the lighthouse. During rough weather a tremulous vibratory motion was found to affect the whole house. The tremour was especially felt in leaning against the walls in the upper apartments when the wind was blowing fresh, or when the house was struck by a sea or by a boat coming suddenly against it, and might be compared to that which is perceptible in a common house upon the slamming of particular doors, or when a carriage makes a rattling noise in passing along the streets. But this effect is attended with no real danger. The late eminent Professor Robison told Mr. Stevenson that when he visited the Eddystone Lighthouse, something having forcibly struck the building, he was sensible of a vibratory motion in one of the rooms in which he was then sitting; but instead of producing any alarm in his mind, he assured his friends that it was to him the strongest proof of the unity and connection of the fabric in all its parts.

During the storms of winter, Mr. Stevenson says that from the Forfarshire coast 'the lighthouse appeared in one of its most interesting aspects, standing proudly among the waves while the sea around it was in the wildest state of agitation. The light-keepers did not seem to be in motion, but the scene was by no means still, as the noise and dashing of the waves were unceasing. The seas rose in the most surprising manner to the height of about seventy feet above the rock, and after expending their force in a perpendicular direction, fell in great quantities round the base of the lighthouse, while considerable portions of the spray were seen adhering, as it were, to the building, and gathering down its sides in the state of froth as white as snow. Some of the great waves burst and were expended upon the rock before they reached the building; while others struck the base, and embracing the walls, met on the western side of the house, where they dashed together and produced a most surprising quantity of foam.'

The regulations observed in attending the Bell-Rock may be briefly stated. The nearest town to the lighthouse is that of Aberbrothock, or Arbroath, in Forfarshire, about eleven miles distant. A handsome cutter, called 'The Pharos,' is stationed here as a tender to the lighthouse. This vessel goes off to the rock every fortnight, or in the course of each set of spring-tides, to relieve the light-keepers and to supply the house with fuel, provisions, &c. There are four lighthouse-keepers, three of whom are always on duty, while one is ashore. If the weather offers no impediment, the light-keepers are each six weeks at the rock and a fortnight ashore with their families. The salaries are from fifty to sixty guineas per annum, with a stated allowance for each man of bread, beef, butter, oatmeal, vegetables, and small-beer, with fourpence a day extra for tea, &c. They have also a suit of uniform clothes every third year. Mr. Stevenson says that the light-keepers were, upon the whole, pleased with their situation, and talked in a feeling manner of the hardships of mariners whom they often saw tossed about during the storms of winter.

According to the present system of Northern lighthouses, the watches in the light-room are as regularly relieved as on ship-board. The keeper is liable to immediate dismissal if he leave the light-room before being regularly relieved; and for securing order and regularity in this respect a time-piece is placed in each light-room, and bells are hung in the bed-rooms of the dwelling-houses. At some of the stations the light-room and the bed-rooms are connected by a set of tubes, by blowing gently into which the keepers on watch can sound an alarum-bell in the room below, and rouse his comrade to change guard. The man below answers this call by a counterblast through the tubes, and a small index in the light-room is thereby raised to signify that the signal has been obeyed.

At Arbroath suitable buildings are erected for the light-keepers' families, with each a piece of enclosed ground, and a seat in the parish-church. Connected with these buildings are store-houses, a room for the master and crew of the attending vessels, and a signal-tower fifty feet high, at the top of which is a small observatory furnished with an excellent achromatic telescope, a flag-staff, and a copper signal-ball measuring eighteen feet in diameter. By means of this and a corresponding ball at the lighthouse, daily signals are kept up to signify when all is well. Should the ball at the rock be allowed to remain down, as is the case when anything is particularly wanted, or in the event of sickness, the tender immediately puts out to sea.

The expense of this great national undertaking, together with the buildings at Arbroath, the attending vessel, and the first year's stores, amounted to about sixty-one thousand three hundred and fifty pounds.

We cannot close this notice of the Bell Rock lighthouse without recording a curious accident which occurred on the night of the 9th February, 1832, about 10 o'clock. A large-herring gull struck one of the south-eastern mullions of the light-room with such force, that two of the polished plates of glass measuring about two feet square and a quarter of an inch thick, were shivered to pieces, and scattered over the floor, to the great alarm of the keeper on watch, and the other two inmates, who rushed instantly into the light-room. It happened fortunately, that although one of the red shaded sides of the reflector-frame was passing in its revolution at the moment, the pieces of broken glass were so minute, that no injury was done to the valuable red glass. The gull was found to measure five feet between the tips of the wings. In its gullet was found a large herring, and in its throat a piece of plate-glass about an inch in length.