CHAPTER X.

THE LIGHTHOUSE AND ITS HISTORY. The Lighthouse—Our most noted one in Danger—The Eddystone 156 Undermined—The Ancient History of Lighthouses—The Pharos of Alexandria—Roman Light Towers at Boulogne and Dover—Fire-beacons and Pitch-pots—The Tower of Cordouan—The First Eddystone Lighthouse—Winstanley and his Eccentricities—Difficulties of Building his Wooden Structure—Resembles a Pagoda—The Structure Swept away with its Inventor—Another Silk Mercer in the Field—Rudyerd’s Lighthouse—Built of Wood—Stood for Fifty Years—Creditable Action of Louis XIV.—Lighthouse Keeper alone with a Corpse—The Horrors of a Month—Rudyerd’s Tower destroyed by Fire—Smeaton’s Early History—Employed to Build the present Eddystone—Resolves on a Stone Tower—Employment of “Dove-tailing” in Masonry—Difficulties of Landing on the Rock—Peril incurred by the Workmen—The First Season’s Work—Smeaton always in the Post of Danger—Watching the Rock from Plymouth Hoe—The Last Season—Vibrations of the Tower in a Storm—Has stood for 120 years—Joy of the Mariner when “The Eddystone’s in Sight!”—Lights in the English Channel