86 THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. 



roof,) is of copper, is set in grooves in the stone, filled 

 with melted lead, and fastened together by bars of iron 

 inside, crossing in different directions and confined by 

 screws. It was completed by the 1st of October, and 

 on the 12th of that month the light was exhibited, 

 which has burned every night since. The building 

 has weathered so many storms, that it has ceased to be 

 an object of solicitude. 



After the great storm in 1817, which tumbled the 

 Breakwater about like a heap of pebbles, the writer of 

 this visited the Lighthouse and found not so much as 

 a crack in the mortar, nor even a damaged pane of glass 

 in the lanthorn, though exposed to a sea which had 

 gone clean over it hundreds of times. The engraving 

 at page 41, will give some idea of its situation during a 

 storm. 



It was, indeed, tried soon after its erection, in the 

 year 1762, by a storm which swept away many parts 

 of Plymouth, and even drove the ships in Hamoaze 

 from their moorings. On this occasion Dr. Mudge 

 wrote to Mr. Smeaton a letter containing the following 

 postcript : 



" P. S. I broke open this to mention a whimsical 

 circumstance that conies into my head. With the sugar 

 and other articles sent to the Lighthouse, was a gallipot 

 of putty to repair the only derangement the house ha* 

 suffered." 



Many other instances of the ingenuity and fore- 

 sight of the architect will present themselves to the 

 intelligent observer of this extraordinary monument to 

 his fame ; which could not be included here, without 

 lengthening the sketch beyond the writer's intention 

 or leisure. 



The rock, on which the lighthouse stands, is peculiar, 

 being of gneiss, a kind of laminar granite ; and is the 

 only rockofthe kind in England, with perhaps a single 

 exception. The rocks all round it are of ordinary 

 uranite, being entirely different from any in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood or about the coast. 



