196 Biographical Sketch of the late 



Eddystone was barely covered by the tide at high water, while the 

 Bell Rock was barely uncovered at low water. 



*' I had much to contend with in the then limited state of my ex- 

 perience ; and I had in various ways to bear up against public 

 opinion as vrell as against interested parties. I was in this state of 

 things, however, greatly supported, and I would even say often com- 

 forted, by Mr Clerk of Eldin, author of the System of Breaking the 

 Line in Naval Tactics. Mr Clerk took great interest in my models, 

 and spoke much of them in scientific circles — he carried men of 

 science and eminent strangers to the model-room which I had pro- 

 vided in Merchants' Hall, of which he sometimes carried the key, 

 both when I was at home and while I was abioad. He introduced 

 me to Lord Webb Seymour, to Admiral Lord Duncan, and to 

 Professors Robison and Playfair, and others. Mr Clerk had been 

 personally known to Smeaton, and used occasionally to speak of him 

 to roe.'' 



It is impossible to read this little narrative without feeling 

 a respect for Mr Clerk's hearty enthusiasm, and perceiving 

 the beneficial influence which a kindly disposition, when thus 

 united with an active and inventive mind like his, is calcu- 

 lated to produce on the prospects and pursuits of a young 

 man, by stimulating an honourable emulation and discourag- 

 ing a desponding spirit. 



'* But at length,*' the memorandum continues, "all difficulties with 

 the public as well as with the better informed few, were dispelled by 

 the fatal effects of a dreadful storm from the NE., which occurred in 

 December 1799, when it was ascertained that no fewer than seventy 

 sail of vessels were stranded or lost, with many of their crews, upon 

 the coast of Scotland alone! Many of them, it was not doubted, 

 might have found a safe asylum in the Firth of Forth, had there 

 been a lighthouse upon the Bell Rock, on which, indeed, it was 

 generally believed the York, of 74 guns, with all hands perished, 

 none being left to tell the tale ! The coast for many miles exhibited 

 portions of that fine ship. There was now, therefore, but one voice. 

 * There must be a lighthouse erected on the Bell Rock.' 



•' Previous to this dreadful storm I had prepared my pillar-formed 

 model, a section of which is shewn in Plate VII. of the ' Account of 

 the Bell Rock Lighthouse.^ Early in the year 1800, I for the first 

 time landed on the rock to see the application of my model to the 

 situation for which it was designed and made. On this occasion I 

 was accompanied by my friend Mr James Haldane, architect, my 

 draughtsman, and whose pupil I had been for architectural drawing. 

 Our landing was at low water of a spring tide, when a good space of 

 rock was above water. I had no sooner set foot upon the rock than 



