Bobert Stevenson, Esq, 197 



I laid aside all idea of a pillar-formed structure, fully convinced that 

 a building on similar principles with the Eddystone would bo found 

 practicable. On my return from this visit to the rock, I im- 

 mediately set to work in good earnest with a design of a stone light- 

 house, and modelled it. Of this design a section is also given in 

 Plate VII. above noticed. I accompanied this design with a report 

 or memorial to the Lighthouse Board, which I gave in the Appendix 

 of my * Account ' at p. 440. The pillar-formed plan I estimated at 

 £15,000, and the stone building at £42,000.* But still I found 

 that I had not made much impression on the Board on the score of 

 expense, for they feared it would cost much more than forty or fifty 

 thousand pounds. Here, therefore, the subject rested with the 

 Board for a time. 



" To the very last the bankers were in doubt as to their security 

 on the dues for so great and hazardous an undertaking ; and the bill 

 included an authority to borrow £25,000 from the Exchequer. I 

 attended this bill through Parliament. Mr Rennie and myself were 

 examined ; but the only plans and information otherwise before the 

 Committee were those already noticed, which I had laid before the 

 Board in 1 800. It was not at that time required by the standing 

 orders to produce plans in a case of this kind. 



" I had no sooner returned from London, after the passing of the 

 Act, than I received orders from the Board to procure a Light- Ship, 

 and to take other steps preparatory to the commencement of the 

 work. The Act contained a provision, that as soon as a Light-Ship 

 was moored, and due intimation given of the exhibition of a light from 

 it, the collection of half-duties should commence, — a suggestion which 

 was made while the bill was in draft by Mr Charles Cuningham, the 

 secretary of the Board. 



** The Lighthouse Act having obtained the royal assent, I began 

 to feel a new responsibility. The erection of a lighthouse on a 

 rock, about twelve miles from land, and so low in the water, that the 

 foundation course must be at least on a level with the lowest tide, 

 was an enterprise so full of uncertainty and hazard, that it could not 

 fail to press on my mind. I felt regret that I had not had the op- 

 portunity of a greater range of practice to fit me for such an under- 

 taking. But I was fortified by an expression of my friend Mr Clerk, 

 in one of our conversations upon its difficulties. ' This work,' said 

 he, ' is unique, and can be little forwarded by experience of ordinary 

 masonic operations. In this case, Smeaton's Narrative must be the 

 text book, and energy and perseverance the pratique.'' *' 



How well Mr Stevenson met the demands on his persever- 

 ance, fortitude and self-denial, which, in the course of his great 

 enterprise, were made on him, the history of the operations, 



* The actual cost was £61,331, 9s., 2d., as shewn at p. 483 of the " Account." 



