1825.] 
It seems unquestionable, that the 
shock which effected such a catastrophe 
was simultaneous through the whole 
extent of the island. It appears also 
not to have extended beyond Swanage 
Bay, at the north extremity of Dorset- 
shire, where the disruption of the chalk 
stratum has thrown it, from the nearly 
horizontal, into a vertical direction, 
analogous to that in the Isle of Wight. 
H. H. 
Newport, 20th Jan. 1825. 
Hoan! eS 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
OOKING into the Jast number of 
the Edinburgh Philosophical Jour- 
nal, I met with an “ Account of the 
Erection of the Bell Rock Lighthouse,” 
with which I was so much pleased, that 
1 began to think a very abridged notice 
might be acceptable in the pages of 
your Miscellany; together with some 
mention of that Glory of Lighthouses on 
our western shores, Eddystone — which 
is constructed on principles, acknow- 
ledgedly, similar to those on which Mr. 
Stevenson has, with eminent success, 
built the abovenamed on “ a sunken 
reef of red sand-stone, the highest part 
only being uncovered at ordinary ebb- 
tides;”? and which is situated about 
eleven miles south-east of the neat 
town of Aberbrothwick, or Arbroath, 
as it is called; and some notice also of 
the great French Lighthouse, the Jour 
de Corduan, built by Louis XIV., in 
1655, at the mouth of the Garonne, in 
the Bay of Biscay. It occurred to me, 
however, that, probably, such a subject 
would have met with attention in the 
earlier pages of the Monthly Magazine, 
as the present Eddystone was built in 
1774, and the Bell Rock completed, at 
least so far as to show a light, in Feb, 
1811; and, accordingly, having access 
to the early volumes of the work, 
with the help of the general index, I 
found that, at p. 499, vol. 36, a short 
notice of the Bell (or Cape) Roc 
Lighthouse was inserted. ' 
Nevertheless, I trust, that a few ad- 
ditional observations on a subject which 
(J still think) has been much overlooked 
in the pages of your miscellany, might 
be wo’ -hy of insertion. 
The Eddystone rocks are situate 
about twelye miles from the Ram-head, 
the nearest point of land, fourteen miles 
south from Plymouth, south-south-west 
of the middle of the Sound, in longitude 
Historical Notices of Lighthouses. 
207 
4° 16’ or 24* west, and latitude 50° 
8’ north. 
They had long been regarded with 
terror by mariners ; as the principal rock 
only, on which the building is erected, 
stands but a few feet above the water, 
and affords no more extent of surface 
than is barely sufficient for the founda- 
tion of the building. In 1696, Mr. 
Winstanley commenced a _ structure, 
which it was hoped would prove a last- 
ing warning from the dangerous spot ; 
it was illuminated in 1700; but, in 
1703, while Mr. W. himself, with a 
large party, was inspecting it, a mighty 
storm arose, the building was washed 
into the wide ocean, and every inmate, 
casual and resident, perished. 
However, six years after, Mr. Rud- 
yard’s lighthouse, of wood, was built, 
which, in 1755, was destroyed by fire ; 
this, in 1770, was, also, the fate of Mr. 
Smeaton’s first building, of wood, erect- 
ed 1759; but, shortly afterwards, the 
same gentleman built a stone light- 
house, on principles, novel indeed, but 
which must strike every observer as 
being admirably adapted to the intended 
purpose; as is evinced by the structure 
having withstood the elements’ fury, by 
which it is almost unceasingly assailed 
up to this time. Mr. Smeaton (in 
which, too, his example is followed by 
Mr. Stevenson) has published a highly 
interesting narrative of his edifice,— 
unfortunately limited to a small oum- 
ber of copies. 
A lighthouse is not to be erected 
without encountering great difficulties; 
and in the “ narratives” alluded to 
(and, most likely, in some correspond- 
ing French work, relating to the Tour 
de Corduyan), these are particularly de- 
tailed; but I cannot help concluding, 
that Mr, Smeaton found and conquered 
the greatest ; for the Corduan Rock is 
much larger than either of the others; 
and the waves of the Bay of Biscay, 
though much more weighty, are slow 
in their majestic roll, and not nearly so 
destructive as the violent and rapid 
surges of the British seas. The Bell 
Rock, too, had a great advantage, for 
though ten or twelve feet under water 
at flood-tide, it presented, at other 
times, a superficies of 400 by 250 feet. 
“ The erection (says the Edin. Phil. 
Jour.) of some temporary refuge on the 
rock, in case of accident to the boats, 
formed 
* It is remarkable, that a measurement 
on our own shore should be undetermined. 
