30Q VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



vessels are attempted to be carried, they are neitheif 

 profitable nor safe. 



Light-Houses. 



One of the most celebrated instances of the appli- 

 cation of timber, in the construction of a light-house, 

 was that by Mr. Rudyerd, upon the rock of Eddy- 

 stone, where Smeaton's magnificent stone edifice 

 liow stands. The engineer of this celebrated but ill- 

 fated structure had not been bred to the profession, 

 for he w as a silk-mercer upon Ludgate-hill ; but he 

 seems to have been a man of the greatest talents for 

 carpentry ; and we have the evidence of Smeaton, 

 that, " he directed the performance in a masterly 

 Dianner." Before this time, a light-house had been 

 built on the same situation, by Mr. Heiu'y Win- 

 stanley, which was completed in 1699; but which 

 disappeared with its engineer, in the violent 

 storm during the night of the 26th of November, 

 1703. That 26th of November was the most dread- 

 ful stornr ever experienced in the British seas ; and 

 the damage that it did, both at sea and on land, has 

 not a parallel in the annals of the country ; so that, 

 although Mr. Wiustanley's light-house was torn from 

 the rock, and it seems to have been so torn in one 

 mass, it does not theiice follow that it was a struc- 

 ture of inferior strength, because no subsequent 

 structure has had to abide a trial so severe. What 

 added to the public regret upon that melancholy oc- 

 casion, was the fact that Mr. VVinstanley erected the 

 light-house at his own expense. 



Rudyerd saw and avoided the errors of Wiustan- 

 ley's structure ; that was a polygon, — Rudyerd made 

 the plan of his a circle ; there were projecting orna- 

 ments at the top of Wiustanley's, — Rudyerd's was en- 

 tirely plain. Rudyerd's structure may be considered 

 as altogether a piece of carpentry' ; for the sevei'al 



