LIGHT-HOUSES. 



xvho, in the jt-ar 16f><>. \v;is furnished by the mnsler, wardens, and 

 assistants, of the Trinity house, of Deptford Strond, with the ne- 

 cessary powers to carry th<> design into execution. lie entered 

 upon his undertaking in 1696, and completed it in four y 

 This gentleman was so certain of the stability of his structure, that 

 he declared it to be his wish to be in it " during the greatest 

 storm that ever blew under the face of the heavens." Mr. \V in- 

 stanley was but too amply gratified in his wish ; for while he was 

 there with his workmen and light-keepers, that dreadful storni 

 began, which raged most violently on the 26'th of November 1703, 

 in the night ; and of all the accounts of the kind which history 

 furnishes us with, we have none that has exceeded this in Great 

 .Britain, or was more injurious or extensive in its devastation. 

 The next morning, November 27th, when the violence of the 

 storm was so much abated that it could be seen whether the light- 

 house had suffered by ir, nothing appeared standing, but, upon a 

 nearer inspection, some of the large irons by which the work was 

 fixed upon the rock ; nor were any of the people, or any of the 

 materials of the building, ever found afterwards. 



In 1709, another light-house was built of wood, on a very dif- 

 ferent construction, by Mr. John Rudyerd, then a silk-mercer on 

 Ludgate-hill. This was a very ingenious structure : after it had 

 braved the elements for forty. six years, it was burnt to the ground 

 in 1755. On the destruction of this light-house, that excellent 

 mechanic and engineer Mr. Smaton was chosen as the fittest per- 

 ton to build another. It was with some difficulty that he was able 

 to persuade the proprietors, that a stone building, properly con- 

 structed, would in all resp"cts be preferable to one of wood ; but 

 having at last convinced them, he turned his thoughts to the shape 

 which was most suitable to a building so critically situated, lle- 

 flccting on the structure of the former buildings, it seemed a ma. 

 terial improvement to procure, if possible an enlargement of the 

 base, without increasing the size of the waist, or that part of the 

 building which is between the top of the rock and the top of the 

 solid work, llmce he thought a greater degree of strength and 

 itiffness would be gained, accompanied with less resistance to the 

 acting i)ow<T. On this occasion, the natural figure of the waist, 

 or hole of a large spreading oak, occurred to Mr. Smeaton. k Let 

 us (says he) consider its particular figure. Connected with id 

 rool>, whicuHe hid below ground, it rises from the surface with a 

 jarge swelling base, v.hich at the height of one diameter is ger.e- 



