CHAP. III. WINSTANLEY'S AND RUDYERD'S LIGHTHOUSES. 17 



Smeaton tells us l that in one room there lay an old 

 slipper, which, if a kick was given it, immediately raised 

 a ghost from the floor ; in another, the visitor sat down 

 upon a chair, which suddenly threw out two arms and 

 held him a fast prisoner ; whilst, in the garden, if he 

 sought the shelter of an arbour and sat down upon a 

 particular seat, he was straightway set afloat into the 

 middle of the adjoining canal. These tricks must have 

 rendered the house at Littlebury a somewhat exciting 

 residence for the uninitiated guest. The amateur inventor 

 exercised the same genius to a certain extent for the 

 entertainment of the inhabitants of the metropolis, and 

 at Hyde Park Corner he erected a variety of jets d'eau, 

 known by the name of Winstanley's Waterworks, which 

 he exhibited at stated times at a shilling a-head. 2 



This whimsical character of the man in some measure 

 accounts for the oddity of the wooden building after- 

 wards erected by him for the purpose of a lighthouse on the 

 Eddy stone rock; and it is a matter of some surprise that it 

 should have stood the severe weather of the English Chan- 

 nel for several seasons. The building was begun in the 

 year 1696, and finished in four years. It must necessarily 

 have been a work attended with great difficulty as well 

 as danger, as operations could only be carried on during 

 fine weather, when the sea was comparatively smooth. 

 The first summer was wholly spent in making twelve 

 holes in the rock, and fastening twelve irons in them by 

 which to hold the superstructure. " Even in summer," 

 Winstanley says, " the weather would at times prove so 

 bad, that for ten or fourteen days together the sea would 

 be so raging about these rocks, caused by outwinds and 

 the running of the ground seas coining from the main 

 ocean, that although the weather should seem and be 



' Narrative of the Building and a 

 Description of the Construction of the 

 Eddystone Lighthouse with Stone.' By 



2 They continued to be exhibited 

 for some time after Mr. Winstanley's 

 death. See ' Tatler,' for September, 

 1709. 



John Smeaton, Civil Engineer, F.R.S. 

 Second Edition. London-, 1813. | 



VOL. II. C 



