UNIVERSITY 



v^. 

 CHAP. III. WINSTANLEY'S AND RUDYERD'S LIGHTHOUSES. 25 



lightkeepers, into their very mouths, 1 and they fled from 

 room to room, the fire following them down towards the 

 sea. From Cawsand and Eame Head the unusual glare 

 of light proceeding from the Eddystone was seen in the 

 early morning, and fishing-boats with men went off to 

 the rock, though a fresh east wind was blowing. By 

 the time they reached it, the lightkeepers had not only 

 been driven from all the rooms, but, to protect themselves 

 from the molten lead and red-hot bolts and falling tim- 

 bers, they had been compelled to take shelter under a 

 ledge of the rock on its eastern side, and, after con- 

 siderable delay, the poor fellows were taken off, more 

 dead than alive. And thus was Budyerd's lighthouse 

 also completely destroyed. 



As the necessity for protecting the navigation of the 

 Channel by a light on the Eddystone was greater than 

 ever, in consequence of the increasing foreign as well 

 as coasting trade of the kingdom, it was immediately 

 determined by the proprietors to take the necessary 

 steps for rebuilding it ; and it was at this juncture 

 that Mr. Smeaton was applied to. As on the two pre- 

 vious occasions, when a mercer and country gentleman, 

 and next a London silk-mercer, had been called upon to 

 undertake this difficult work, the person now applied to 

 was not a builder, nor an architect, nor engineer, but a 

 mathematical instrument maker. Mr. Smeaton had, 

 however, by this time gained for himself so general an 

 estimation amongst scientific men as a painstaking ob- 

 server, an able mechanic, and one who would patiently 

 master, and, if possible, overcome difficulties, that he was 

 at once pointed out as the person of all others the most 

 capable of satisfactorily rebuilding this important beacon 

 on the south-eastern coast. 



1 It appears that a post-mortem j rence, and a flat oval piece of lead, 



examination of one of the light- 

 keepers, who died from injuries ^re- 

 ceived during the fire, took place 

 some thirteen days after its occur- 



some seven ounces in weight, was 

 taken out of his stomach, having 

 proved the cause of his death, 



