CHAP. TY. RMEATON'S LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EDDYSTONE. 27 



of the reply made by the Earl to Mr. Weston is so 

 characteristic of him, that we quote his own words. 

 Lord Macclesfield told him " that there was one of their 

 body whom he could venture to recommend to the 

 business ; yet that the most material part of what he 

 knew of him was, his having within the compass of the 

 last seven years recommended himself to the Society by 

 the communication of several mechanical inventions and 

 improvements ; and that though he had at first made it 

 his business to execute things in the instrument way 

 (without having ever been bred to the trade), yet on 

 account of the merit of his performances he had been 

 chosen a member of the Society ; and that for about three 

 years past, having found the business of a philosophical 

 instrument maker not likely to afford an adequate recom- 

 pense, he had wholly applied himself to such branches of 

 mechanics as he (Mr. Weston) had appeared to want ; 

 that he was then somewhere in Scotland, or in the north 

 of England, doing business in that line ; that what he 

 had to say of him further was, his never having known 

 him undertake anything but what he completed to the 

 satisfaction of those who employed him, and that Mr. 

 Weston might rely upon it, when the business was stated 

 to him, he would not undertake it unless he clearly saw 

 himself capable of performing it." 1 



This description seems to have been enough for Mr. 

 Weston, who immediately addressed Mr. Smeaton on 

 the subject. News then travelled so slowly, and the 

 particulars which had got abroad relating to the accident 

 at the Eddystone were so meagre, that Smeaton did not 

 know that the lighthouse had been totally destroyed. 

 When he at length received Mr. Weston' s letter, more 

 than a month after the accident, he fancied that it was 

 only the repair of some of the upper works that was 

 required of him, and he replied that he had engagements 



1 Smeaton's * Narrative,' &c., p. 38. 



