CHAP. IV. SMEATON'S LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EDDYSTONE. 31 



Jessop the plan of the stone building which he had 

 already made. The foreman expressed his great surprise 

 on first looking at it, having made up his mind that the 

 lighthouse could only be reconstructed of wood. But he 

 readily admitted the superiority of a stone structure, 

 if it could be made to stand in so very exposed and 

 dangerous a situation. 



Mr. Smeaton was anxious to go off to the rock at 

 once ; but the wind had been blowing fresh for several 

 days, and there was so heavy a sea in the Channel, that 

 it was not until the 2nd of April that he could set sail. 

 On reaching the Eddystone, the sea was breaking upon 

 the landi'lig-place with such violence, that it was impos- 

 sible to land. All that Smeaton could do was to view 

 the cone of bare rock the mere crest of the mountain 

 whose base was laid so far down in the sea-deeps beneath 

 over which the waves were lashing, and to form a 

 more adequate idea of the very narrow as well as tur- 

 bulent site on which he was expected to erect his building. 

 Three days later he made a second voyage, and he 

 rejoiced on this occasion to be able to set his foot for 

 the first time upon the Eddystone. He stayed there for 

 more than two hours, and thoroughly examined the rock ; 

 being at length compelled to leave it by the sea, which 

 began to break over it as the tide rose. The only traces 

 that he could find of the two former lighthouses were 

 the iron branches fixed by Rudyerd, and numerous traces 

 of those fixed by Winstanley. On a third attempt to 

 make the rock, Mr. Smeaton was foiled by the wind, 

 which compelled him to re-land without even having got 

 within sight of it. After five more days during which 

 the engineer was occupied in looking out a proper site 

 for a work-yard, 1 and examining the granite in the neigh- 

 bourhood for the purposes of the building he made a 



1 The work-yard eventually fixed 

 upon was in a field adjacent to Mill 

 Bay, situated about midway between 



Plymouth and Devonport, behind 

 Drake's Island. 



