PLAN OF THE -16TH COURSE. SHOWING THE 

 METHOD OF DOVETAILING. 



44 SMEATON'S LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EDDYSTONE. PART VI. 



tern. Eound the upper store-room, upon the course 

 under the ceiling, had been cut, at an earlier period, 



" Except the Lord build 

 the house, they labour 

 in vain that build it." 

 The iron work of the 

 balcony and the lan- 

 thernwere next erected, 

 and over all the gilt ball, 

 the screws of which 

 Smeaton fixed with his 

 own hands, " that in 

 case," he says, " any of 

 them had not held quite 

 tight and firm, the cir- 

 cumstance might not 

 have been slipped over 

 without my knowledge." Moreover, this piece of work 

 was dangerous as well as delicate, being performed 

 at a height of some hundred and twenty feet above 

 the sea. Smeaton fixed the screws while standing on 

 four boards nailed together, resting on the cupola ; his 

 assistant, Roger Cornthwaite, placing himself on the 

 opposite side, so as to balance his weight whilst he pro- 

 ceeded with the operation. 



The engineer's work was now so nearly ended, and 

 his anxiety had become so great, that he could not leave 

 it, but took up his abode in the lighthouse, putting his 

 own hands to the finishing of the window-fittings (for 

 skilled workmen were difficult to be had at the light- 

 house) and seeing to the minutest details in the execution 

 of the undertaking. At length the lantern was glazed, 

 the lightning-conductor fixed, the rooms were fitted up, 

 and the builder looked upon the work of his hands all 

 finished and complete. The light was first exhibited on 

 the night of the 16th of October, 1759, and the column 

 still stands as firm as on the day on which it was 



