CHAP. VIII. 



THE BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE. 



223 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE BELL EOCK LIGHTHOUSE. 



ABOUT eleven miles eastward from the mainland of 

 Scotland, near the entrances to the Friths of Forth and 

 Tay, lies an extensive ledge of rocks, which for a long 

 time was the terror of the seamen navigating that coast. 

 It is nearly two miles in length, being the crest of a 

 mountain rising from the sea bottom, only a small part 

 of which is visible at high water. This sunken reef was 

 a source of such peril, that, as early as the fourteenth 

 century, the Abbot of Arbroath caused a bell to be 

 placed upon the principal rock, the swinging of which 

 by the motion of the weaves warned seamen of its dan- 

 gers ; and from this circumstance it came to be called 

 the Bell Eock. It is affirmed that a notorious pirate, 

 in order to plague the Abbot, cut the bell from the rock, 

 but was himself afterwards wrecked on the very spot ; 

 and on this tradition Southey founded his beautiful 

 ballad of < Ealph the Rover.' 1 * 



Nothing was done to replace the bell, or to set a 

 beacon upon the reef; and it remained in its dangerous 

 state the Eddystone of the northern seas until the 

 beginning of the present century, when the increasing 



1 The following is the tradition as 

 given by an old writer : " By the 

 east of the Isle of May, twelve miles 

 from all land in the German Sea, 

 lyes a great hidden rock called Inch- 

 cape, very dangerous to the navi- 

 gators, because it is overflowed every 

 tide. It is reported that, in old times, 

 there was upon the said rock a bell, 

 fixed upon a tree or timber, which 



rang continually, being moved by the 

 sea, giving notice to the saylors of the 

 danger. This bell or clocke was put 

 there by the Abbot of Aberbrothock, 

 and, being taken down by a sea- 

 pirate, a yeare thereafter he perished 

 upon the same rock, with ship and 

 goodes, by the righteous judgment of 

 God." Stoddart's ' Kemarks on Scot- 

 land.' 



