CHAP. VIIL THE BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE. 225 



Roads. The greater part were wrecked on the northern 

 coast ; and it was believed that many of them might 

 have been saved, had a light been fixed on the Bell 

 Rock to point out the entrances to the Friths of Forth 

 and Tay. Among the other lamentable shipwrecks 

 which took place on the Inchcape about the same time, 

 was that of the York, a seventy-four-gun ship, which 

 went down with all her crew. The reef was also a 

 constant source of danger to the shipping of Dundee, 

 then rising in importance, as it lay right in the main 

 track of vessels making the mouth of the Tay from the 

 German Ocean. 



Many were the plans suggested for a lighthouse on 

 the Bell Rock. In 1799 Captain Brodie submitted to 

 the Commissioners of Northern Lights his design of a 

 cast iron tower, to be supported on four pillars ; but it 

 was not adopted. In the mean time temporary beacons 

 of timber were employed ; but these rarely stood the 

 storms of a single winter ; and three successive struc- 

 tures of this kind were completely swept away. Mr. 

 Robert Stevenson and Mr. Downie also proposed plans 

 for the consideration of the Board between 1800 and 

 1804 ; but neither of them was adopted. Considerable 

 diversity of opinion continuing to exist, the Commis- 

 sioners determined to employ Mr. Renriie to examine 

 the site and report as to the best course to be pursued. 

 He accordingly proceeded to Scotland, and visited the 

 Inchcape on the 17th of August, 1805, in company 

 with Mr. Hamilton, one of the Commissioners, and 

 Mr. Stevenson, their surveyor. 



After mature deliberation, he sent in his report on 

 the 30th of December following. The purport of it 

 was, a recommendation to erect a substantial light- 

 house of stone, similar to that on the Eddystone, 

 as being, in his opinion, the only structure calculated 

 to meet the necessities of the case. He regarded a 

 wooden building as objectionable, because of the perish- 



VOL. II. Q 



