Westropp — On a Lantern or Fanal in the Isle of Wight. 141 



XX. — On a Lantern or Fanal on St. Catherine's Down, Isle of 

 "Wight. ByHoDDER M. Westropp, Esq., M.R.I. A. With Plates 

 VI. and VII. (Pol. Lit. & Antiq.) 



[Read May 27, 1872.] 



On showing my pamphlet on the Panaux de Cimetieres to a friend in 

 Ventnor, he informed me there was a Panal or Lantern similar to those 

 figured in it, on St. Catherine's Down, about seven miles from Ventnor. 

 As I was anxious to see any lantern of this kind which would tend to 

 confirm my theory in regard to the Pound Towers of Ireland, I 

 immediately went to St. Catherine's Down to see and make a sketch 

 of it. I was pleased to find that it does lend a strong countenance to 

 my view, as this lantern is built in connexion with a sepulchral 

 chapel, and is evidently a lantern of the dead, like those which occur 

 in Prance, a more particular account of which may be seen in Viollet le 

 Due's " Dictionnaired' Architecture," — article, " Lanteme desMorta." 



In the guide books it is styled a light-house for mariners, but its 

 connexion with a sepulchral chapel shows this to be a mistake. 



This lantern and chapel were erected in 1323 by Walter de Gody- 

 ton, who added an endowment for a priest to say masses for hiB own 

 soul, and the souls of his ancestors.* This tower is thus described by 

 Sir Henry Englefield (Isle of Wight, page 94) : — "It is of plain, not 

 neat, masonry, octagon without, and square within, and covered with 

 a pyramidal roof of stone. Just beneath the roof it is pierced with 

 eight small windows, whose openings diminish inwards, and all tend 

 to the centre of the building. This construction, which would have 

 been ill calculated for the admission of light from without, is per- 

 fectly well contrived for its diffusion from within. The height of 

 the turret from the ground is thirty-four feet six inches, and each side 

 of the octagon is four feet ; the space within is four feet square." 



There were three floors in the tower, one on a level with the base 

 of the upper door, seven feet above the ground. There are joist holes 

 of a second floor at thirteen feet above ground. At nineteen feet (above 

 ground) there is a projection on which the joists of the top chamber 

 must have rested. The ascent must have been by wooden ladders 

 from floor to floor. The projection of the stone roof is three inches. 



There are two doors to the tower, — one on a level with the ground, 

 six feet high, and another about eighteen inches over this, five feet eight 

 inches in height. See Plate VI., (Pol. Lit. & Antiq.), Pig. 2. 



A chapel, which was evidently a sepulchral chapel, from its being 

 used for saying masses for the dead, was built in connexion with the 



" And to provide lights at night to warn off ships from approaching too near 

 this dangerous coast — both duties performed till the Reformation." — Yenables' 

 "Isle of Wight."— Ed. 





