j EDDYSTONE LIGHT-HOUSE. 5QQ 
not surprising, therefore, that the dangers to which 
lij^^^tors were exposed by the Eddystone rocks should 
tnade a great ‘ commercial nation desirous to have 
'gitt-house erected on them. The wonder is that any 
should have had sufficient resolution to undertake 
ji^^'^otistruction. Such a man was, however, found in the 
of Mr. Henry Winstanley, of Littleburgh, in Essex, 
t(, ''j being furnished with the necessary powers to carry 
° desio ■ ■ ...... 
■igtj into execution,. 
entered on his undertaking in 
So certain was he 
0 f"“> and completed it in four years, 
w stability of his structure, that he declared it to be his 
Ml 
II * to be in it “ during the greatest storm which ever 
Lj Umier the face of the heavens.” In this wish he was 
V. 
too amply gratified; for while he was there with his 
ti,]j'.‘'toen and light-keepers, that dreadful storm began, 
* raged most violently on the night of the 26th of 
\>i,J®tober, 1703; and of all the accounts of the kind 
:'th 
'vhich history has furnished us, not any one has ex- 
;!'ied this 
^nsive 
in Great Ih'itain, nor has been more injurious or 
in its devastations. On the following morning. 
lij the storm was so much abated, that an enquiry could 
jj^^hiade, whether the lighthouse had suffered from it, not 
Ilf o’-^dirg appeared standing, with the exception of some 
large irons by which tlie work was fixed on the 
Of i nor were any of the people, nor any of the materials 
building, ever found afterwards. 
another light-house was built of wood, on a very 
•ti(.|,tont construction, by Mr. John lludyerd, then a silk- 
■ 'tor on Ludgate-hill. This very ingenious structure, 
irig braved the elements for forty-six years, was 
1 1755 . On the destruction of this 
, excellent mechanic and engineer, Mr. 
tlo ?toti, vvas selected as the fittest person to build another. 
ii."- ' ...... 
ijj'; 
Slii^L ground ii 
Ouse, that excel 
i some difficulty in persuading the proprietors, that 
building, properly constructed, would be in every 
^^'''^kerable to one of wood ; but having at length 
VMjtoed them, he turned his thoughts to die shape which 
jre most suitable to a building .so critically situated 
on the structure of die fonner buildings, it seem- 
4' 
s,‘«lii 
>1/"' 
oi a material improvement to procure, if possible, 
^gement of the base, without increasing the size of 
or that part of the building placed between the 
