192 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
I have thought it best to present the subject in something like 
chronological sequence. 
To mariners the position of the Eddystone group of rocks (the 
gneiss of geologists) in the open Channel, nine or ten miles away 
from the nearest point of land, and in the direct track of home- 
ward-bound vessels, constitutes it a very special danger. Add to this 
that the various reefs stretch under water, at only a slight depth, 
for distances varying from a few hundred yards to nearly a mile, 
and that the natural slope of the rocks is towards the south-west, 
and it must be apparent (the prevailing winds blowing also from 
that quarter) that the waves are driven up the slope with con- 
stantly increasing force, until by the time they reach those peaks 
which are visible at low-water, and which are scattered over an area 
of about half an acre, they have acquired an almost resistless power. 
Eobert Mudie says that they "lie near the point where the 
strongest eddy of the bay holds conflict with the tide round the 
Lizard;" and an officer of the Trinity Corporation, writing of them 
in Good Words for 1882, points out that the dangers, even in 
moderate w r eather, are increased "by the uncertain, conflicting, and 
eddying movements of the tides" among these reefs, which he 
proceeds to say, " have always been sadly bewildering to mariners 
not familiar with the locality.' ' 
It is no wonder then that sailors, whose lot was cast in days 
before a warning light was placed upon the Eddystone, should 
have regarded it with such dread. With those who were home- 
ward-bound it was such an object of terror that, in the words 
of Smiles, "They were so afraid of running upon it unawares, 
that they entered the Channel on a much more southerly parallel 
of latitude than they now do, and in their solicitude to avoid this 
danger they too frequently ran foul of another, and hence were 
often wrecked on the French coasts, and more particularly on the 
dangerous rocks which surround the islands of Jersey, Guernsey, 
and Alderney." 
I have endeavoured to ascertain when these dangerous rocks 
were first mentioned in history, but have not yet succeeded in 
finding any earlier reference than that contained in William of 
Worcester's Itinerary, of the journey undertaken by him in the 
year 1478. This Itinerary, which was given to the public by 
Nasmith in a volume published in 1778, was written mainly in 
Latin of a quaint sort, and the original MS., preserved in the 
