THE EDDYSTONE : FACTS AND FICTIONS. 
193 
library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, was kindly examined 
for me two years since by the courteous librarian, the Kev. S. S. 
Lewis, f.s.a. As regards the portion I am about to quote, Mr. 
Lewis says that the transcript from Nasmith (which was sent to 
him for verification) "has faithfully reproduced "William of 
Worcester's spelling throughout." 
In his MS. William groups together the information which he 
obtained from his own observation, and from well-informed persons 
whom he met, and places it under various heads, as Rivers, Islands, 
Towns, &c. • and among the Islands connected with Devon and 
Cornwall he thus describes our subject : " Insula parva, anglice a 
rok, vocata Edestone," &c. ; or, to give it in Mr. Worth's transla- 
tion, as published in the Transactions of the Devonshire Association 
for 1886 : " A little island, in English a rock, called Eddystone, 
is situated south and north opposite to Plymouth, otherwise called 
the foreland of Eame open upon Plymouth, and it lies about 
fifteen miles in the narrow sea " (off). 
The next reference to that of William of Worcester appears in a 
work preserved in the Bodleian Library. It is entitled a Safe- 
guard for Sailors ; or, The Butter of the Sea, by Robert Norman. 
It was published in London in 1584, and describes the reef as "a 
rocke which is called Edie-stone, and it lies south-west southerly 
from the Howe of Plimouth." 
Camden in his great work, the Britannia, the first edition of 
which was published in 1586, is the next to notice the Eddystone. 
Its dangerous nature is well recognized by him, for he characterizes 
Ideston, as he calls it, together with Long shippes, as " Scopulos 
potius infames quam insulas," &c, which Bishop Gibson translates 
as " rather infamous rocks than islands." 
This brings us very near to the great event in English history, 
of which the Tercentenary was so widely celebrated last year, and 
a worthy memorial of which will soon grace our Plymouth Hoe. 
Of the various genuine accounts of the events which happened 
during the opening days of the conflict, the earliest is that 
entitled, A Discourse concerninge the Spanish Fleete inuadinge 
Englande in the year 1588. The original of this was written by 
Petruccio Ubaldino, of Florence ; and when translated into 
English by A. Ryther, was published " at his shop, being a little 
from Leadenhall, next to the sign of the Tower," in the year 1590. 
A copy of this work forms part of the second volume of the 
