THE EDDYSTONE : FACTS AND FICTIONS. 
203 
by birth a Cornishman, who, having ran away from home as 
a boy, had been received into a gentleman's service at Plymouth, 
and had by him been afforded some amount of education. In 
his design he discarded all the ornamental accessories which 
formed so prominent a feature of Winstanley's building, and 
erected a building with a perfectly plain surface, in the form of 
a frustrum of a cone. 
To assist him in the work two shipwrights from the King's 
Yard at Woolwich were appointed, and the influence of their 
training was apparent in the fact that the building was really 
constructed as a piece of shipwrights' work. 
Although courses of moorstone, or granite, were alternated 
with balks of timber in the lower solid portion of the building, 
they served only the purpose of ballast. Besides the simplicity 
of Eudyerd's design, the principal improvement he made was by 
cutting the sloping surface of the rock into steps to obtain a 
level foundation. He began the work at the rock in July, 1706 ; 
a light was exhibited on July 28th, 1708; and the building was 
completely finished in October, 1709. 
At one period of this work he was met with a difficulty. His 
men objected to go out, because of the dangers assumed to exist 
of attacks being made on them by privateers or other more 
regular means on the part of the French, with whom England 
was then at war. This no doubt arose out of the incident 
which was recorded from hearsay by Mr. Smeaton, and, follow- 
ing him, by most of the writers who have had occasion to 
describe the various buildings erected in succession upon the 
Eddystone. 
Smeaton relates the episode thus : 
" Louis the Fourteenth being at war with England during the 
proceeding with this building, a French privateer took the men at 
work upon the Edystone Rock together with their tools, and 
carried them to France, and the captain was in expectation of a 
reward for the achievement. While the captives lay in prison, 
the transaction reached the ears of that monarch : he immediately 
ordered them to be released, and the captors to be put in their 
places ; declaring, that though he was at war with England, he 
was not so with mankind. He therefore directed the men to be 
sent back to their work with presents ; observing that the Edy- 
stone lighthouse was so situated as to be of equal service to all 
nations having occasion to navigate the Channel." 
vol. x. p 
