210 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
found, however, from the courteous reply of the secretary of 
the Archseological Institute, that Mr. Morgan died a year or 
two ago. 
What could have led to the perpetration of the mistake I 
cannot understand, unless some other lighthouse was burnt at the 
time named, but I have not been able to ascertain whether such 
was the case or not. It occurs in such works as Haydn's 
Universal Index of Biography, edition 1870, where, under the 
name of Smeaton, we are told that he " rebuilt Eddy stone Light- 
house in 1759. The woodwork burnt and replaced by stone 1770." 
Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, published in 1866, says the same 
in speaking of the lighthouse itself ; while the edition (I believe 
the original) of 1841 says of Smeaton's building, "Of this last, 
the woodwork was burnt in 1770, but it was afterwards renewed 
with stone, and has continued uninjured since 1774." 
Even the generally accurate Penny Cyclopaedia (1837) tells 
us that "the upper part of the building, constructed of wood, 
was burnt in 1770, and renewed in 1774." 
Barclay's New Universal Dictionary, published in 1835, only 
states that the present lighthouse was completed by Mr. Smeaton 
in 1774. 
Bees' s Cyclopaedia, 1819, and Brooke's Gazetteer, 1814, repeat the 
fuller notice ; and the earliest instance in which I have found it is 
in Oulton's Traveller's Guide, issued in 1805. 
Only one of our local guide-books assists in propagating this 
fiction. This was the Vieiv of Plymouth Dock, 1812, for a sight 
of which I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Brooking Eowe. 
This guide says, "It was erected by the ingenious Smeaton in 
the year 1774, and is the third lighthouse," &c. 
What has struck me as very curious is that Brindley's Plymouth, 
Devonport, and Stonehouse Directory, published at Devonport in 
1830, gives a very short but accurate account of the Eddystone 
and the building of the three lighthouses ; and in the list of 
chronological events, each of the two former is mentioned under 
the dates of its commencement, completion, and destruction ; and 
Smeaton's is mentioned as having been begun on June 1st, 1757, 
and finished in 1759. Curiously, however, against the meagre 
entry by Brindley of 1770 that "Joseph Tolcher was Mayor," a 
former owner of the copy now in our own library has written, 
" The Light House burnt ; " and this sentence has, in ink of 
