above the low water mark of spring tides, and being wholly covered by the water when the tide has flowed but a short time, its dangerous effects have been long and severely felt, and the want of some distinguishing mark to point out its place, has been lamented with the occurrence of every shipwreck upon the coast. But until commerce had made considerable advances towards its present state, the erection of a light-house could not be undertaken, as the ships frequenting those seas were not sufficiently numerous to afford the probability of raising an adequate revenue, by a small duty or tonnage upon each vessel, Tradition, however, informs us, that so long ago as the fourteenth century, the monks of Aberbrothwick caused a large bell to be hung upon the rock, in such a manner that the waves of the sea gave it motion, by which means warning was given to the mariner of the vicinity of the rock. In this way the name Bell Rock is said to have arisen. Such a bell must soon have been swept away by the raging sea; and centuries elapsed without any effectual steps being taken for distinguishing the rock. In the year 1786, when the increasing state of trade, upon the coast of Scotland, made the want of light-houses be more generally felt, a bill was brought into parliament appointing commissioners, and granting certain duties upon shipping, for the erection of light-houses upon the northern parts of Great Britain. In virtue of those powers the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses immediately proceeded to the general improvement of the coast, on which they erected nine light-houses in the course of seventeen years, still keeping in view the great object of erecting one on the Bell Rock. In

1799 a dreadful storm from S. S. E. occasioned the loss of about 70 vessels, with many of their crews, upon the east coast of Scotland, which more especially directed the atten tion of the commissioners to this rock; the fear of which was the unfortunate cause why many of these vessels did not then enter the Frith of Forth, for which the wind was favourable.

About this period various measures were concerted, and, in the year 1803, the Hon. Charles Hope, then Lord Advocate of Scotland, and ex officio one of the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses, with the late Sir William Pulteney, Bart. brought forward a bill making provision for the erection of this lighthouse; which bill was afterwards lost in the house of lords. The commissioners, however, still persevered; and in 1806 a bill passed in both houses of parliament under the auspices of the then Lord Advocate, the Hon. Henry Erskine, aided by Sir John Sinclair, Baronet. By this bill the northern light duty, of three-halfpence per ton upon British, and three pence per ton upon foreign bottoms, was allowed to be extended to all vessels bound to or from any of the ports between Peterhead in the north, and Berwick upon Tweed in the south, and the commissioners were empowered to borrow 25,0001. from the three per cent consols, which, with 20,000l. which they possessed, made a disposable fund of 45,000l., to go on with the work.

Provision having been made in the bill for the establishment of a floating light to ride off the rock while the light-house was building, a vessel for this purpose was fitted out in the most substantial manner, agreeably to the advice and opinion of Captains Grin

lay, Hay, and other members of the Trinity-house, Leith, and moored in the month of July 1807, about two miles in a north-east direction from the rock, and in 22 fathoms water. A very heavy cast-iron mushroom anchor, recommended for this purpose by Captain Huddard of the Trinityhouse, London, was employed; to this anchor the ship was attached by a very strong chain and cable. This vessel was furnished with three masts, on each of which was suspended a large copper lanthorn, glazed with polished plate glass. These lanthorns were furnished, in all, with thirty lights, behind each of which a small silver-plated reflector was placed. The floating light was thus distinguished by her three lanthorns from the double and single lights upon the coast. Soon after the storm of 1799, already alluded to, several plans and models for the erection of a lighthouse upon the Bell Rock had been submitted to the consideration of the Commissioners of the Northern Lights. Captain Brodie of the Royal Navy, well known for his ardent zeal in this measure, prepared several very ingenious models for a cast-iron lighthouse, and even constructed a beacon, consisting of four spars of timber, which stood for several months upon the rock: And the late Mr Murdoch Downie, author of the Marine Survey of the East Coast of Scotland, brought forward a plan for erecting a light-house to stand upon pillars of stone. Mr Stevenson, engineer to the commissioners, having constructed various models for this work, made a survey of the rock in the year 1800, and his report was afterwards published by the board, along with a letter from the Hon. Captain, now Admiral Cochrane, who had called the attention of the Commissioners of the Northern

Lights to this important subject in the year 1793. So different, however, were the opinions of the public about the practicability of the work, and still more regarding the kind of building best suited to the circumstances of the case, that, where so large a sum of money was necessarily to be expended, the commissioners judged it proper to submit the subject to the opinion of Mr Rennie. This eminent engineer coincided with Mr Stevenson in thinking, that a building of stone, upon the principles of the Eddystone Light-house, was both practicable, and advisable at the Bell Rock; and to these gentlemen was committed the execution of this great undertaking.

The bill for the erection of the light-house passed late in the session of 1806, and during the following winter materials were ordered from the granite quarries of Aberdeenshire for the outside casing of the first or lower 30 feet of the building: and blocks of freestone for the inside work and higher parts were brought from the quarry of Mylnfield, near Dundee. At Arbroath, where the stones were collected and hewn previously to their being taken off to the rock, a work-yard was procured on a lease of seven years, it being then thought that most of that time would be employed in the underta king; here working-shades, and barracks for lodging the artificers when they landed from the rock, were erected. The work commenced at the Bell Rock in the month of August, 1807.

Little was done towards preparing for the scite of the building this season, the first object being to get up some temporary erection on the rock, as a place of refuge to fly to in the event of an accident befall

ing any of the attending boats, a circumstance which, if unprovided for, would have involved the safety of every person upon the rock. As the work could only be proceeded with at low water af spring tides, and as three hours were considered a good tide's work, it became necessary to embrace every opportunity of favourable weather, as well in the day tides as under night by torch-light, and upon Sundays; for when the flood tide advanced upon the rock, the workmen were obliged to collect their tools and go into the attending boats, which often, not without the utmost difficulty, were rowed to the floating light, where they remained till the rock began to appear next ebb-tide. Happily no accident occurred to check the ardour of working, and by the latter end of October the operations were brought to a close for the season. A beacon was now finished, consisting of 12 large beams of timber ranged in a circle, having a common base of 30 feet, and rising to a height of 50 feet; at the top the beams were gathered together, and terminated in a point; below they were strongly connected with the rock by iron batts and chains. The upper part, which in moderate weather stood above the reach of the sea, was afterwards fitted up, and possess ed during the working months as a barrack for the artificers, a smith's shop, and other necessary purposes; and being situated near the stone building, it was at last connected with it-by a bridge, or gang-way, which, in the progress of the work, was likewise of great service in facilitating the raising of the materials. Unless such an expedient as this beacon-house had been resorted to, the possibility of at all erecting a light-house upon

VOL. II. PART II.

the rock is extremely doubtful; it must at any rate have required a much longer period for its accomplishment, and without the beacon-house there would in all probability have been the loss of many lives.

The operations of the second year were commenced at as early a period as the weather would permit ; and to avoid the great personal risk, and excessive fatigue of rowing the boats to the floating light, an additional vessel was provided solely for the purpose of attending the work. This vessel could be loosened from her moorings at pleasure, and taken to the lee-side of the rock, where in foul weather she might take the artificers and attending boats on board, which could not be done by the floating light. This tender was a very fine schooner of eighty tons, named the Sir Joseph Banks, in compliment to the illustrious president of the Royal Society, who, ever ready in the cause of public improvement, had lent his aid in procuring the loan from government for carrying the work into execution. Thus provided with a place of safety on the rock in the beacon-house, and a tender always ready in case of necessity, the work went forward even in pretty blowing weather, and by struggling both during day and night tides, early in July the scite of the light-house was cut sufficiently deep into the rock, and wrought to a level. Part of the castiron railways was fixed for conveying the large blocks of stone along the rock, and other necessary preparations being made, the foundation-stone was laid upon Sunday the 10th July, 1808. By the latter end of September, the operations of a second season were brought to a fortunate conclusion, by the finishing of the four

M

first and heaviest courses of the building, which brought it to the height of five feet six inches.

In the spring of the following year, the operations were again resumed, and it was no small happiness to those concerned to find, that of the four courses built upon the rock, not a single stone had in the least shifted, after a long and severe winter. The arrangements previous to the landing of any materials on the rock, were to lay down moorings for the various vessels and praam boats employed in the service of the rock; to erect machinery for receiving the stones from the praam boats, and cranes for taking them from the railways and laying them into their places on the building. With an apparatus thus appointed, the light-house was got to the height of 30 feet by the month of September, 1809, which completed the solid part of the building, and in this state things were again left for the winter months.

From the much greater height to which the materials were to be raised as the work advanced, and the small accommodation for keeping any stock of building-materials on the walls, while the landing of the stones from the boats was still confined to be the work of a few hours at low water of spring tides, it remained a matter of great uncertainty whether it were possible to overtake the raising of the whole 70 feet above the solid, in one season. The work was therefore begun as early in the third season as possible; and, by unremitting exertions, and a train of fortunate circumstances, the building of the lighthouse was brought to a conclusion in the month of December, 1810, and lighted up for the first time on the evening of the 1st February, 1811. The floating light vessel, formerly

mentioned, was then unmoored and removed.

We have now given a general historical account of the erection of the Bell Rock Light-house, and shall next mention its principal dimensions, and state some interesting circumstances connected with it.

The foundation stone of the lighthouse is nearly on a level with low water of ordinary spring tides, and consequently at high water of these tides the building is immersed about fifteen feet; but during the progress of the work, the sea spray has been observed to rise upon the light-house to the height of 90 feet, even in the month of July. The building is of a circular form, composed of blocks of stone, from one half ton to between two and three tons weight each. The ground course measures 42 feet diameter, from which it diminishes as it rises; and at the top, where the mason-work finishes and the light-room commences, it measures 13 feet diameter. Here the cornice forms a walk or balcony round the outside of the light-room. The stone building measures 100 feet in height; but the total height of the light-house, including the light-room, is 115 feet. As far up as the entrance-door, which is 30 feet from the ground course, the building is entirely solid, excepting a small hole cut in the centre stones for the drop of the weight of the machinery. The ascent to the entrance-door is by a kind of rope ladder, which is hung out at ebb tide, and again taken into the building when the water covers the rock. A narrow passage leads from the door to the stair-case. The stair-case oc cupies 13 feet of the building immediately above the solid part. Here the walls are seven feet thick, but they regularly become thinner all

the way to the top. The remaining 57 feet of mason-work is divided by five stone floors into rooms for the light-keepers and stores, which communicate with each other by wooden ladders. It being proper to have nothing of a combustible nature about the light-room, the ladders there are of iron. The three lower apartments have each two small windows, and the upper rooms have each four windows; the whole being provided with strong shutters to defend the glass against the sea in

storms.

The two first courses of the build. ing are entirely sunk into the rock. The stones of all the courses are dove-tailed, and let into each other in such a manner, that each course forms one connected mass from the centre to the circumference; and the successive courses are attached to each other by joggles of stone, upon the plan of the Eddystone Light-house formerly alluded to; and while the building was still amongst the water, two trenail holes were bored through each stone, and entering six inches into the course below: Oaken trenails of two inches diameter were driven into these holes, which effectually kept the stones from shifting till the stones of the next course were laid. The cement used at the Bell Rock was a mixture of lime, pozzolano earth, and sand; and that it might as much as possible resemble the mortar used at the Eddystone with so much success, the lime was brought from the very same quarry in Wales. Round the balcony of the lightroom, there is a cast-iron rail, curiously wrought like net-work, which rests upon batts of brass; and the rail has a massive coping of the same metal. The light-room is of an octagon form, 12 feet diameter, and 15 feet in height,

constructed chiefly of cast-iron, with a dome roof of copper; and the window sashes all round are glazed with polished plate glass, which is one quarter of an inch in thickness. In one of the lower apartments, or the kitchen, there is an iron grate or open fire-place, with a metal tube for conveying the smoke to the top of the light-room, which heats the several rooms through which it passes. This grate and chimney merely touch the building, without being included or built up in the walls.

The light is very powerful, and has been seen from a ship's deck fully 20 miles from the rock. It is from oil, with argand burners, placed in the focus of silver-plated reflectors, hollowed to the parabolic curve. That the Bell Rock light may be readily distinguished by the mariner from all others on the coast, the reflectors are ranged upon a frame, which is made to revolve upon a perpendicular axis once in three minutes. Between the observer and the reflectors, on one side of the frame, shades of red glass are interposed, in such a manner, that during each entire revolution of the frame with the reflectors, two distinctly different appearances are produced, the one a common bright light, and the other, or shaded side, having the rays tinged red; and these lights alternate, with intervals of dark. ness.

As a further warning to the mariner, two large bells are tolled day and night during the continuance of foggy or snowy weather, by the same machinery which moves the lights. As these bells in moderate weather may be heard considerably beyond the limits of the rock, a vessel may by this means be prevented from running upon the rock during fogs, a disaster which might otherwise hap