ΤΟ THE REV. 7. SIDNEY TYACKE, M.A., Vicar of Helston, and sometime Rector of S. Levan, Cornwall, The following Tale IS INSCRIBED WITH THE AFFECTION AND ESTEEM OF HIS SINCEre friend, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. IT may be of some interest to the readers of the following tale to know that many of the incidents related in it, highly improbable as they may seem, are strictly founded upon fact. The light was first exhibited in the Longships on the 29th September 1795, as related in the story. That one of the keepers of early days, who was left alone there, and had not been informed previously of the horrible noises caused by the pent-up air in the cavern below, became so terrified that his hair turned white in a single night, is a well-known fact. All the circumstances, also, relating to the little girl who was left alone in the lighthouse-her father, the keeper, having been purposely kidnapped and confined by wreckers-and who was reluctantly obliged to stand on the Family Bible to light the lamps, are perfectly authentic. The noble and heroic exploit of the young clergyman, related towards the close of the story, is so far true, that the incident really occurred at, or near the spot described. The hero, however, was not a parson, but a school. master. b It is, perhaps, as well to mention that the term "Methodist" was in former days used, not so much to denote any particular sect, but applied indiscriminately as a term of reproach to all earnestly religious people, whether Churchmen or Dissenters. It is in this sense that it is so frequently employed in our story. TORQUAY, February 1875. |