40

INTERIOR OF THE LIGHTHOUSE.

On the ground-floor-Store-room, with a doorway, but no windows.

First stage, or story-Upper store-room, with two loopholed-windows.

Second stage-Kitchen, with fire-place and sink; two settles, with lockers; a dresser, with drawers; two cupboards; and a rack for dishes. Four windows.

Third stage-Bedroom, with three cabin-beds, each large enough for an adult; three drawers, and two lockers in each, to receive the clothing and other property of the light-keepers. Four

windows.

Fourth-Lantern, with circular bench, or seat. In fixing the window-bars, Smeaton met with an accident which might easily have been attended with fatal results. He thus describes the circumstances:

After the boat was gone, and it became so dark that we could not see any longer to pursue our occupations, I ordered a charcoal-fire to be made in the upper store-room, in one of the iron pots we used for melting lead, for the purpose of annealing the blank ends of the bars; and they were made hot all together in the charcoal. Most of the workmen were set round the fire; and by

A NARROW ESCAPE.

41

way of making ourselves comfortable, by screening ourselves and the fire from the wind, the windows were shut, and, as well as I remember, the copper cover or hatch put over the man-hole of the floor of the room where the fire was- -the hatch above being left open for the heated vapour to ascend. I remember to have looked into the fire attentively to see that the iron was made hot enough, but not overheated. I also remember I felt my head a very little giddy; but the next thing of which I had any sensation or idea was finding myself upon the floor of the room below, half drowned with water. It seems that, without being further sensible of anything to give me warning, the effluvia of the charcoal so suddenly overcame all sensation, that I dropped down upon the floor; and had not the people hauled me down to the room below, where they did not spare for cold water to throw in my face and upon me, I certainly should have expired upon the spot."

Smeaton, however, was reserved for useful service; and on the 16th of October the welcome light shone once more from the dreaded Eddystone Rock. And the storm-tossed mariner, as he saw in the distance its helpful ray, and was guided by it how to steer his course, gratefully

42

THE LIGHT ON THE ROCK.

acknowledged the genius and resolution of the man who had raised it above the whirl of waters, and planted it in a tower so fair and strong.

For more than a century it has withstood the storm, an enduring monument to the fame of its great architect. At times, when the billows roll in from the Atlantic with more than ordinary fury, and the white-crested waters come up the Channel under the impulse of a south-west gale, the lighthouse is shrouded in spray, and its flame for a moment obscured. But the shadow passes away, and again across the wild waves it shines like a signal-star. Occasionally, when a mighty wave strikes it, the central mass of water runs up the tall, shapely column, and leaps quite over the lantern; or it beats against the masonry, as if to topple it from its foundation, and the windows rattle, and the building seems smitten with a sharp shudder. But the wind dies down, and the sea grows calm, leaving the lighthouse firmly planted on its rock.

OHN SMEATON, one of the most distinguished of British engineers, was born at Austhorpe Lodge, near Leeds, on the 8th of June 1724.

His father was a respectable attorney, who came of an old Yorkshire family; his mother, a quick-witted, firm, gentle-mannered woman, was not unworthy of such a son. He was taught at home during his earlier years, and a happy home it was. Leeds, in those days, had not attained to its present immense proportions, and Austhorpe was completely in the country, sheltered by the noble park and overhanging woods of TempleNewsham. There was ample scope for the healthy, active boy, to indulge himself in his favourite pursuits, which had all of them a mechanical character. He was never so happy, says one of his

44

SMEATON'S EARLY YEARS.

biographers, as when put in possession of any cutting tool, by which he could make his little imitations of houses, pumps, and wind-mills. Even while still in petticoats, he was continually dividing circles and squares; and the only playthings in which he took a genuine pleasure were his working models. If any carpenters or masons chanced to be employed in the neighbourhood of Austhorpe, the boy was sure to find his way amongst them; and there he would spend hour after hour, watching the men at work, and observing how they handled their tools. Holmes tells us that, having one day taken due note of the operations of some mill-wrights, shortly afterwards, to the terror of his family, he was seen fixing a rude likeness of a wind-mill on the top of his father's barn.

Another time, when watching the procedure of a party of men engaged in refixing the village pump, he was fortunate enough to obtain from them a piece of bored pipe, which he succeeded in fastening into a working-pump that actually raised water.

At a proper age, the boy was sent to the Leeds grammar-school, where he received, it is supposed, the largest part of his school instruction. In geo