rapid tides; and there being but indifferent creeks or
havens, both at the quarry and at the Start Point, it was found
necessary to make only the principal stones of hewn work, while the
body of the work was executed in rubble building, for which excellent
materials were at hand, consisting of a sort of sand-stone slate or
micaceous schist. The encroachments of the sea had heaped up immense
quantities of these stones at high-water mark all round the Start
Point, the shores of which appeared like the ruins of the wall of some
large city.

By the middle of the month of May sufficient materials were collected
for commencing the building. The workmen having expressed a wish to
have the foundation-stone of the beacon laid with masonic ceremony,
preparations were accordingly made. 'The year of our Lord 1802' was
cut upon the foundation-stone, in which a hole was perforated for
depositing a glass phial containing a small parchment-scroll, setting
forth the intention of the building, the official constitution of the
Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, and the name of their engineer.
It also contained several of the current coins of George III. in gold,
silver, and copper. The day fixed for the ceremony was the 15th of
May. The weather was dry and tolerably agreeable, though cold with
snow upon the ground; the thermometer stood at 35 deg. in the shade at
noon. The influx of so many strangers to the island for this work, and
the novelty of the intended ceremony, caused most of the inhabitants
to be present to witness it. Every thing being prepared, the engineer,
assisted by the foreman of the works, applied the square and
plummet-level to the foundation-stone in compliance with ancient
custom. The phial was then deposited in the cavity prepared for it in
the stone, and carefully covered up with sand, when the masonic
ceremony was concluded in the usual manner. The Rev. Walter Traill,
minister of the parish, then offered up a most impressive prayer,
imploring the blessing of heaven upon the intended purposes of the
building, and then delivered the following address:--

'This moment is auspicious. The foundation-stone is laid of a building
of incalculable value;--a work of use, not of luxury. Pyramids were
erected by the pride of kings, to perpetuate the memory of men, whose
ambition enslaved and desolated the world. But it is the benevolent
intention of our government, on this spot, to erect a tower--not to
exhaust, but to in