, and expense, and all due and proper encouragement ought to be
given thereto; to the end therefore that the said Master, &c. may be
encouraged to new-erect and build, or cause to be new-erected and
built, the said lighthouse with all convenient speed, and constantly
keep and maintain the same for the benefit of the navigation and trade
of this kingdom, be it enacted, &c.' It then proceeds to enact the
payment of the duties above mentioned, and double on foreign vessels,
'from and after the kindling or placing a light useful for shipping in
the said lighthouse.' In 1706 a lease of ninety-nine years was granted
by the corporation of Trinity House to a Captain Lovet, who undertook
the management of the affairs connected with the building. The choice
Captain Lovet made of an engineer, or architect and surveyor, may seem
a strange one. He deputed to that office John Rudyerd, a silk-mercer
who kept a shop on Ludgate Hill.

It does not appear that this Rudyerd had been bred to any scientific
profession. On the contrary, it is reported that his parents and
family were vagrants, and notorious for the badness of their
characters; but that from something promising in the aspect of this
boy, a gentleman took him into his service, and gave him instruction
in reading, writing, accounts, and mathematics, in all which the boy
made ready progress; so that his master was enabled to gratify his
benevolent intention of advancing him in life, and recommending him to
some employment above the rank of a servant. Thus was laid the
foundation of his future success.

No doubt Captain Lovet had become well assured of the genius of this
man, ere he entrusted him with a work for which no previous experience
had qualified him. At any rate, the choice was a wise one. Rudyerd's
designs proved admirable, and his want of personal experience was in a
great degree supplied by the help of Messrs. Smith and Norcutt,
shipwrights from Woolwich, who worked with him the whole time.

Rudyerd saw the errors in Winstanley's building, and avoided them:
instead of a polygon, he chose a circle for the outline of his
building, and carried up the elevation in that form. He studied use
and simplicity instead of ornament; therefore he dispensed with the
open gallery and other unnecessary appendages of the former building.
After the completion of his work, Rudyerd published a print of his
lighthouse, entitled 'A Prospect and Section of the Lighthouse on the
Edystone R