ce to all nations having occasion to
navigate the channel that divides France from England, and he
therefore directed the men to be sent back to their work with
presents.

The value of the principles on which Rudyerd had conducted his work
was abundantly proved by the fact, that his lighthouse continued to
brave the force of the storms for upwards of forty-six years, and at
the end of that period was destroyed, not by water, but by fire. This
sad calamity happened on the 2nd of December, 1755. It has never been
possible fully to investigate the cause of the building taking fire,
but it appears to have commenced in the very top of the lantern or
cupola. As the whole building was of wood, it is possible that the
heat of the candles in the lantern, continued during the long period
of between forty and fifty years, might have brought the thin boards
which lined the cupola to such a state of dryness and inflammability,
that, together with the soot which encrusted it, and which was formed
from the smoke of the candles, it might have been as liable to take
fire as a mass of tinder, and a single spark from one of the candles
would be sufficient to effect the mischief. The light-keepers
themselves attributed the fire to the copper funnel of the kitchen
chimney which passed through the cupola. However this might be, the
three light-keepers alone remained in the edifice, and when one of
them, whose turn it was to watch, went into the lantern at about two
o'clock in the morning to snuff the candles he found a dense smoke,
and upon his opening the door of the lantern into the balcony, a flame
instantly burst from the inside of the cupola. The man alarmed his
companions, and they used their utmost endeavours to extinguish the
fire, but on account of the difficulty of getting a sufficient supply
of water to the top of the building, they soon found their efforts
vain, and were obliged to retreat downwards from room to room as the
fire gathered strength. Early in the morning the fire was perceived by
some fishermen, and intelligence being given, a boat and men were sent
out to the relief of the poor light-keepers. The boat reached the
place at ten o'clock, after the fire had been burning eight hours. The
light-keepers had been driven not only from all the rooms and the
staircase, but to avoid the red hot timber, and the falling of the
bolts upon them, they had been forced to creep into a hole or cave on
the east side of the rock, where