ndon, even
in 1807. It is pretty, too, to observe with what affectionate regard
Smeaton was held in mind by his immediate successors. "Poor old fellow,"
writes Rennie to Stevenson, "I hope he will now and then take a peep at
us, and inspire you with fortitude and courage to brave all difficulties
and dangers to accomplish a work which will, if successful, immortalise
you in the annals of fame." The style might be bettered, but the
sentiment is charming.

Smeaton was, indeed, the patron saint of the Bell Rock. Undeterred by
the sinister fate of Winstanley, he had tackled and solved the problem
of the Eddystone; but his solution had not been in all respects perfect.
It remained for my grandfather to outdo him in daring, by applying to a
tidal rock those principles which had been already justified by the
success of the Eddystone, and to perfect the model by more than one
exemplary departure. Smeaton had adopted in his floors the principle of
the arch; each therefore exercised an outward thrust upon the walls,
which must be met and combated by embedded chains. My grandfather's
flooring-stones, on the other hand, were flat, made part of the outer
wall, and were keyed and dovetailed into a central stone, so as to bind
the work together and be positive elements of strength. In 1703
Winstanley still thought it possible to erect his strange pagoda, with
its open gallery, its florid scrolls and candlesticks: like a rich man's
folly for an ornamental water in a park. Smeaton followed; then
Stevenson in his turn corrected such flaws as were left in Smeaton's
design; and with his improvements, it is not too much to say the model
was made perfect. Smeaton and Stevenson had between them evolved and
finished the sea-tower. No subsequent builder has departed in anything
essential from the principles of their design. It remains, and it seems
to us as though it must remain for ever, an ideal attained. Every stone
in the building, it may interest the reader to know, my grandfather had
himself cut out in the model; and the manner in which the courses were
fitted, joggled, trenailed, wedged, and the bond broken, is intricate as
a puzzle and beautiful by ingenuity.

In 1806 a second Bill passed both Houses, and the preliminary works were
at once begun. The same year the Navy had taken a great harvest of
prizes in the North Sea, one of which, a Prussian fishing dogger,
flat-bottomed and rounded at the stem and stern, was purchased to be a
fl