t the rock with the tender and went ashore, as some
arrangements were to be made for the future conduct of the works at
Arbroath, which were soon to be brought to a close; the landing-master's
crew having, in the meantime, shifted on board of the _Patriot_. In
leaving the rock, the writer kept his eyes fixed upon the lighthouse,
which had recently got into the form of a house, having several tiers or
stories of windows. Nor was he unmindful of his habitation in the
beacon--now far overtopped by the masonry,--where he had spent several
weeks in a kind of active retirement, making practical experiment of the
fewness of the positive wants of man. His cabin measured not more than
four feet three inches in breadth on the floor; and though, from the
oblique direction of the beams of the beacon, it widened towards the
top, yet it did not admit of the full extension of his arms when he
stood on the floor; while its length was little more than sufficient for
suspending a cot-bed during the night, calculated for being triced up to
the roof through the day, which left free room for the admission of
occasional visitants. His folding table was attached with hinges,
immediately under the small window of the apartment, and his books,
barometer, thermometer, portmanteau, and two or three camp-stools,
formed the bulk of his movables. His diet being plain, the paraphernalia
of the table were proportionally simple; though everything had the
appearance of comfort, and even of neatness, the walls being covered
with green cloth formed into panels with red tape, and his bed festooned
with curtains of yellow cotton-stuff. If, in speculating upon the
abstract wants of man in such a state of exclusion, one were reduced to
a single book, the Sacred Volume--whether considered for the striking
diversity of its story, the morality of its doctrine, or the important
truths of its gospel--would have proved by far the greatest treasure.

Monday, 2nd July.

In walking over the workyard at Arbroath this morning, the writer found
that the stones of the course immediately under the cornice were all in
hand, and that a week's work would now finish the whole, while the
intermediate courses lay ready numbered and marked for shipping to the
rock. Among other subjects which had occupied his attention to-day was a
visit from some of the relations of George Dall, a young man who had
been impressed near Dundee in the month of February last; a dispute had
arisen