a most important and
heroic step accomplished. Mankind were now convinced that the erection
of a building upon the Eddystone rocks was not an impracticable thing,
though long deemed so; and if experience now proved that the shock of
the surges was augmented, by the interposition of the building, to a
furious extent, it also led the way to further trials and expedients
to counteract that shock.

In November 1703 Mr. Winstanley went down to Plymouth to superintend
some repairs that had become necessary to the lighthouse; and when he
was about to proceed with his workmen to the spot, some of his
friends, convinced from the structure of the lighthouse that it could
not last long, ventured to intimate their suspicions to him, and to
warn him of danger. His reply was, that he felt so convinced of the
strength of his building, that he only wished he might be there in the
greatest storm that ever blew under the face of heaven, that he might
see what effect it would have upon the structure. It is painful to
record this presumptuous wish, and still more so to relate its
fulfilment.

Mr. Winstanley with his work-people and light-keepers had taken up
their abode at the lighthouse, when a dreadful storm began, and in the
night of the 26th of November reached a terrific height. Indeed of all
the accounts which history furnishes of storms in Great Britain, none
is to be found of a more awful and devastating nature than this.
Plymouth itself suffered severely; and when morning came, and the
height of the tempest was past, there was an eager look out in the
direction of the lighthouse, to see what injury it might have
sustained. But the waters rushed on over the Eddystone rocks, no
longer impeded by the lofty structure that had been reared with such
pains and cost. Winstanley, his work-people, his light-keepers, his
boasted structure--all had been swept away by the resistless fury of
the winds and waves; and not only this, but a homeward-bound vessel,
the 'Winchelsea,' deprived of the warning light that might have
averted her fate, struck upon these rocks, and lost nearly her whole
crew. This lamentable event is detailed in most of the public papers
of the day; and the loss to the nation, as it respected Winstanley
himself, who was deemed the only person able to reconstruct the
edifice, deeply deplored.

Three years elapsed ere the necessary steps were taken fur commencing
anew this most useful work. It appears from this that some