he had at first made it his business to
execute things in the instrument way (without ever having been bred to
the trade), yet on account of the merit of his performances he had
been chosen a member of the society; and that for about three years
past, having found the business of a philosophical instrument maker
not likely to afford an adequate recompence, he had wholly applied
himself to various branches of mechanics.' The earl went on to say
that this person was then in Scotland, or in the north of England, and
he should recommend the statement of the business to him, being fully
confident that he would undertake nothing which he did not feel
himself competent to perform.

The person thus referred to was John Smeaton, whose history, so far as
the scanty materials will allow, shall here be given to the reader.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: It was commonly said at the time, that during a hard gale
the sea ran so high that it was very possible for a six-oared boat to
be lifted by the waves, and driven through the open gallery of the
lighthouse.]

CHAPTER IV.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF SMEATON.

Birth of Smeaton--His early Character and Employments--Educated
for an attorney--His dislike of that profession--Becomes
Philosophical Instrument Maker--His Scientific Inquiries--Is
appointed to build the Eddystone Lighthouse--His subsequent
Employments--Public Works designed and completed by him--His
Literary Works--His last Illness and Death--His Character--
Illustrative Anecdotes.

John Smeaton was born the 28th of May, 1724, at Ansthorpe, near Leeds,
Yorkshire. Little is recorded of his parentage or early education: but
we find that his father was a respectable attorney, and that the
family lived in a house built by the grandfather of the younger
Smeaton.

Smeaton seems to have been born an engineer. The originality of his
genius and the strength of his understanding appeared at a very early
age. His playthings were not the toys of children, but the tools men
work with; and his greatest amusement was to observe artificers at
work, and to ask them questions. Having watched some millwrights at
work, he conceived the idea of constructing a windmill, and to the
alarm of his friends was one day perceived on the top of his father's
barn attempting to fix his model. On another occasion he accompanied
some men who went to fix a pump at a neighbouring village, and
observing them cut off a