melancholy, slow," where the walk is limited to the circle of the gallery-*railing, or the diameter of the lighthouse column; where the only incidents are the inspections of the committee, the visits of the district superintendent, or the monthly relief which takes the men back to shore. At these stations, when the sea is making fun of them, it sweeps up clean over the roof, and makes the lantern-glasses ring again, and in calmer weather the men may creep carefully out upon the rock to solace themselves with a little fishing; or if of more nervous temperament, may do it, as Winstanley did, with greater security from the kitchen window.
Not but what some people like that sort of life. Smeaton tells a story of a shoemaker who went out as light-keeper to the Eddystone because he did not like confinement, having found himself in effect a greater prisoner at his lapstone than he would be at the rock; but then Smeaton confesses a few pages farther on that at times the keepers have been so short of provisions as to be compelled to eat the candles.
In the old days of private proprietorship, when every owner had his system of management, and when the desire to make a profit set the aims of efficiency and economy into antagonism, exceptional cases of very terrible tragic significance occasionally occurred. For instance, here is a letter from the heroic fiddle-maker himself, dated "Smalls, 1st February, 1777," written in triplicate, put into a corked bottle, and that into a cask inscribed, "Open this, and you will find a letter:"—
"To Mr. Williams.
"Smalls, February 1st, 1777.
"Sir,—Being now in a most dangerous and distressed condition upon the Smalls, do hereby trust Providence will bring to your hand this, which prayeth for your immediate assistance to fetch us off the Smalls before the next spring, or we fear we shall perish; our water near all gone, our fire quite gone, and our house in a most melancholy manner. I doubt not but you will fetch us from here as fast as possible; we can be got off at some part of the tide almost any weather. I need say no more, but remain your distressed,
"Humble servant,
"Hy. Whiteside.
"We were distressed in a gale of wind upon the 13th of January, since which have not been able to keep any light; but we could not have kept any light above sixteen nights longer for want of oil and candles, which make us murmur and think we are forgotten.
"Ed. Edwardes.
"Geo. Adams.
"Jno. Price.
"We doubt not but that whoever takes up this will be so merciful as to cause it to be sent to Thos. Williams, Esq., Trelethin, near St. David's, Wales."
Again, a quarter of a century later, the watch was kept by two keepers;
and for four months the weather shut them off from all communication
with the land. The method of talking by signals was not developed any-*where
into the complete system it has now become, and does not appear to
have been in use at all among the lighthouse people; but in the course of
a week or two after the storm had set in, it was rumoured at several of the
western ports that something was wrong at the Smalls. Passing vessels
