and perhaps eight hundred in length. It completely perforates a projecting promontory, the part of the coast, indeed, which we had been skirting, on which our principal observations on the birds had been made. A boat can go right through, but only at high water, because there is a rock in the midst of the course, which, at any other state of the tide, leaves too narrow a channel on either side. But the most interesting fact connected with the cavern is, that a spring of fresh-water is said to rise in its centre, bubbling up through the sea-water that overlays its mouth. Mr. Heaven could not vouch for this on personal observation; but the well-known occurrence of similar phenomena renders credence in this case no great difficulty. The breaking of the sea into the mouth of the cave, narrowed as it is, and the reverberation of its hollow roar from the sides of the chasm, were particularly grand and striking.

PUBLIC DEBT.

IN a former article there was given an account of the amount of the debt, and of the interest paid during the period from 1822 to the end of 1851; it was stated that in the course of a few years, the annual charge would undergo a diminution exceeding 3,000,000l. The following table will show how this diminution will be effected :

1854, Oct. 10. Saved by reduction of 3 per

1859, Oct. 10.

1860, Jan. 5.

Cents. into 3 per Cents.

Annuities for terms of years to

Per Annum.

£.

600,000

306,000

306,000

1,293,500

302,000

400,000

585,700

£3,793,200

Proportion of Tontine and other

Life Annuities that will probably
fall in during the next ten years

FOUNDLING HOSPITALS.

THESE institutions are founded on most mistaken principles: they are intended to relieve indigent parents from the burden of their children; while in reality they deprive the children of the maternal and paternal care which the providence of God had awarded them. The annals of these institutions give most melancholy details: among many we may select that of Dublin. In the thirty years preceding January 1825, it had received 52,150 infants: of these 14,613 had died infants; 25,859 were returned as dead from the country, where they had been sent to be nursed; 730 died in the infirmary after returning; 322 died grown children-total deaths 41,524. So that 10,626 only escaped this fate. These facts are taken from a parliamentary return. Similar institutions in foreign countries give still more deplorable results.

THE GOOD PARSON.

From Chaucer.

A TRUE good man there was there of religion,
Pious and poor-the parson of a town,
But rich he was in holy thought and work;
And thereto a right learned man; a clerk
That Christ's pure gospel would sincerely preach,
And his parishioners devoutly teach.
Benign he was, and wondrous diligent,
And in adversity full patient,

As proven oft, to all who lack'd a friend.
Loth for his tithes to ban or to contend,
At every need much rather was he found,
Unto his poor parishioners around

Of his own substance and his dues to give,
Content on little for himself to live.

Wide was his cure; the houses far asunder,
Yet never fail'd he, or for rain or thunder,
Whenever sickness or mischance might call,
The most remote to visit, great or small,
And staff in hand, on foot, the storm to brave.
This noble ensample to his flock he gave,
That first he wrought and afterwards he taught.
The word of life he from the gospel caught;
And well this comment added he thereto,
If that gold rusteth, what should iron do?
And if the priest be foul, in whom we trust,
What wonder if the unletter'd layman lust ?
And shame it were in him the flock should keep,
To see a sullied shepherd, and clean sheep.
For sure a priest the sample ought to give,
By his own cleanness, how his sheep should live.
He never set his benefice to hire,
Leaving his flock accoutred in the mire,
And ran to London, cogging at St. Paul's,
To seek himself a chauntery for souls,
Or with a brotherhood to be enroll'd;

But dwelt at home, and guarded well his fold,
So that it should not by the wolf miscarry :
He was a shepherd and no mercenary.

Though holy in himself, and virtuous,
He still to sinful men was mild and piteous;
Not to reproach, imperious, or malign,
But in his teaching, soothing and benign;
To draw them on to heaven by reason fair,
And good example, was his daily care.
But were there one, perverse and obstinate,
Were he of lofty or of low estate,
Him would he sharply with reproof astound:
A better priest is no where to be found.

He waited not on pomp or reverence,
Nor made himself a spiced conscience;
The love of Christ and his apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he followed it himselve.

THE

HOME FRIEND;

A WEEKLY MISCELLANY OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION.

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY,

BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

No. 50.]

[PRICE 1d.

THE rock in the English Channel upon which the Eddystone Lighthouse stands is rendered remarkable, not only by the present building, but by the incidents attendant on the construction of those which have successively been erected upon it; and the narrative by Smeaton of these arduous

VOL. II.

undertakings well deserves our notice, as exemplifying the results of no common skill and perseverance, crowned at last by a success which we trust may now be considered as permanent.

The Eddystone reef of rocks, so long and so well known to mariners, lies about ten miles from the nearest point of land at the entrance of Plymouth Sound, and is so exposed to the heavy swells from the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean that the waves frequently break over it with a fury that is almost incredible. The rocks are a lamellar kind of granite, and are supposed to have taken their name from the great variety of contrary sets of the tide, or current, as it flows among them, from the different points of the British Channel. Their particular form and position is a circumstance that greatly tends to increase the force and height of the seas which break over them; and previous to the erection of a lighthouse, many were the vessels doomed to inevitable destruction from unwarily coming upon them. They not only stretch across the Channel in a north and south direction, to the length of six or seven thousand feet, but also lie in a sloping direction towards the south-west, which stiving, as it is called, continues to a great depth; so that, when the seas are swollen with storms, they break upon the slope of the rocky bottom with perilous fury and violence. Even after moderate weather has for some time succeeded, the ground-swell continues, for many days, to render landing almost impossible.

The three principal ridges of the Eddystone rocks have been distinguished by the relative names of House Reef, South Reef, and East Reef. The lighthouse is on the first and highest of these, which is about sixty-five feet in diameter at low water. The landing-place is formed between it and the south reef, which affords some shelter for a boat at low tide. In this creek there is at that period but one fathom of water; but in all other directions from the rocks the water suddenly deepens to fifteen or twenty fathoms, and at greater distances to forty or fifty fathoms.

From their position, the Eddystone rocks render an entrance into Plymouth Sound extremely hazardous; and the many fatal accidents which occurred to homeward-bound ships made it desirable that some beacon should be erected on them to warn the mariner of his peril, when foggy nights or high water shrouded such dangerous rocks from his view. The formidable nature of the undertaking long deterred the most enterprising from attempting the construction of a lighthouse; but in the year 1696 an individual had sufficient courage to undertake the arduous task. This gentleman was Mr. Henry Winstanley, of Littlebury, in Essex, who had so long been distinguished for his mechanical contrivances as to be termed the "Merlin" of his day. Being furnished with the necessary powers from the Trinity House, under the authority of a statute made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, for "setting up marks and signs for the sea," he immediately commenced an undertaking, which occupied no less than four years in completing. "Not for the greatness of the work," remarks Mr. Winstanley, in the narrative which he addressed to Prince George of Denmark, then Lord High Admiral of England, "but for the difficulty and danger in getting backwards and forwards from the place: nothing being, or could be, left safe there for the first two years but what was most thoroughly affixed to the rock; and though no work could be attempted but in the summer season, yet the weather even then would sometimes prove so bad, that for a fortnight together the sea would be so raging about these rocks, caused by out-winds and the running of the

ground seas, coming from the main ocean, that however calm the weather might appear to be in other places, yet here the sea would mount and fly more than two hundred feet over the spot, burying all the works, and preventing me from approaching, except to see my work imperfectly at the distance of a mile or two."

66

From the hardness of the rock, and the short time allowed by the tide and rough weather for a landing, the distance from the shore, and the frequent journeys made when there could be no landing at all, the first summer was entirely occupied in merely making twelve holes in the rocks, and fastening twelve great irons to hold the work that was afterwards to be done. The next summer was spent in making a solid round pillar, twelve feet high and fourteen feet in diameter. This afforded some degree of shelter to the workmen, and also gave them more time to work on the spot. From Mr. Winstanley's account it appears that they had no store-vessel for materials moored by way of constant retreat, but performed the work of conveying materials by single journeys, securing them at night on the rock, or returning them again to the boats when they left work. The third year the work was raised to the height of eighty feet, and when finished, with the lantern and all the rooms in it, we ventured," says Mr. Winstanley, "to lodge there soon after Midsummer, for the greater despatch of the work. But the first night the weather became bad, and so continued, that it was eleven days before any boats could come near us again; and not being acquainted with the height of the sea's rising we were almost all the time drowned with wet, and our provision in as bad a condition, though we worked night and day as much as possible to make shelter for ourselves. In this storm we lost some of our materials, although we did what we could to save them; but the boat then returning, we all left the house, to be refreshed on shore; and as soon as the weather did permit, we returned again and finished all, and put up the light on the 14th of November 1698; which being so late in the year, it was three days before Christmas before we had relief to get on shore again, and were almost at the last extremity for want of provisions. But by good Providence two boats then came with these, and the family that was to take care of the light; and so ended this year's work."

The fourth year, finding the effects that the sea had upon the lighthouse, "burying the lantern at times, though more than sixty feet in height," Mr. Winstanley surrounded the building with a "new work of four feet thickness from the foundation, making all solid for nearly twenty feet high ;" and taking down the upper part of the first building, he enlarged every part, raising it forty feet higher than it was at first; and yet the sea, during storms, is described as "flying in appearance a hundred feet above the vane, and at times as covering half the side of the house and lantern, as if it were under water."

The lighthouse, thus finished, had more the resemblance of a Chinese pagoda than of a structure intended to resist the impetuous shock of overwhelming seas; and it was commonly said, "that in time of hard weather, such was the height of the waves, that it was very possible for a six-oared boat to be lifted up upon a billow and driven through the open gallery of the lighthouse." The settled opinion seemed to be that it must one day be overcome by the force of the mighty seas which washed against it; but the unfortunate architect himself was so convinced of its durability, that he expressed himself fearless of encountering the most