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was also devoted without a grudge to solace the unfortunate. Grant, again, that he venerated rank; the feeling was essentially connected with his historic taste. He worshipped not the title or its living bearer; his idol was constituted by the romantic associations which it awoke-and thus he has been known to pay far more practical respect to a poor Highland chieftain than to a modern English peer. It may, in like manner, be admitted that his judgments on passing affairs were obsolete, and they may be excused by a similar reference to his poetic habits. It was the same romance of the brain from which we derived his novels, that misled him on these points. The gravest charge against him lies undeniably in his heedlessness regarding his affairs. Apart altogether from his accommodations to Constable and Company, he had entered deeply into a false system of credit on his own account; and while much debt was consequently hanging over him, he is found transferring the only solid security for it-his estate-to his son. This, however, should be contemplated in connection with all the circumstances which we can suppose to have justified it in his own mind. To one who was producing ten thousand a year by his pen, and who had done so for years, who, moreover, saw large possessions in his own hands, there might appear no pressing reason for looking anxiously into the accounts concerning even so large a sum of floating debt as fortysix thousand pounds; at least to one whose temperament, we now see, was sanguine and ideal as ever poet manifested, though in his case usually veiled under an air of worldly seeming. When this is considered, the weight of the charge will, we think, appear much lessened, though it cannot be altogether done away. For what remains, let us reflect on the latter days of Scott, and surely we must own that never was fault more nobly expiated, or punishment more nobly borne, than by the great Minstrel.

Since the death of Scott, the whole of his debts have been cleared off by the profits of his writings, which now remain as a lucrative property to his descendants.

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HE civil-engineer is one to whom the word impossible is scarcely permitted. His professional duties call upon him to devise the means for surmounting obstacles of the most formidable kind. He has to work in the water, over the water, under the water; to cause streams to flow; to check them from overflowing; to raise water to a great height; to build docks and walls that will bear the dashing of waves; to convert dry land into harbours, and low-water shores into dry land; to construct light-houses on lonely rocks; to build lofty aqueducts for the conveyance of water, and viaducts for the conveyance of railway-trains; to burrow into the bowels of the earth with tunnels, shafts, pits, and mines; to span torrents and ravines with bridges; to construct chimneys that rival the loftiest spires and pyramids in height; to climb mountains with roads and railways; to sink wells to vast depths in search of water. By untiring patience, skill, energy, and invention, he produces in these several ways works which certainly rank among the marvels of human power.

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No. 74.

I

LIGHT-HOUSES AND BEACONS.

Among the achievements of engineering art, none exhibit greater ingenuity or boldness of design than those erections generally placed in most perilous and difficult situations for the guidance of vessels at sea. The most ancient structure of this description which we read of was the Tower of Pharos-regarded by the ancients as one of the seven wonders of the world. It was commenced by Ptolemy the Elder, and finished some years after by himself and his son Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the year of the world 3670, on the island of Pharos in the bay of Alexandria. 'It was built,' says an ancient authority, 'on the east end of this island, upon a rock of white marble, of a large square structure, on the top of which fires were kept constantly burning for the direction of vessels. It was a most magnificent tower, 450 feet high, consisting of several stories and galleries,' with a lantern at top, which could be seen many leagues at sea.

The Colossus of Rhodes was another ancient erection for this purpose, regarded as one of the seven Wonders of the World. According to popular tradition, it was the statue or figure of a man, dedicated to Apollo, and built in such a manner as to stand astride the entrance into the harbour, that ships might sail between its legs, which were full 50 feet asunder. A staircase was built up the inside of it, and in the outstretched right hand was a basin or dish to hold fire, as a landmark or guide to mariners. The entire figure was 105 feet in height, and built of brass. It was twelve years in building, and stood only fifty-six, being thrown down by an earthquake, in which state it remained till the year 672 A.D. When the Saracens took possession of the island, they demolished the Colossus, and sold the remains of the metal. It is but right to state, however, that we have no ancient authority for this account, Pliny and others simply mentioning the proportions of the Colossus, the date of its erection, and the fact of its overthrow.

The Light-tower of Cordouan, in France, situated upon a low rock about three miles from land, at the mouth of the Garonne, was for a long time regarded as one of the chief marvels of modern Europe. It was founded in 1584, and completed in 1610. Its lower part consists of a solid platform of masonry, 135 feet in diameter, above which, in succession, are a number of apartments, all narrowing in circumference till the upper story is reached— being in all 145 feet high.

In our own day, one of the most celebrated light-houses is that which is built on the Eddystone Rock-a low reef, situated southsouth-west from the middle of Plymouth Sound, fourteen miles from that port, and about ten from the promontory of Ramhead. The reef, which stretches across the channel for upwards of 200 yards, slopes gradually towards the south to the distance of a mile, so that

the swell sweeps up, as it were, an incline, till within a few fathoms of the exposed rock, where, striking against a sudden ledge, it breaks, and dashes upwards to a height of forty or fifty feet. On this dangerous reef the necessity of a light-house was early felt; and accordingly, in 1696, a gentleman named Winstanley was furnished with the necessary official powers to carry such a design into execution. He entered upon his task in 1696, and completed it in four years. So certain was Winstanley of the stability of his wooden structure, that he declared it to be his wish to be in it 'during the greatest storm that ever blew under the face of heaven;' a wish that was but too soon and fatally gratified, for in November 1703, while there with some workmen and the light-keepers, a storm of unparalleled violence arose, and in one night the whole fabric was swept away. In 1709 another light-house was built of wood by a Mr Rudyerd; this structure, after braving the elements for forty-six years, was burned down in 1755. On the destruction of this light-house, Mr Smeaton, the celebrated engineer, was next applied to; he at once fixed upon the more durable material stone, and chose for his model the natural figure of the trunk or bole of a large spreading oak. With these views as to the proper form of the superstructure, Mr Smeaton began the work on the 2d of April 1757, and finished it on the 4th of August 1759. The rock, which slopes toward the south-west, has been cut into horizontal steps, into which are dovetailed and united by a strong cement Portland stone and granite. The whole, to the height of 35 feet from the foundation, is a solid of stones, ingrafted into each other, and united by every means of additional strength. The building has four rooms, one over the other, and at the top a gallery and lantern. It is nearly 80 feet high; and since its completion, has been assaulted by the fury of the elements, without suffering any appreciable injury.

Equally remarkable with the light-house of the Eddystone, is that of the Bell Rock-a sunken reef, lying at the distance of eleven miles from the promontory called the Red Head, in Forfarshire, and on the highway to the firths of Forth and Tay, two of the most frequented estuaries in the kingdom. The ledge is about 850 yards in length and 110 in breadth; at low-water, some of its summits appear from 4 to 8 feet above the level of the sea; but at high-water, they are always covered to the depth of 10 or 12 feet. Tradition says that the abbots of the monastery of Aberbrothwick succeeded in fixing a bell, which was rung by the swell of the sea, so as to warn the mariner of his situation; but that this benevolent erection was destroyed by a Dutch pirate, who (to complete the story) was afterwards lost upon the rock with his vessel and crew. However this may have been, it was not till the beginning of the present century that a solid substantial light-house, after the model of the Eddystone, was determined upon, and erected. This work was intrusted to Mr Stevenson, the Scottish engineer;

was begun in 1808, and completed in 1810. Being lower in the water than any rock on which a similar building had been previously raised, the difficulties of the engineer were greatly increased; but by preparing all the stones on shore, and conveying them in lighters to the reef, where a tender and other accommodation were provided for the workmen, his success was complete, and the revolving ruddy light of the Bell Rock now ranks among the chief achievements of British ingenuity. The light-house,' we quote the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, 'is a circular building, measuring 42 feet in diameter at the base, and 13 feet in diameter at the top. The masonry is 100 feet in height, or, including the light-room, 115 feet. The ascent from the rock to the top of the solid, or lowest thirty feet, is by means of a kind of trap-ladder; the ascent from the level of the entrance door is by means of a circular stair to the first apartment, containing the water, fuel, &c.; and from thence to the several apartments the communication is by wooden steps. The windows have all double sash-frames, glazed with plate-glass, besides a stormshutter of timber for the defence of the glass against the sprays of the sea.'

Still more remarkable for its height, and for the difficulties encountered in building, is the Skerryvore Light-house, finished in 1844, by Mr Alan Stevenson. It stands on a rock ten miles from the nearest point of the island of Tiree, in a very wild and stormy part of the Hebrides. Every block of masonry to construct the light-house had to be landed on the rock in the face of a tremendous sea dashing in from the Atlantic; and when the wind as well as the sea was violent, to effect a landing was impossible. The light-house is 138 feet high-far in excess of the Eddystone or the Bell Rock; it is 42 feet diameter at the base, and 16 at the top. The light, a revolving one of the first class, can be seen at a distance of 18 miles. The Skerryvore cost nearly £90,000.

Cast-iron light-houses are among the constructions which modern ingenuity has succeeded in producing. A specimen of this kind was made in London for the Bahamas a few years ago. It was to be erected on a dangerous rock, near the Bahama group of islands in the West Indies. The height of the light-house tower is 124 feet with an additional 15 feet for the revolving lantern. The diameter, varies from 25 to 14 feet as it tapers upwards; and it contains about 300 tons of iron. The building is divided into seven floors or stories, each about 16 feet high. The lowest, at some distance above the level of the ground, and reached by an exterior iron stair, is fitted up as a kitchen; the second is used as a sitting-room; the third as a bed-room; while the remaining stories are occupied in various ways for purposes connected with the business of the light-house. The core or centre of the structure is a large metal shaft, two feet in diameter, from top to bottom. From this, at intervals of 16 feet, strong iron girders radiate to the circumference, and serve to support

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