Mr. Winstanley’s light-house was begun upon the Eddystone rock in 1696, and was more than four years in building, from the numerous interruptions of the wind and the element he had to contend with, the violence whereof is truly alarming, occasioned by that rock being exposed to every wind which comes up the vast Atlantic, and that tumultuous sea, the Bay of Biscay. These obstacles were considerably increased by the shape of the rock itself, having a regular slope to S.W., and from the very deep sea in its vicinity, it, therefore, receives the uncontrolled fury of those seas: meeting with no other object whereon to break their vehement force, the effect is so great at high water with a S.W. wind, which continues for many days, though a calm may have succeeded, the violent action of the waters has not ceased, but break frightfully on Eddystone. An engraving of Mr. Winstanley’s light-house was published at the period of its erection, from which it appears to have been a stone tower of twelve sides, rising forty-four feet above the highest point of the rock, which, in the dimensions on which it was built, twenty-four feet in diameter, was ten feet lower on one side than it was upon the other; at the top was a balustrade and platform; upon this were erected eight pillars, which supported a dome of the same dimensions as the tower; from the top of which arose an octagon tower, of a diameter of fifteen feet, and seven in height. On the summit was placed the lantern, ten feet in diameter, and twelve in height: it had a gallery surrounding it, which gave access to the windows. The whole was surrounded by fencible iron-work. The entry was by a solid stone door at the bottom; the whole building was of the same material, except the aperture for the staircase. At the bottom was a room twelve feet high for a store-room; the next story was of the same height, which was the stateroom; and the third was of a similar height, which was the kitchen. Those compartments occupied the whole height to the platform. The dome above this contained the lodging-room; the octagon above it, the look-out.