“The assistant-keeper spoke of the arrival of a visitor as a pleasure in the monotonous life of the establishment. Winter, he said, was a dreary time, not so much on account of cold, as of storms, fogs, and wild weather generally. In easterly gales the fury of the wind would be often such that to walk across the yard was impossible; they had to crawl under shelter of the wall, and the spray flew from one side of the Point to the other. But indoors there was no lack of comfort, for the house was solidly built and conveniently fitted, and the Trinity Board kept a small collection of books circulating from lighthouse to lighthouse.” * * * * * There are two lighthouses at _Portland Bill_; the lantern of one 136, and that of the other 210 feet above the sea. Between the chalk cliffs and a bank called the _Shambles_, foams the wild impetuous current of the Race of Portland. * * * * * The celebrated chalky range of the South Downs terminates on the Sussex coast in _Beachy Head_, an abrupt precipitous promontory, 575 feet above the sea-level. On a point considerably lower than this lofty headland, and projecting much further into the sea, stands the celebrated Belle Tout Lighthouse, erected in 1831. * * * * * [Illustration: NORTH FORELAND LIGHTHOUSE.] The _North Foreland_, one of the great Kentish promontories, is also crowned by its lighthouse, which dates from 1790. The light is visible at the Nore, a distance of twenty miles. [Illustration: SOUTH FORELAND LIGHTHOUSE.] At the _South Foreland_ lighthouse, a few miles from Dover, the electric light is used; the electric current being originated by a set of enormous horse-shoe magnets fixed in a stand, before which a wheel revolves, loaded with a number of solid iron cylinders. The whole apparatus is set in motion by a steam-engine. * * * * * [Illustration: HOLYHEAD LIGHTHOUSE.]