“Those,” he says, “who expect to see a towering or far-stretching promontory will be disappointed. We form our ideas from ordinary maps, and imagine England’s utmost cape to be a narrow tongue thrust out from the firm shore, along which we may walk to meet the advancing waves. But we find the reality to be merely a protruding shoulder or buttress of the vast irregular bluff that terminates the county. Cape Cornwall, which looks so grand about two miles distant, appears to extend further to the west than the Land’s End. “Sit still and gaze: the scene grows upon you. Here the two channels commingle with the ocean; and far out as eye can reach, and round on either hand till it meets the remotest point of the rugged shore, stretches the watery expanse. The billows come tumbling in, and break in thunder at the base of the cliffs, dashing the impatient spray well-nigh to their summit. You may descend by steep paths to a lower level, and see the cavernous opening which their plunging assaults have worn through from one side of the buttress to the other. With what fury they rush into the recess, and make horrid whirlpools behind the mass which some day will be an isolated member of the rocky group scattered along the shore! There, on the largest of the cluster, nearly two miles from shore, stands the _Longships Lighthouse_, and all between is foam and swirl; waves running together, and leaping high with the shock: a dangerous channel known as the Kettle’s Bottom. See how the water chafes around the Armed Knight there on the left, and the Irish Lady on the right, and all the nameless lumps! Yonder, under the cape, at the extremity of Whitesand Bay, are the Brisons, invested by shipwreck with a fearful interest.” [47] Walter White, “A Londoner’s Walk to the Land’s End,” pp. 192, 193. The _Longships Lighthouse_, mentioned in the foregoing extract, was erected in 1795 by a Mr. Smith, who received as his reward the right to level a toll upon shipping for a limited number of years. It was afterwards purchased of his representatives by the Trinity House. The tower is built of granite, and the stones are trenailed upon Smeaton’s plan, as introduced in his great monument of the Eddystone. The circumference at the base is 62 feet, the height from the base to the vane of the lantern, and from the sea to the foot of the building, 51 feet. The total height, therefore, exceeds 100 feet. Yet the lantern-panes, it is said, have been frequently shattered by the waves. * * * * * [Illustration: WOLF’S CRAG LIGHTHOUSE.]