Of the history of the South Foreland lighthouse there is not a great deal to record; yet, from a scientific point of view, that lighthouse certainly demands attention, from the fact that many of what have been in turn regarded as the most approved methods of coast-lighting have been first put into practice there. It was suggested as an experiment station so long ago as 1729: magnifying lenses were first used there in 1810. In 1853, Faraday made his initial experiments there with the electric light as a means of coast illumination; and there—nine years later—the lime-light was first applied for a similar purpose. Having said this much we may leave the South Foreland light, for of its history and romance we know little, practically nothing. But before we pass on to Dungeness lighthouse a word more must be said about the Goodwin lights. We left their history in 1629 very far from the date at which a light was actually placed upon them. Nothing came of the suggestion then made to indicate the dangers of the Sands by means of floating lights, and the existence of lighthouses on the North and South Forelands, for which heavy dues were payable, gave little hope of success to any project to light the Goodwins. As a consequence we hear of no subsequent proposal for a lightship there till well on in the eighteenth century, that is, after the practicability of this form of coast illumination had been actually demonstrated at the Nore and the Dudgeon. But the then proposers of the lightship at the Goodwins were only two poor pilots, who could not be expected to carry on a battle with so powerful an antagonist as the Trinity House. The secretary of that body, writing, about the year 1750, of the pilots’ humane but ineffectual effort, congratulates himself that so crushing had been their defeat, that his Board was unlikely to be troubled again with such ridiculous and tiresome suggestions. The Trinity House, he observes, ‘was not fond of them!’ However, times changed as the years went by: the Trinity House, and those for whom it spoke, grew larger-minded, had greater scientific knowledge, and were more public-spirited. Thus before the end of the century of which we have been speaking, the Trinity House had itself established a lightship at the Goodwins—the first of the three which now warn mariners of the presence of the Sands.