But when we reach Plymouth we are practically opposite the best known lighthouse in England, the Eddystone. The history of this isolated building does not perhaps go back very far; yet it is certainly as interesting and full of incident as that of any of which we have yet spoken. CHAPTER XI SUGGESTIONS FOR A LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EDDYSTONE—HENRY WINSTANLEY Though comparatively modern, the history of the lighting of the Eddystone rocks, if we begin it with the _suggestions_ for such a laudable scheme, commences a good deal earlier than many people imagine; that is to say, it was _not_ originated by Henry Winstanley. On March 1, 1665, the Duke of York, as head of the Admiralty, considered and referred to the Trinity House a petition from Sir John Coryton and Henry Brouncker for leave to erect ‘certain lighthouses’ on the south and south-west coast of England, which was at that time entirely unlit. They suggested placing ‘coal-fire lights’ on the Scilly Islands, the Lizard, Portland Hill, the Start, at St. Catherine’s in the Isle of Wight, and on the Eddystone! The scheme, save for the proposed lighthouse at the Lizard, was a new one, and the suggestion to light the Eddystone rocks, thirteen miles from land, was an entire novelty; it had not been proposed in post-Reformation times, and the most devotional and adventurous monk or hermit can surely never have looked upon those wave-washed rocks as a possible home, however much their loneliness might have attracted him. When the Trinity House came to consider the proposal, the lighthouse at Scilly was that generally approved: the alternative proposals had then dwindled down to one, namely, that for the Eddystone. The brethren ‘well knew’ that the spot—‘the Edie Stone,’ as they call it—was one on which the projected work ‘could hardly be accomplished’; but they were sure that, ‘if a lighthouse be settled upon the Edie Stone, it might be of as great use as other lights in his majesty’s kingdoms.’ As to what was proposed to be gathered for support of this light, the Trinity House considered that 2_d._ a ton from vessels that would have its benefit would be amply sufficient, and the brethren held that ‘the natives of his majesty’s kingdoms’ should be, by authority, free from paying anything at all; if these terms were agreed to, they had nothing to say against a lighthouse at the Eddystone. Here then, in 1665, we have an interesting expression of opinion as to a lighthouse on the Eddystone and—as we have said—the earliest proposition for such a building. Perhaps the proposers, on reflection, considered their scheme too adventurous, too costly to allow of possible profit; at all events nothing further was done in the matter of any of the lighthouses suggested.