In his ‘explanation’—offered in March, 1692—Whitfield entered into more detail as to what he proposed with regard to the Eddystone. It was that he should build there ‘a substantiall lighthouse’ wholly at his own charge, on condition that the Trinity House would be ‘assistant to him therein’ and allow him the entire profits for the first three years, and then one half the clear income for the term of fifty years; on the expiry of this lease, the ‘sole profit’ to revert to the Trinity House, in whose name the patent was to be applied for. The proposal was judged ‘so reasonable’ that the board immediately accepted it, with a proviso that Whitfield should pay them twenty shillings a year for the first three years of his term. By the middle of June, 1692, preliminaries had been so far settled that the petition to Queen Mary—William III was absent abroad—for the grant of a patent for a lighthouse at the Eddystone had been placed in the hands of the Earl of Pembroke, then master of the Trinity House, for presentation to the queen. The earl duly gave it in; on the 20th of the month it was referred to the law officers of the crown, and they reported in its favour on the 11th of July. But, for some reason, the patent was not granted till two years later, June 20, 1694, and after that there was another mysterious delay of two years before anything further was done; then, on June 10, 1696, another agreement was entered into between Whitfield and the Trinity House. There are some important differences between the terms of this agreement and that of 1692; they are far more advantageous to Whitfield, who is to enjoy the entire issues of the lighthouse for five years, and the moiety for fifty. Directly after this last agreement, the lighthouse was commenced—not by Whitfield at all, but by Henry Winstanley.