On the opposite side and due north of this bight, the Pembrokeshire coast breaks off abruptly at St. David’s Head, only to reappear out at sea in some twenty little rugged islets known as The Smalls. They occur some twenty-one miles off the mainland, and for years they played havoc with the shipping plying between North of England ports and the Bristol Channel. These rocks--for they are little else--were the private property of a Liverpool gentleman, who became so distracted by the frequency of disaster that, in 1773, he decided to crown them with a beacon. He selected a musical instrument manufacturer named Whiteside as his engineer, and this amateur mechanic, after an inspection, decided to place the warning light on a tiny crag which projected about 5 feet above high-water. It is somewhat strange that the adequate safeguarding of two devastating parts of the south-western coast of England should have been placed in the hands of men who were not professional engineers. Rudyerd, the silk-mercer, was responsible for the second Eddystone, and here was an instrument-maker taking over one of the most difficult enterprises it was possible to find. Yet both these amateur engineers inscribed their names ineffaceably upon two of the most evil spots around the coasts of the British Islands. Rudyerd gave us the true conical design, which has never been superseded for strength and stability; while Whiteside evolved a skeleton tower which braved the most tempestuous seas for some eighty years. In the first instance the latter carried out his work in iron, thinking that metal would prove irresistible, but within a short time he replaced it with heavy legs of oak. The frail-looking structure was submitted to storms of almost seismic violence, but it withstood them all for over half a century, when a peculiarly vicious wave, as it rolled between the supports, suddenly flew upwards, driving the floor of the keepers’ quarters into the roof. It was an exceptional accident, which no engineer could have foreseen. When the Trinity House Brethren took over the light, their chief engineer, Mr. James Walker, looked upon the erection as such a fine piece of work that the damage was repaired, and the Whiteside light gleamed for a further twenty years before it gave place to the present graceful stone building. [Illustration: _By permission of the Lighthouse Literature Mission._ HOW THE SKERRYVORE IS BUILT. In the centre, a vertical section. At sides, transverse sections at different masonry courses, showing method of laying the stones.]