Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 4 (of 10)Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)
General
Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 4 (of 10)
Lockhart, J. G. (John Gibson)
Authors, Scottish -- 19th century -- Biography; Scott, Walter, 1771-1832
"_30th July_.--Waked at six by the steward; summoned to visit the
Bell-Rock, where the beacon is well worthy attention. Its dimensions
are well known; but no description can give the idea of this slight,
solitary, round tower, trembling amid the billows, and fifteen miles
from Arbroath, the nearest shore. The fitting up within is not only
handsome, but elegant. All work of wood (almost) is wainscot; all
hammer-work brass; in short, exquisitely fitted up. You enter by a
ladder of rope, with wooden steps, about thirty feet from the bottom,
where the mason-work ceases to be solid, and admits of round
apartments. The lowest is a storehouse for the people's provisions,
water, etc.; above that a storehouse for the lights, of oil, etc.;
then the kitchen of the people, three in number; then their sleeping
chamber; then the saloon or parlor, a neat little room; above all, the
lighthouse; all communicating by oaken ladders, with brass rails, most
handsomely and conveniently executed. Breakfasted in the parlor.[60]
On board again at nine, and run down, through a rough sea, to
Aberbrothock, vulgarly called Arbroath. All sick, even Mr. Stevenson.
God grant this occur seldom! Landed and dined at Arbroath, where we
were to take up Adam Duff. We visited the appointments of the
lighthouse establishment--a handsome tower, with two wings. These
contain the lodgings of the keepers of the light--very handsome,
indeed, and very clean. They might be thought too handsome, were it
not of consequence to give those men, entrusted with a duty so
laborious and slavish, a consequence in the eyes of the public and in
their own. The central part of the building forms a single tower,
corresponding with the lighthouse. As the keepers' families live here,
they are apprised each morning by a signal that _all is well_. If this
signal be not made, a tender sails for the rock directly. I visited
the abbey church for the third time, the first being--_eheu!_[61]--the
second with T. Thomson. Dined at Arbroath, and came on board at night,
where I made up this foolish journal, and now beg for wine and water.
So the vessel is once more in motion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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