Notes on the natural history of the Bell RockCampbell, J. M. (John MacLean)
History
Notes on the natural history of the Bell Rock
Campbell, J. M. (John MacLean)
Lighthouses -- Natural history; Natural history -- Scotland -- Bell Rock
Though the site of the workyard in connection with the building
was situated in Arbroath, from its contiguity to the Rock, it was
found necessary, owing to the liability of the stones procured from
Mylnefield Quarry, near Dundee, to injury from frost--from which cause
many valuable stones had already been lost--to procure stones for
the cornice of the building and parapet wall of the lightroom which
would admit of being wrought with safety during the winter months. The
desired qualities of durability and immunity from injury by frost were
ultimately found in the famous Liver-rock of the Craigleith Quarry. At
Greenside, Edinburgh, a vacant piece of ground was procured; and here
the cornice and parapet wall were hewn and built in position for the
fitting of the huge cast-iron lantern.
The horse in question had, with his driver, been employed in the
workyard at Arbroath, and was computed to have drawn the materials
of the lighthouse, extending to upwards of two thousand tons in its
finished state, three or four times--in removing the blocks of stone
from the ship to the workyard, again to the platform upon which each
course was temporarily built, from the workyard to where they were
shipped for the Rock, besides occasional movements to and from the
hands of the stonecutters. Deciding that “Bassey” and his driver
should have the honour of participating in the closing scene of the
undertaking, they were accordingly transported by sea to Leith.
In the course of their passage in the _Smeaton_, the vessel narrowly
escaped shipwreck. Under orders to call at the Rock for lumber, they
had apparently lost their bearings through fog; for, suddenly startled
by the sound of the smith’s hammer and anvil, they had just time to put
the ship about and escape running full tilt on the north-west portion
of the Rock, which, from this incident, still bears the name of “James
Craw’s Horse.”
On the completion of operations at the Rock, the horse “Bassey,”
failing somewhat from age, was pensioned off by the Commissioners,
and allowed to roam at liberty on the island of Inchkeith till
his death in 1813. “The fame of this animal’s labours,” writes Mr
Stevenson, “together with his strength and excellent proportions as a
draught-horse, having attracted the attention of Dr John Barclay, that
eminent anatomist procured the bones and set them up in his museum.
This valuable collection, it is understood, is to be bequeathed to the
College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; so that the bones of the Bell Rock
horse” (to use the doctor’s own language) “will be seen and admired
as a useful skeleton and a source of instruction when those of his
employers lie mingled with the dust.”
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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