During successive years the commissioners erected a number of lighthouses, and laboured with anxious care to render them as efficient as possible. In some cases where the nature of the accommodation at the lighthouse stations would permit, a guard-room was provided for pilots, and shipwrecked mariners were lodged, and, in necessitous cases, they have even been allowed a sum of money to clothe and carry them to their respective homes. ‘In this way,’ says Mr. Stevenson, ‘it has not unfrequently fallen to the lot of the keepers of the northern lighthouses, to save the lives of perishing seamen, to succour many poor fishermen and pilots, as well as the half-starved and unlucky individuals of water-parties, when driven by stress of weather to these lone places of abode for safety and shelter. In these varied forms, it will not be too much to suppose, that the practice of protecting the navigator in distress, which is said to have formed a chief part of the design of the fire-towers and nautical colleges of the ancients, is thus in some measure restored.’ CHAPTER VII. THE BELL-ROCK LIGHTHOUSE AS A TYPE OF SCOTTISH LIGHTHOUSES. History of the Inch-Cape or Bell-Rock Lighthouse as a Type of the Northern Lighthouses--Position and Dangerous Character of the Bell Rock--Ballad of Sir Ralph the Rover--Proposal to erect a Lighthouse--Mr. Robert Stevenson selected as Engineer--Survey of the Rock--Exhibition of a Floating Light--Preparations for the Lighthouse--First Season on the Rock--Alarming Situation of the Engineer and Men--Effects of the Stormy Sea on the Rock--Erection of Beacon--Winter Employment--The Second Season--A new Tender employed--Praam-boats and Stone-lighters--Progress of the Work--Remarkable appearance of the Rock--Foundation Stone laid--First continuous Course of Masonry--Its Contents--Third Season--Progress of the Work--Winter Operations--Fourth Season--The Beacon used as a Dwelling--Its Interior described--The Engineer’s Cabin--The Lighthouse nearly finished--Mr. Smeaton’s Daughter visits the Works--Last Stone laid--Light advertized--Lighthouse described--Action of the Sea and of Stormy Weather upon the Lighthouse--Internal Economy of the Lighthouse--Arrangements on Shore--Signals--Curious Accident--The Carr Rock Beacon. ‘_Pharos loquitur._ ‘Far in the bosom of the deep O’er these wild shelves my watch I keep, A ruddy gem of changeful light, Bound in the dusky brow of night. The seaman bids my lustre hail, And scorns to strike his timorous sail’[5]. The most celebrated lighthouse in Scotland is that situated on the dangerous reef called the Inch Cape or Bell Rock. This lighthouse may fairly aspire to the title of the Eddystone of Scotland, whether we regard its high importance to navigation, the danger and difficulty of its erection, the beauty of its form, or its interesting history.