The Bell Rock—The good Abbot of Arberbrothok—Ralph the Rover—Rennie’s grand Lighthouse—Perils of the Work—Thirty-two Men apparently doomed to Destruction—A New Form of Outward Construction—Its successful Completion—The Skerryvore Lighthouse and Alan Stevenson—Novel Barracks on the Rock—Swept Away in a Storm—The Unshapely Seal and Unfortunate Cod—Half-starved Workmen—Out of Tobacco—Difficulties of Landing the Stones—Visit of M. de Quatrefages to Héhaux—Description of the Lighthouse Exterior—How it Rocks—Practice _versus_ Theory—The Interior—A Parisian Apartment at Sea. Some eleven miles eastward from the mainland of Scotland, near the entrances to the Firths of Forth and Tay, lies an extensive ledge of very dangerous rocks, nearly two miles in length. This sunken reef was a source of much peril to the unfortunate sailors driven too near its nearly hidden dangers, and early in the fourteenth century the Abbot of Arbroath, or Arberbrothok, caused a bell to be placed upon the principal rock, so that— “When the Rock was hid by the surge’s swell, The mariners heard the warning bell; And then they knew the perilous Rock, And blessed the Abbot of Arberbrothok.” Southey has, in his ballad of “The Inchcape Rock,” immortalised the tradition(56) that a notorious pirate cut the bell from the rock— “Down sank the bell with a gurgling sound, The bubbles arose and burst around; Quoth Sir Ralph, ‘The next who comes to the Rock, Won’t bless the Abbot of Arberbrothok.’” And so the rover sailed away, and grew rich with plundered store, till at length he thought of Scotland once again, and turned his vessel’s head for home. He approached her coasts in haze and fog, and knew he could not be far from the rocky shore. “They hear no sound, the swell is strong; Though the wind hath fallen they drift along, Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock,— ‘Oh, Christ! it is the Inchcape Rock!’ “Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair; He curst himself in his despair; The waves rush in on every side, The ship is sinking beneath the tide.” Nothing was done to replace the bell or set a beacon on the reef until the beginning of the present century, when, after many plans had been discussed, John Rennie was ordered by the Board of Commissioners to examine the site and report on the subject generally. He recommended a substantial stone lighthouse, similar to that on the Eddystone. Although the Inchcape Rock was not so long uncovered by the tide as the former, after a few courses had been laid, there would be no greater delay in completing the building. The Commissioners obtained from Parliament the requisite powers in 1806; Rennie was appointed engineer, with Robert Stevenson as assistant engineer.