At Amsterdam he saw with delight and surprise its admirable harbour and spacious docks. In Smeaton's time, London had no accommodation of this description, and the numerous fleets which flocked to the British metropolis dropped anchor in the Thames, and loaded and unloaded at the river quays. Passing round the country by Utrecht, he proceeded to inspect the great sea-sluices at Brill and Helvoetsluys, through which the inland waters found a channel of egress, while the billows of ocean were prevented from forcing an entrance. During this journey he made copious notes of all he saw, and the information thus acquired was of great use to him in his after-labours as a canal and harbour engineer. [Sidenote: The Eddystone lighthouse.] He returned to England in 1755; and shortly afterwards the opportunity came to him which, we believe, comes to every man of industrious habits and steadfast purpose--the opportunity, by a prudent employment of which, we may place ourselves in a position to turn our gifts to good account, and do something for the advantage of our fellows. The lighthouse erected by Rudyerd on the Eddystone Rock, of which we have already given a description, was swept away by a destructive fire on the 2nd of December, and it became necessary to replace it by a new one. The proprietors applied to the President of the Royal Society to recommend to them an engineer who might be safely intrusted with a work so important. The then President, the Earl of Macclesfield, replied "that there was one of their own body whom he could venture to recommend for the work; yet that the most material part of what he knew of him was his having, within the compass of the last seven years, recommended himself to the Society by the communication of several mechanical contrivances and improvements; and though he had at first made it his business to execute things in the instrument way (without ever having been bred to the trade), yet, on account of the merit of his performances, he had been chosen a member of the Society; and that, for about three years past, having found the business of a philosophical instrument-maker not likely to afford an adequate recompense, he had wholly applied himself to various branches of mechanics." Upon this recommendation the proprietors acted, and Smeaton was engaged to erect the Eddystone lighthouse. [Sidenote: Preparing for the work.]