Our English Kings were quick to perceive the importance of insuring greater safety to the vessels composing their commercial navy; and in 1525, Henry VIII. granted a charter to the "brotherhood of the Holy Trinity" (now known as the Trinity House), for the purpose of assisting and protecting navigation by licensing and regulating pilots, and planting beacons, lighthouses, and buoys along the British coasts. But, as Mr. Smiles remarks, the only step taken to carry out objects of such national interest was the granting of leases by the Crown, for a definite number of years, to private persons willing to find the means of building and maintaining lights, in return for permission to levy tolls on all passing shipping. Yet not much was done to render our dangerous coasts easier of approach by means of well-supplied lights. The first erected was on Dungeness in the reign of James I. About the same time some parts of the Cornish coast were lighted up; for we read in the "Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo, about two centuries ago, that the Plymouth shipping paid fourpence per ton for the lights which were in the lighthouses at night." Fourpence in those days was worth about as much as five shillings in our own, so that the tax must have fallen very heavily on merchantmen. It is also recorded, in the annals of the old town of Rye, that a light was hung out from the south-east angle of the Ypres Tower, as a guide for vessels entering the harbour in the night time; and that this proving insufficient, another light was ordered by the corporation "to be hung out o' nights on the south-west corner of the church, for a guide to vessels entering the port." A pitch-pot was formerly hung from the spire of old Arundel Church, as a beacon for vessels which wished to enter the port of Little Hampton, and the iron support of the apparatus is still to be seen. [Sidenote: Lighting the coasts.] It is obvious that lights such as these were exceedingly imperfect. It was difficult to maintain an equable radiance; they were not visible far out at sea; and they were easily affected by variations of weather, great gales, tempests, or thick mists. Moreover, as navigation increased, and ships more frequently threaded the narrow pass or dangerous channel, more lights became necessary, and thus the old system of lights had to give way to a more regular and extensive lighthouse system. [Sidenote: The modern system.]