Notes on the natural history of the Bell Rock

by J. M. Campbell

The month has been wet, cold, and stormy, exceptionally heavy seas prevailing in the earlier half. The closing day of the month was beautifully clear and sunny, but cold and frosty, our heliograph intimating on that date a similar state of weather on shore.

March 1904

MARCH 1904.

Of the mighty steeds of illustrious riders, from the Bucephalus of Alexander down to the famous chargers of our present-day Generals, much has been written and even sung. Favourites of fortune, their lives were mostly cast in pleasant places; and after a brilliant career, more or less useful, permitted to end their days in secluded luxury—a privilege, by the way, not always extended to their riders. The subject of these remarks is in no way connected with the glorious achievement of arms, nor is it recorded that he ever scented the battle even from afar; yet, though compelled to wear, so to speak, the hodden grey of equine society, his claim to distinction may none the less be justified.

In July 1810, a somewhat queer procession might have been seen wending its way through Edinburgh towards the Port of Leith. Upon a cart, drawn by a powerful horse, decorated with bows and streamers of various colours, and driven by James Craw, the famous Bell Rock carter, similarly bedecked, lay the last principal stone of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. From the centre of the stone rose a flagstaff, carrying the national flag, while seamen and stonecutters—a strange combination—gaily bedecked with variegated ribbons—the latter donning brand new aprons for the occasion—marched in joyful procession. When abreast of the Trinity House of Leith, they were joined by the Officer of that Corporation, resplendent in full uniform, and bearing his staff of office; and on arriving at the harbour, where the Smeaton—engaged in transporting material to the Bell Rock—lay, the entire shipping hoisted their colours in salute, thus indicating the amount of public interest evinced in the progress of the Lighthouse.

An item of interest, at this time, was a visit by Mrs Dickson, a daughter of Smeaton of Eddystone fame—whose principles were largely taken advantage of in the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse—to inspect the vessel, named in honour of her distinguished father. “In stepping on board,” writes Mr Stevenson in his ‘Bell Rock Lighthouse,’ “Mrs Dickson seemed quite overcome by so many concurrent circumstances tending in a peculiar manner to revive and enliven the memory of her departed father; and, on leaving the vessel, she would not be restrained from presenting the crew with a piece of money.”

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.”