In the spring of 1706 an Act of Parliament was obtained for rebuilding the lighthouse, and a gentleman named Rudyerd, a silk mercer, was the engineer engaged. He placed five courses of heavy stones upon the rock and then erected a superstructure of wood. The lighthouse on the Bell Rock, off the coast of Fife, and the one placed at the entrance of the Mersey on the Black Rock, are similarly constructed, so that there seemed to be good reason for adopting the principle. Mr. Smeaton thought that the work was done in a masterly and effective manner; but in 1755 the edifice was destroyed by fire, and he was next retained as the engineer for this important building.
The result of his labours has justly been considered worthy of the admiration of the world, for it is distinguished alike for its strength, durability, and beauty of form. The base of the tower is about twenty-six feet nine inches in diameter, and the masonry is so formed as to be a part of the solid rock, to the height of thirteen feet above the surface, where the diameter is diminished to nineteen feet and a half. The tower then rises in a gradually diminishing curve to the height of eighty-five feet, including the lantern, which is twenty-four feet high. The upper extremity is finished by a cornice, a balustrade being placed around the base of the lantern for use as well as ornament.
The tower is furnished with a door and windows, and the whole edifice outside bears the graceful outline of the trunk of a mighty tree, combining lightness with elegance and strength. Mr. Smeaton commenced his labours in 1756, and completed the building in four years. Before commencing operations he took accurate drawings of the exterior of the rock, and the stones, which were brought from the striking and romantic district of Dartmoor, were all formed to fit into its crevices, and so prepared as to be dovetailed together, and strung by oaken plugs. When put into their places, and then firmly cemented, the whole seemed to form, and does indeed constitute, a part of the solid rock.
SWEATING SICKNESS.
The Sweating Sickness first visited England Anno Dom. 1483, and repeated its visitations 1485, 1506, 1517, 1528, and last of all, 1551.
This epidemic disease raged with such peculiar violence in England, and had so quick a crisis, that it was distinguished by the name of Ephemera Britannica. This singular fever seems to have been of the most simple, though of the most acute kind, and notwithstanding princes and nobles were its chief victims, the physicians of the day never agreed upon the method of treating it.
The splendid French embassy, which arrived in England in 1550, found the court-festivities damped by a visitation of that strange and terrific malady.
"This pestilence, first brought into the island by the foreign mercenaries who composed the army of the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII., now made its appearance for the fourth and last time in our annals. It seized principally, it is said, on males, on such as were in the prime of their age, and rather on the higher than the lower classes: within the space of twenty-four hours, the fate of the sufferer was decided for life or death. Its ravages were prodigious; two princes died of it; and the general consternation was augmented, by a superstitious idea which went forth, that Englishmen alone were the destined victims of this mysterious minister of fate, which tracked their steps, with a malice and sagacity of an evil spirit, into every distant country of the earth whither they might have wandered, whilst it left unassailed all foreigners in their own."
AN AMERICAN ADVERTISEMENT.
The following is an early specimen of that system of poetical advertising which in recent times has become so common. It is always interesting to note the origin of customs with which we subsequently become familiar:—