THE EDITOR.
Rame church is situated in a very peculiar manner, far out on the point of land, and immediately near a rocky cliff. It has several monuments to former rectors and others, but none of general interest.
The manor of Rame, and the advowson of the living, continue in the Edgcumbe family; but the barton has for some generations belonged to the Edwardses, and, under the name of Rame Place, is still their residence.
The remarkable feature of this parish is Rame Head, or as it is usually called, the Ram; and it is a general belief that the name is really taken from the resemblance of the point to the Roman battering ram; as the Lizard is supposed to be so called, from the long flat serpentine formation resembling the body of a saurian animal: but it seems to be much more probable that these observed resemblances should have corrupted some former names accidentally agreeing with them in sound, than that the promontories should be really distinguished by appellations so very modern.
Near the extremity of the point are the ruins of a chapel still very visible, dedicated to St. Michael, as all chapels similarly situated were dedicated by our ancestors, from the habits of a winged angel being assimilated to those of birds.
The Ram Head itself exhibits the appearance of a grand mass of rocks gradually tapering into the sea, much resembling Cudden Point in the Mount’s Bay. It forms the exterior boundary of Plymouth Harbour to the westward, as Penlee Point does of what is technically called the Sound. The extreme point of the Ram Head is laid down in the best tables with lat. 50° 18′ 52″ long. 4° 12′ 29.″ In time 16m. 50s. west from Greenwich. The time of high water at Plymouth dock yard at the new and full moon is 3h. 33m.
As this is the point of land nearest to the Eddystone lighthouse, it may be interesting to add, that the lighthouse is distant from the Ram Head just 8¼ sea miles,
bearing about somewhat less than a point to the westward of south, and from Looe Island 11½ sea miles bearing very nearly south-east. Lat. 50° 10′ 55″, lon. 4° 15′ 3.″ In time 17m. west of Greenwich. The Eddystone rocks had been for ages the dread of mariners; they lie nearly in the direction of the line joining the Lizard and the Start, and directly in the way of ships making Plymouth harbour from the westward; their extent is moreover considerable, reaching in one direction to about a mile, with only a small rock appearing above the water.
The desire of a lighthouse was therefore strongly felt, and at last, in the year 1696, Mr. Winstanley, of Littlebury in Essex, undertook this arduous work, and completed it in about four years; but Mr. Winstanley made his wooden fabric of a large size, and of great height, trusting to the tenacity of chains and iron rods for its support; not having learnt from experience that those materials are incapable of resisting, for any considerable time, the repeated percussions of a tempestuous sea.