“Sit still and gaze: the scene grows upon you. Here the two channels commingle with the ocean; and far out as eye can reach, and round on either hand till it meets the remotest point of the rugged shore, stretches the watery expanse. The billows come tumbling in, and break in thunder at the base of the cliffs, dashing the impatient spray well-nigh to their summit. You may descend by steep paths to a lower level, and see the cavernous opening which their plunging assaults have worn through from one side of the buttress to the other. With what fury they rush into the recess, and make horrid whirlpools behind the mass which some day will be an isolated member of the rocky group scattered along the shore! There, on the largest of the cluster, nearly two miles from shore, stands the Longships Lighthouse, and all between is foam and swirl; waves running together, and leaping high with the shock: a dangerous channel known as the Kettle’s Bottom. See how the water chafes around the Armed Knight there on the left, and the Irish Lady on the right, and all the nameless lumps! Yonder, under the cape, at the extremity of Whitesand Bay, are the Brisons, invested by shipwreck with a fearful interest.”
The Longships Lighthouse, mentioned in the foregoing extract, was erected in 1795 by a Mr. Smith, who received as his reward the right to level a toll upon shipping for a limited number of years. It was afterwards purchased of his representatives by the Trinity House. The tower is built of granite, and the stones are trenailed upon Smeaton’s plan, as introduced in his great monument of the Eddystone. The circumference at the base is 62 feet, the height from the base to the vane of the lantern, and from the sea to the foot of the building, 51 feet. The total height, therefore, exceeds 100 feet. Yet the lantern-panes, it is said, have been frequently shattered by the waves.
WOLF’S CRAG LIGHTHOUSE.
About eight miles from this part of the Cornish coast lies a dangerous rock of greenstone, called the Wolf’s Crag, in the midst of a turbulent swirl and eddy of waters. An attempt was once made to plant on its summit the figure of an enormous wolf, constructed of copper, and hollow within, and so constructed that the mouth receiving the blasts of the gale should emit a loud hoarse sound to warn the seaman of his peril. The project, however, was rendered abortive by the violence of the elements.
In 1870 a lighthouse was successfully erected on the Wolf’s Crag;—a circular tower, 100 feet high.