LIZARD POINT LIGHTHOUSE.
One of our most famous English headlands is Lizard Point, the Ocrinum of Ptolemy, the ancient geographer, and the most southerly promontory of England. Here are two large and massive lighthouses, whose bases are 168 feet above the sea, and 212 feet apart. Each tower is 61 feet high, and each lantern contains nineteen reflectors, which can be seen at a distance of twenty-one miles. Between the two, which were erected by Mr. Fonnereau, in 1751, and worked with coal-fires up to the year 1813, are built the residence and offices; so contrived that a long passage leads from one to the other, whereby the keepers communicate without going out of doors. “These beacons,” says a recent writer, “display two lights, to distinguish the Lizard from Scilly, known to mariners by one, and from Guernsey, which exhibits three. Notwithstanding, however, the brilliant illumination which is hence thrown for miles over the sea, ships, embayed in thick weather between the Lizard and Tol Pedn Penwith, are frequently lost in the vicinity of this headland, and the cliffs are of such a character that it is almost impossible to render from them the slightest assistance.”
PLYMOUTH BREAKWATER LIGHTHOUSE.
The Plymouth Breakwater, which protects the great Devonshire harbour from the furious gales of the Channel, carries on its western arm an important lighthouse, erected in 1841 to 1844, from the designs of Messrs. Walker and Burges. It consists of a circular tower, 126 feet in height from the base of the breakwater, 71 feet above high-water mark, and 18 feet in diameter at its widest part. It is built of the finest Cornish granite, and divided into five stories; the highest of which, the lantern, has a floor of polished slate; the others, of stone. The light, a dioptric one, has a range of nine miles.
On the dark craggy headland of Start Point, about 112 feet above high-water mark, is situated a lighthouse exhibiting two lights; a revolving light for the Channel, and a fixed light to guide ships inshore clear of the Skerries shoal. Mr. White thus describes the tower and its “belongings:”—
“A substantial house, connected with the tall circular tower, in a walled enclosure, all nicely whitened, is the residence of the light-keepers. The buildings stand within a few yards of the verge of the cliff, the wall serving as parapet, from which you look down on the craggy slope outside and the jutting rocks beyond—the outermost point. You may descend by the narrow path, protected also by a low white wall, and stride and scramble from rock to rock, with but little risk of slipping, so rough are the surfaces with minute shells.