THE NEW EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1772, 24 October 1879, Page 3

THE NEW EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.

At length the work is successfully accomplished, and the formal “ first stone ” of the new Eddystone Lighthouse has been laid with the fullest success. The morning opened very drearily, a genuine “Devonshire drizzle” making all things damp and dismal, until very nearly tho hour appointed for the embarkation, when the mists began to lift and the sky cleared. Preparations commenced at the different points of embarkation shortly after nine o’clock, and much interest was evidently felt in the event of the day. Flags were hoisted on the various pubHo buildings; the ships in the Sound and Hamoaze were dressed in gay colors, and the bells from the church steeples rang merry peals. The Prince of Wales and tho Duke of Edinburgh, who had slept on board the Reyal yacht Osborne, embarked in a steam launch for the Trinity yacht Galatea at ten o’clock, under a salute from the ships in commission in the Hamoaze and the Sound and the guns of the Citadel. For at least an hour before this, however, the various steamers which hod been chartered for the Eddystone had been taking in “cargo” at the Dockyard, Victual-ling-yard, Mill-bay, the Barbican, and other points, and as they loaded they rapidly made their way into tho Sound. Viewed either from sea or shore tho spectacle at this preliminary period was one of singular beauty. The Sound with its tree-clad heights of Mount Edgcumbe on the one side, and the grassy slopes of Staddon on tho other, was looking its best, though the sky was overcast. All tho ships in the Sound were gaily dressed, tho yards of the warships being manned, and the waters literally covered with vessels of all sorts and sizes, from the steam ram to the tiny yacht. Shortly before elven the Galatea was seen returning. On board were the Prince of Wales, tho Duke of Edinburgh, Mr W. H. Smith, First Lord tho Admiralty; Sir Richard Oollinson, Deputy Master of the Trinity House; Captains Inglis, Niebet, Lambert, and Webb, Elder Brethren; Admiral Farquhar, Port Admiral; General tho Hon. Leicester Smyth, the general commanding the western district; Admiral Sir H. Keppel, Rear-Admiral Hope, the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, Lord Chamberlain ; tho Earl of Dalkeith, Lord Colville, Sir Allan Young, Captain Lord Charles Bereaford, Captain Stevenson, Lieutenant Curzon Howe ; and the Rev. Prebendary Wilkinson, D.D. In the Hercules, tho lighthouse tender, were Mr Douglass, the architect and engineer; Mr A. T. Douglass, and Dr. Smiles, author of the “ Lives of tho Engineers,” The Galatea arrived at the Eddystone shortly before noon,_ tho vessels lying around tho reef dressing in column as sho steamed up. Directly tho vessel reached the reef the Royal party, attended by the engineers, landed upon tho central rock in four boats, no one else being allowed to disembark except the workmen actually engaged. A few of the visitors who had obtained admission to the old lighthouse had a capital view of the proceedings; but those in the vessels lying around in a ring could see little beyond a black knot of figures on the rock, huddled closely together within a very limited area. The ceremony, which was very short, now commenced. The Rev. Dr. Wilkinson, viear of St. Andrew’s, the mother parish of Plymouth, having offered a few brief prayers, Mr Douglass handed a handsome trowel, with silver blade and handle of Eddy stone, well and appropriately carved and inscribed, to tho Duke, who formally spread the cement in tho deep hole the stone was to occupy, tho

stones on either side of it being already in their place. After the Royal Master of the Trinity House had spread the cement he passed the trowel to the Prince of Wales ; then a bottle, in which was enclosed a parchment scroll, containing full details of the work and of all engaged in it, was placed in a cavity, and the first stone was lowered to its place. It was then declared by the Duke of Edinburgh that the stone was well and truly laid, amid the lusty cheers of the party on the rock, taken up again and again by the occupants of the vessels ranged around. The whole proceedings did not occupy more than a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, and afterwards the party visited the old Lighthouse, which has now for nearly six score years honored the memory of its great builder Sraeaton. The weather up to the laying of the stone had been so favorable as to admit of an excellent photograph being taken, but almost immediately after the ceremony it began to change for the worse, and ere long the rain descended in torrents.