The circumstance of the beams of the beacon having withstood the storms of winter, inspired new confidence in the artificera, who now landed upon the Rock in the summer of 1808 with freedom, and remained upon it without fear till the title flow ed over it. Although it required a considerable part of the summer to fit up the beacon as a barrack, yet it was in a state sufficient to preserve the workmen in case of accident to the boats. The great person al risk and excessive fatigue of rowing boats, crowd ed with the artificers, every tide to the floating light.. vessel was now also avoided by an additional vessel having this season been provided, and entirely set apart for the purpose of attending the Rock. This vessel was a very fine schooner of 80 tons. Her moorings were so constructed, that she could be cast loose at pleasure, and brought to the lee-side of the Rock, where she might at once take up the artificers. and their boats in had weather, instead of their hav ing, as formerly, to row often against both wind and tide, to the more distant position of the floating light. From this circumstance, it was now found. practicable both to commence the works at the Rock much earlier, and to continue them to a later period. Being now provided with a place of safety, by the erection of the spars of the beacon-house, and having a tender always at command, which could be cast loose, in case of need, the works now went forward even in pretty rough weather ; and thus struggling both during the night and day tides, the site of the light house was prepared, and cut to a sufficient depth into the Rock ; and on the 10th of July 1808, the foundation stone of the building was laid. In the course of this season, tracks of cast-iron railways were also fixed upon the Rock, from the different landing places to the building, calculated for conveying blocks of stone of two or three tons weight along the Rock ; and by the latter end of the season's opera tions the first four courses of the Light-house were built, which brought it to the height of five feet six .inches above the foundation.
do the course of the winter preceding the third season's operations, the works at the Rock were fre quently visited, and, in the spring of the year 1809, were resumed with new vigour ; and it was no small happiness to find, that not only the four courses of the light-house built last season were in perfect order, after a long and severe winter, without the least shift or change of position, but that even the beacon-house and railways were little injured, being almost in a state of readiness for resuming the operations. The first - thing to be done was to lay down sets of Chain moor ings, with floating buoys for the tender, and for the flush-decked proam-boat, stone lighters, and-vessels employed at the Rock, and to erect the necessary apparatus and machinery for landing the stones, and laying them in their places upon the building. These arrangements being made, every thing went forward in the most prosperous manner ; and, by the month of September, the building was got to the height of 30 feet, which completed the solid part of the light-house. After obtaining this height, from the- advanced state of the season, Mr Stevenson did not tad it advisable to risk the machinery and ap paratus longer, and the building was left in this state for the winter months.
At the commencement of the fourth and last sea son's work, it was a matter of some importance for the preparation of the higher or finishing parts of the building, to ascertain whether it would be pos sible to carry the masonry from the height of 30 feet to 100 feet in the course of this summer ; but it was extremely doubtful whether this could be accom plished, so as to secure good weather for -fitting up the light-room, and completing the more delicate operations of the painter and glazier, connected with it. Under these uncertain prospects, the work was begun in 1810, at as early a period as the weather would at all admit. From the great number of finish ed courses of prepared stone at•he work yard, which had been tried upon the platform, numbered and ready to be shipped from Arbroath for the Rock, there was only the winds and tides to contend with ; and even these were, in effect, wonderfully soften ed and allayed, by the enterprising exertions and thorough practice of the seamen and artificers, dur ing four successive seasons ; which had given much dexterity to the several departments, both in the work-yard at Arbroath, and at the Rock, where this operations of the builder and of the landing-master's mew were conducted with much skill and activity..
Taking these mainly into account, and by a fortu nate train of circumstances, the•masonry of the ing was completed in October ; and the light-room being finished in the month of December, the -light was advertised to the public, and exhibited for the first time from the new Light-house on the evening of thelst of February 1811; and, on the same night, the floating light-vessel was unmoored, and that tem porary light discontinued.
Having thus given a general account of the Bell Rock, and the erection of the Light-house, we shall now describe the building, noticing its principal di mensions, and making such farther remarks as may appear interesting to the reader. The Bell Rock Light-house is a circular building, the foundation. stone of which is nearly on a level with the surface of the sea at low-water of ordinary spring-tides ; and consequently at high-water of these tides, the build• ing is immersed to the height of about 15 feet. The two first or lower courses of the masonry are imbedded or sunk into the rock, and the stones of all the courses are curiously -dovetailed and joined with each other, forming one connected mass from the centre to the circumference. The successive courses of the work are also attached to each other by jog gles of stone ; and, to prevent the stones from being lifted up by the force of the sea, while the work was in progress, each stone of the solid part of the building had two holes bored through it, entering six inches into the course immediately below, into which oaken tree nails, two inches in diameter, were driven, after Mr Smeaton's plan at the Eddystone Light-house. The cement used at the Bell Rock, like that of the Eddy stone, was a mixture of pozzolano, earth, lime, and sand, in equal parts, by measure. The building is of a circular form, composed of stones of the weight of from two tons to half a ton each. The ground course measures 42 in diameter, and the build ing diminishes, as may be observed from the plate of the light-house, as it rises to the top, where the parapet-wall of the light-rooM measures only 13 feet in diameter. The height of the masonry is 100 feet, but including the -the total height is 115 feet. The building is solid from the ground course to the height of 30 feet, where the entry. door is situate, to which the ascent is by a .kind of rope-ladder with wooden steps, hung out at ebb= tide, and taken into •the building again when the water covers the Rock ; but strangers to this sort of climbing are taken up in a kind of chair, by a small moveable crane projected from the door:from-which a narrow passage leads to a stone stair-case 18 feet in height. Here the walls are seven feet in thick- • ness, but they gradually diminish from the top of the stair-case, to the parapet-wall of the light•room, where they measure one foot in thickness. The. upper half of the building may be• described as di vided into six apartments for the use of the light keepers, and for containing light-house•stores. The lower or first of these floors, formed by an inside scarsement of the walls at the top of the stair-case,• is chiefly occupied with water tanks, fuel, and the other bulky articles ; the second floor is for the oil cisterns, glass and other light-room stores ; the third is-occupied as a kitchen; the fourth is the 3 the fifth the library or strangers' room, and the upper apartment forms the light-room. The floors of the several apartments are of stone and the communi cation from the one to the other, is made by means of wooden ladders, excepting in the light-room, where every article being fire proof, the steps are made of iron. There are two windows in each of the three lower apartments, but the upper rooms have each four windows. The casements of the windows are all double, and are glazed with plate-glass, having besides an outer storm shutter, or dead-light of timber, to defend the glass from the waves and sprays Of the sea. The parapet-wall of the light-room is six feet in height, and has a door which leads out to the balcony or walk by the cornice round the upper part of the building ; which is surrounded by a cast-iron rail, curiously wrought like net-work. This rail rests upon batts of brass, and has a massive coping or top rail of the same metal.