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Updated: May 16, 2025
Tommy was right: Mr Rudyerd was indeed a strange man, for the lighthouse which he ultimately erected on the Eddystone Rock proved that, although not a professional engineer, and although he never attempted any other great work of the kind, he nevertheless possessed engineering talent of the highest order: a fact which must of course have been known to Captain Lovet, the gentleman who selected him for the arduous undertaking.
The woman was sleeping, her work done; yet she suggested that there was beauty in those old methods which, for all their utility, was lacking in the new. "It is probably the best work that Lovet Forbes has done," said the secretary, who came round with us. "He is the coming man, they say," Quarles remarked.
It was said the poet laureate had dedicated an ode to her that Lovet Forbes, the sculptor, was immortalizing her in stone, and Musgrave had certainly painted her portrait. From all sides there was a loud demand that the mystery must be cleared up, and the investigation was entrusted to me. From the outset it was apparent that Madame Vatrotski had played fast and loose with her many admirers.
And forasmuch as the speedy rebuilding the said lighthouse is absolutely necessary for avoiding the dangers attending the trade and navigation of this kingdom, and in regard the same work is of great charge, hazard, and expense, and all due and proper encouragement ought to be given thereto; to the end therefore that the said Master, &c. may be encouraged to new-erect and build, or cause to be new-erected and built, the said lighthouse with all convenient speed, and constantly keep and maintain the same for the benefit of the navigation and trade of this kingdom, be it enacted, &c.’ It then proceeds to enact the payment of the duties above mentioned, and double on foreign vessels, ‘from and after the kindling or placing a light useful for shipping in the said lighthouse.’ In 1706 a lease of ninety-nine years was granted by the corporation of Trinity House to a Captain Lovet, who undertook the management of the affairs connected with the building.
Thus was laid the foundation of his future success. No doubt Captain Lovet had become well assured of the genius of this man, ere he entrusted him with a work for which no previous experience had qualified him. At any rate, the choice was a wise one. Rudyerd’s designs proved admirable, and his want of personal experience was in a great degree supplied by the help of Messrs.
The corporation of the Trinity House, who managed the lighthouses on the English coast, had let the right to build on the Eddystone, for a period of 99 years, to this Captain Lovet, who appointed Mr Rudyerd to do the work. It was a clear calm morning in July 1706 when the boat put off for the first time to "the Rock," with the men and materials for commencing the lighthouse.
The pictures were the work of French artists of the cubist school, but also on view was a portrait bust of Madame Vatrotski by Lovet Forbes. It was evidently the bust I had overheard Tenfield speak about that day in the Academy, and I discovered that his firm had bought it as a speculation.
The choice Captain Lovet made of an engineer, or architect and surveyor, may seem a strange one. He deputed to that office John Rudyerd, a silk-mercer who kept a shop on Ludgate Hill. It does not appear that this Rudyerd had been bred to any scientific profession.
Lovet Forbes had been only a vague name until a few days ago, when a symbolic group of his had been placed in the entrance hall of the Agricultural Institution, and had at once attracted attention. The critics spoke of him as a new force in art, and a bust of the famous dancer by him was therefore, under the circumstances, an event.
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