Rame church is situated in a very peculiar manner, far out on the
point of land, and immediately near a rocky cliff. It has several
monuments to former rectors and others, but none of general interest.
The manor of Rame, and the advowson of the living, continue in the
Edgcumbe family; but the barton has for some generations belonged to
the Edwardses, and, under the name of Rame Place, is still their
residence.
The remarkable feature of this parish is Rame Head, or as it is
usually called, the Ram; and it is a general belief that the name is
really taken from the resemblance of the point to the Roman battering
ram; as the Lizard is supposed to be so called, from the long flat
serpentine formation resembling the body of a saurian animal: but it
seems to be much more probable that these observed resemblances should
have corrupted some former names accidentally agreeing with them in
sound, than that the promontories should be really distinguished by
appellations so very modern.
Near the extremity of the point are the ruins of a chapel still very
visible, dedicated to St. Michael, as all chapels similarly situated
were dedicated by our ancestors, from the habits of a winged angel
being assimilated to those of birds.
The Ram Head itself exhibits the appearance of a grand mass of rocks
gradually tapering into the sea, much resembling Cudden Point in the
Mount’s Bay. It forms the exterior boundary of Plymouth Harbour to the
westward, as Penlee Point does of what is technically called the
Sound. The extreme point of the Ram Head is laid down in the best
tables with lat. 50° 18′ 52″ long. 4° 12′ 29.″ In time 16m. 50s. west
from Greenwich. The time of high water at Plymouth dock yard at the
new and full moon is 3h. 33m.
As this is the point of land nearest to the Eddystone lighthouse, it
may be interesting to add, that the lighthouse is distant from the Ram
Head just 8¼ sea miles, bearing about somewhat less than a point to
the westward of south, and from Looe Island 11½ sea miles bearing very
nearly south-east. Lat. 50° 10′ 55″, lon. 4° 15′ 3.″ In time 17m. west
of Greenwich. The Eddystone rocks had been for ages the dread of
mariners; they lie nearly in the direction of the line joining the
Lizard and the Start, and directly in the way of ships making Plymouth
harbour from the westward; their extent is moreover considerable,
reaching in one direction to about a mile, with only a small rock
appearing above the water.
The desire of a lighthouse was therefore strongly felt, and at last,
in the year 1696, Mr. Winstanley, of Littlebury in Essex, undertook
this arduous work, and completed it in about four years; but Mr.
Winstanley made his wooden fabric of a large size, and of great
height, trusting to the tenacity of chains and iron rods for its
support; not having learnt from experience that those materials are
incapable of resisting, for any considerable time, the repeated
percussions of a tempestuous sea.
Mr. Winstanley himself happened to be there on the 26th of November,
1703, when the storm took place, which is believed not to have been
equalled since that time. On the following day every thing had
disappeared, with the exception of two iron rods which were fastened
in the rock, and not a trace of the building was ever discovered.
Three years afterward, in the year 1706, Mr. John Rudyard undertook to
erect another light-house, undismayed by the terrible catastrophe of
the former; and this gentleman adopted the correct principle of
opposing the impact of waves by the force of gravity, a power equally
constant, certain and stable, as that by which it is opposed. He
therefore constructed a plain framework of wood, nearly cylindrical,
with cross beams, and filled the whole with large blocks of granite,
leaving no more room than was requisite for the lights, for the
attendants, and for their stores; and he made so rapid a progress as
to display the light on the 28th of July 1708, and completely to
finish the whole in the year following: notwithstanding that a French
privateer took off some workmen and their tools in the progress of the
work. But Louis the XIV. displayed on this occasion the real spirit of
generosity and honour, of which he had endeavoured to support a weak
resemblance throughout his long reign. He ordered the workmen and
their effects to be restored, and committed to prison the persons
concerned in this unprincipled act publicly; declaring that, although
he was at war with England, he was at peace with the human race, for
whose common benefit such works was constructed.
In Mr. Rudyard’s lighthouse the wooden frame was evidently an
imperfection. It must be liable to decay, and might become the prey of
flames. To obviate in some degree the former defect, contrivances were
adopted for shifting the beams; but on the 2d of December 1755, after
the work had stood forty-seven years, the wood-work actually caught
fire and was entirely consumed. Boats were dispatched from ships as
well as from the shore, when the flames became visible, which brought
away the three men, who had used their utmost endeavours, but in vain,
to extinguish the fire. Fortunately at that hour the tide was at its
ebb, which allowed the men to retreat sufficiently at a distance from
the heat to preserve their lives; two had received very little injury,
nor was the other apparently much hurt, but standing near the foot of
the building in front, and looking intently at the flames as they
issued through the top, he gave way to an innate propensity, which
anatomists have endeavoured to explain by two tubes leading from near
the palate to the ear, by keeping his mouth wide open; when some
melting lead descended and passed down his throat, which would
otherwise have glanced from his skin without occasioning the least
injury. This man, although he had advanced so far in life as to his
ninety-fourth year, lived several days, and without suffering much
pain. After his decease, a mass of lead weighing seven ounces, five
drams, and eighteen grains, little less than half a pound, was taken
from his stomach. See a communication by Mr. Edward Spry, Surgeon of
Plymouth, in the Philosophical Transaction, vol. XLIX. p. 459, and
vol. X. p. 673, of the Abridgment.
Notwithstanding this second disaster, the lessees under the Trinity
House were still resolved if possible to discharge their duty. They
applied in consequence to Lord Macclesfield, then President of the
Royal Society, who recommended the most eminent of our civil
engineers, with whom no one can be thought to compare, excepting
perhaps the late Mr. John Rennie.
Mr. Smeaton was in consequence of Lord Macclesfield’s recommendation
applied to by the proprietors, and most fortunately for mankind he
undertook the work.
Mr. Smeaton adopted the essential principle of his predecessor Mr.
Rudyard, by opposing weight to the force of the waves: but he made
improvements in many respects, by contriving a better figure, by more
completely uniting the work into one mass, and by discarding wood
altogether.
The construction and the dimensions of every part are given by Mr.
Smeaton in an elaborate work with plates; and it may be a sufficient
recommendation to say, that the greatest work of this kind executed
since his time, and by a most able engineer, that on the Bell Rock
near the Forth, is almost an exact copy of the Eddystone.
Mr. Bond, who visited the Eddystone on the 4th of August, 1788, has
given the following description of it in his History of Looe,
published in 1823.
“Immediately opposite Looe church, fourteen miles off and
visible from the parade and hills, is the Eddystone
lighthouse, built by the late Mr. Smeaton of Yorkshire. The
lantern is an octagon of about nine feet diameter. Till
within a few years last past, it used to be lighted with
twenty-four very large candles, sixteen in one round frame,
and eight in another. Now Argand lamps are used, with highly
polished reflectors. The candle light was not frequently
seen from Looe by the naked eye: now the light is very
strong, and in dark nights does not appear above a league
distant.
“At highwater the sea nearly embraces the base of the
building. You ascend to the door by a ladder on the outside,
almost perpendicular, according to my recollection, about
fourteen staves long. You then arrive at the stairs within
the building, which have, as no space can be lost, a coal
place under them. The first room you come to is where the
men keep their water, &c.; the next is a store room, where
they keep their provisions, candles, &c. Round the room is
engraved, as in relief, “Except the Lord keep the house,
they labour but in vain that build it.” From this room you
ascend to the next, which is the kitchen, by a ladder which
goes up into a circular hole in the centre of the room. A
large copper cover, like that of a saucepan, is placed to
prevent falling through. You ascend to the next room, which
is the bed room, in the same manner, this room is about
twelve feet diameter. You next ascend in like manner into
the lanthorn, which has a seat round it. Outside the
lanthorn is a walk railed in round it. The view from hence
is singularly and awfully grand, and perhaps has not its
like. On the outside of the lanthorn are engraved the
cardinal points of the compass, and over the door, “24th
August, 1759.――Laus Deo.”
The village of Cawsand in this parish gives name to a bay, which
before the construction of the artificial reef, afforded the only
shelter in Plymouth Sound.
Rame measures 1296 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property, as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 2,872 0 0
Poor Rate in 1831 333 15 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 904 | 978 | 807 | 896
giving a decrease of one per cent. in 30 years, with great
fluctuations in the middle period, in consequence of the
differences round Plymouth between war and peace.
Present Rector, the Rev. Thomas Hunt Ley, presented by the Earl of
Mount Edgcumbe in 1824.