Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1916-12-01
GUIDEDBY BEAC0NS.
LIVES OF TRAVELLERS SAVED BY
"LAND LIGHTHOUSES.
Safety Signals on Deso!ate English
Waters Were Necessity in Times
Gone By-Many of Them Still
in Existence.

Of all the remarkable lighthouses in
existence, and there are many of them,
what is described as ''the only land
lighthouse" is the most extraordinary.
This is the lofty tower, 100 feet high,
on the lonely levels of Lincoln Heath,
five miles from Lincoln, in the parish
of DunSton. 1t is known as 'Dunston
Pillar" says a writer in London An
SwerS.
When the strange building first came
ainto being in 1851 Lincoln heath was
easily the most dangerous waste place
in England. About twenty miles
square, it had then no made roads, no
signposts and no inclosing hedges.
Travellers found it a risky place to
venture in, especially in the short days
of winter.
The registers of Leasingham church,
on the outskirts of the vast solitude,
contain accounts of the burials of
many unfortunate travellers who lost
their way here and persisted in snow
storms and tempests.
So notorious were those dangers
that at Potter Hanworth and at Blank
ney, in this region, there are pieces of
land bequeathed as thank-offerings by
strayed wayfarers whose lives had
been saved by hearing the church
BELLS chimes, so that their steps were
guided to shelter. The revenues from
these lands were intended to secure
the continuance of those nightly ring
ings, so that no others should run
such risks.
It was Francis Eastwood, Lord lie
Dispenser, who built DunstOn Pillar.
1t served as a signpost Oy day and
as a beacon by night, being at that
time surmounted by lantern, which
was brilliantly illuminated.
But, after some fifty-nine years,
good road was at last made across
these wilds and the lantern was no
longer considered necessary. So in
place of it a colossal stone statue of
George III. was placed there in 1910,
the year of his jubilee. And there it
stands today.
Besides Dunston Pillar, there are
many more beacons that were intend
ed to keep the old-time travellers in
the right path. We. have one in the
neighborhood of London. This is the
old iron firepot, or cresset, on the
angle turret of Monken Hadley church,
near Barnet, placed there originally
hundreds of years ago for the express
purpose of guiding travellers who
might be coming after .nightfall
through the lonely and deeply wooded
districts of Enfield Chase. The iron
pot has, of course, been often re-
newed.
A similar firepot stands on the tow
err of Gillingham church, near Chat
ham, overlooking the River Midway.
A much more elaborate affair, which
was as much a "land lighthouse" as
Dunston Pillar, is the lantern which
still stands on the tower of Great We'll
don church. in the Rockingham Forest
district of NOrthamptonshire. 1t was
lighted every night for the express
purpose of guiding benighted travellers
to safety through the entangled forest
brakes.
Of course, many Of our lighthouses
serving our mariners along our coasts
are actually built on land, notably the
famous North Foreland and the Lizard
lights.
Among the most curious of these is
Dungeness lighthouse, standing on the
desolate wastes of single on the
Kentish coast.
1t was about 1915 when the first
lighthouse was built there by pri-
vate Spectator, who disposed of his
interest to one William Lamplough,
clerk to the kings kitchen.