ent
situation."

This overbold statement, added to the persistence of the people of the
neighbourhood, that no man could throw the Logan Rock from its
balance, stirred up a silly young lieutenant, Hugh Colvill Goldsmith,
of H.M.S. cutter _Nimble_, on the preventive service, lying off the
Land's End on the look-out for smugglers, to attempt to do what the
popular voice declared to be impossible. Lieut. Goldsmith was a nephew
of the famous Oliver Goldsmith, and had consequently some flighty
Irish blood in his veins.

[Illustration: A VIEW OF THE CELEBRATED LOGAN ROCK, NEAR LAND'S END IN
CORNWALL

_Taken after the Rock was displaced on the 8th of April_, 1824]

"On April 8, 1824," says the _Gentleman's Magazine_, "a party of
sailors belonging to H.M. cutter _Nimble_, commanded by Lieut.
Goldsmith, came on shore for the purpose of removing from its
situation that great curiosity the Logging (rocking) Stone; and which
object they were unfortunately enabled to accomplish. This mass of
granite, which is nearly 100 tons weight, was one of the three objects
that excited the curiosity of every visitor to the west part of
Cornwall. It stood on the summit of a mass of rocks at the Land's End,
and was so poised on a natural pivot, that the force which a man could
exert was sufficient to cause it to vibrate. In this situation it
remained from a period anterior to our authentic records, as it is
noticed by our earliest writers, until the _barbarian_ above
mentioned, in sheer wantonness, removed it from its place. This act of
vandalism has excited the greatest indignation at Penzance, as it will
in every part of Cornwall, and throughout the kingdom. It appears that
Lieut. Goldsmith landed at the head of fourteen of his men, and with
the assistance of handspikes and a handscrew, called by the sailors
jack-in-the-box, with much labour and perseverance threw over the
stone. What renders the act most atrocious is, that two poor families,
who derived a subsistence from attending visitors to the stone, are
now deprived of the means of