[ John MacDonald, engineer and son of Flora MacDonald. ] Autograph notes on 'Mr. Winstanleys Original Lighthouse, constructed on the Edystone [i.e. Eddystone] Rock, 12 Miles from Plymouth, and finished in 1698, after a labour of four years. | No. 2.'

On two pieces of paper, one roughly 9.5 x 17.5 cm and the other 2.5 x 13.5 cm, laid down on a piece of grey card. Note on card in a nineteenth-century hand: 'Colonel John Macdonald's writing -'. In fair condition, on aged paper, on good strong card. The notes were apparently intended to accompany a plan, the words 'An Elevation of' being scored through at the beginning of the heading, as is a five-line passage, beginning 'No 1'. Beneath this deleted passage is a nine-line expanded version of it, beginning: 'No 1 proving insufficient as to strength and light, Mr. Winstanley constructed this Building incorporating the former [...]'. The four-line passage on the smaller piece of paper concerns Smeaton's third lighthouse, constructed 'on the principle of an Oak Tree', and said to have 'now stood firm during 126 years'. (The dating is clearly mistaken, with MacDonald probably calculating from 1698, the date of the completion of Winstanley's lighthouse.)