to obtain the means of subsisting themselves, and their families. As has been before observed, one great feudal potentate, Roger of Poictou, at one time owned all the land between the Ribble and the Mersey.()

Under circumstances so depressing to commerce, it was impossible that it could flourish, therefore it can scarcely be expected, that antiquaries, or historians, should find Liverpool mentioned, as a trading town, or even be able to discover any certain trace of its existence, before or soon after the Norman Conquest. Even for some time after that event, commerce was on a most insignificant scale. England had few superfluities to dispose of, and few necessities of which the supply was imperative; navigation was unsafe, in consequence of the unskilfulness of the seamen, the want of the mariner's compass, and the seas being exposed to the incursions of pirates; nor was it certain that foreigners bringing commodities to England, could rely on protection, in a barbarous age, or be secure of a friendly reception, in the ports of an uncivilized country. Even between different parts of England, the communication was difficult and unfrequent, in consequence of the bad and dangerous state of the roads, bridges, ferries, and fords, and the disorganized state of society.

Although it is true, that for sometime after the Norman Conquest, the commerce of England was on a most limited scale, still some little commerce did exist, which England carried on principally with France, the Low Countries, and Spain. Some articles were in demand, which either could not be produced or manufactured, in this country, or which were produced or manufactured, on a very small scale; such as wine for the drunken carousals of the Norman nobles,

(1) Domesday Book, vol. 1, edition of 1783. In some works he is called Roger of Poictiers.

vessels and utensils of silver for ornament or entertainments, manufactured silks, and rich furs for dresses, armour, military weapons, bowstaves, fruits, of which scarcely any were then grown in England, spices and drugs, which came from the East, by way of Venice and Genoa. Sugar was even about that period brought into Europe, from the East, where it was then and had long previously been produced. It probably was brought into Western Europe in very small quantities, as an article of curiosity or medicine.()

England, in return for articles of commerce which she received from abroad, had not much to send. The English manufactured some coarse woollen clothing, and a little linen; but probably not much more than was needed for their own consumption. They had not many articles to export, except wool, hides, skins, some metals, and perhaps salt and cattle. The balance of trade with the nations of the continent, would, therefore, be against the English, who would, consequently, have to pay the difference in silver, the only metal then used for the purposes of commerce. Some commercial intercourse, however limited, was even then kept up between England and Ireland, we are, however, much in the dark as to its nature or extent.(2) From the middle of the twelfth century to that of the thirteenth, the trade of England became more extensive and prosperous.

(1) The sugar cane was cultivated in Sicily, about 100 years after the Norman Conquest, though perhaps only to a limited extent. It may here be remarked, that the sugar cane is believed to be mentioned in the Holy Scriptures by the name of sweet cane.-43rd chap. Isaiah, ver. 24; and 6th chap. Jeremiah, ver. 20.

(2) In England, it was very common even after the Conquest, to export slaves to Ireland, until, in the reign of Henry the 2nd, the Irish came to a non-importation agreement, which put a stop to the practice.-Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, page 379; 8th edition, 8vo.

William of Malmsbury accuses the Anglo-Saxon nobility of selling their female servants, even when pregnant by them, as slaves, to foreigners.—Ibid. (in notis,) page 379.

The towns on the southern coast exported tin and other metals, in exchange for the wines of France; those of the eastern coast sent corn to Norway; the Cinque-ports bartered wool against the stuffs of Flanders."")

The fisheries also of England, were, after the Norman Invasion, a source of occupation and gain, at a time when, from the peculiar tenets of the prevailing creed, fish either fresh or cured, formed no inconsiderable portion of the diet of a great part of the population, and gave employment to many of the industrious classes. Commerce and fishing cannot be carried on, even on a small scale, without ports or havens; and the inlet or creek called, in comparatively modern times, the "Pool," on the eastward side of the estuary of the Mersey, upon the site of which a part of Liverpool now stands, formed a commodious natural harbour for the purpose.

However indifferent the ignorant Anglo-Saxon, or illiterate Norman might be to the fields of coal, the mineral treasures of Lancashire and Cheshire, the value of which he could not appreciate, still he was alive to the utility of the springs of salt in Cheshire, which were then worked and had been worked for ages previously; and it is fair to suppose, that the portion of the salt made in Cheshire, which had to be sent by sea to Scotland, Ireland, Wales, the western coast of England, and the Isle of Man, would be brought for some distance at least down the Mersey, and not any place could be found there, so eligible as a place of shipment, or as a depôt, preparatory to its final exportation, as the spot where Liverpool now stands. From those and various other causes, though imperceptibly and by slow degrees, Liverpool, from a petty hamlet of hovels, at length

(1) Hallam's View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. 2, page 157; 8th edition, 8vo.

became a small town and obscure seaport, at a period most probably not long after the Norman Conquest.

The name Liverpool has been spelt in a great variety of modes; but it seems most probable, that it is a corruption of the words "Lower Pool;" the pool, which will be afterwards described, having remained until about the commencement of the 18th century; and the name "Pool," occurs in various places, on the banks of the Mersey, and nearly all of them are higher up the estuary than

Liverpool.

(2)

In the rude age which succeeded the Norman Conquest, feudal castles and monastic establishments, near a sea port town, had a tendency, in some degree, to promote its increase, by the constant demand of their inmates and visiters upon the productions of its mechanics, and the industry and skill of its mariners and other inhabitants. The castle of Liverpool, erected soon after the Conquest, as it is said by Roger of Poictou, (3) that of Halton, in Cheshire, built about the same period by one of the barons of Halton, the Priory of Birkenhead, and the Abbey of Stanlow, in Cheshire, also erected about the same time, would probably have some slight effect in promoting the increase of Liverpool.

When England began to enjoy a more settled form of government, under succeeding kings, and its population and commerce increased, and a more frequent intercourse took place with Ireland, and the Isle of Man, Liverpool

(1) In the various muniments and documents given in evidence, on the important Trial of the Corporation of Liverpool against Bolton and others, in the Queen's Bench, 14th February, 1833, twenty-five varieties in the spelling of its name occur.-See the printed Report of the Proceedings of the Associated Merchants, and of the Bill of Exceptions, in that cause.

(2) Over Poole, Nether Poole, Bromborough Pool, Otterspool, Tranmere Pool, and Wallasey Pool; the two latter have been recently drained, and docks occupy the site of Wallasey Pool.

(3) Camden's Britannia, vol. 3, page 128; edition of 1789.

could hardly fail to benefit by those events, and to increase in some degree in size and importance.

Although many of the circumstances may have been fortuitous, which caused the rise and increase of Liverpool, it could not well have been an accident, which induced its first settlers to select the spot on which it stands. The pool, which has been appropriately called the cradle of Liverpool, was situated on the eastern shore of the estuary of the Mersey, and was formed by nature, as a convenient and comparatively secure harbour for vessels, such as they were. It was larger and more commodious, than any other inlet or pool, on either shore of the Mersey, or in that part of South Lancashire; it extended in a curved direction, round the south and east sides of the elevated ground on which the town was originally built, forming not only a harbour, but a natural defence on those two sides, whilst the Mersey formed one on the westward; and though Liverpool never was (as far as is now known) fortified, until the troubles of the 17th century, and then only for a short period, still by barricading the narrow streets on the north side, it might be rendered tolerably secure from the nocturnal attacks of any rude rabble, or gangs of outlaws; a class of men who, it is a matter of history, were not unfrequently driven, by the oppression of the Norman barons, to a desperate and criminal mode of life.

The pool at high water extended round a considerable part of the town, and a stream of fresh water, called, in comparatively modern times, the Brook, flowed into the pool and contributed to keep it open. Their position and extent, will be best understood, by mentioning the tract of ground over which they flowed, by the modern names which have been given to the streets and places afterwards made there. The pool extended in a curved direction from the Mersey, over the places where the Old Dock, now the site.