three dwelling-houses stood; and there were two houses only on Edge-hill, where there is now a large and populous suburb. The mail bags of letters were conveyed to and from the town on horse-back; there were only two charitable institutions supported by voluntary contributions; there was not one Sunday or day school for the gratuitous instruction of the children of the poor; and there were only six places of worship of the Church of England, in Liverpool, or within three miles of the Exchange, on the Lancashire side; there are now fifty-one.")

The town terminated on the north side at Oldhall-street; on the south at the lower end of Park-lane and Pitt-street; and on the east at Whitechapel and Church-street. The neighbourhood beyond those streets was then quite a rural district, with fields, country lanes, orchards, and gardens on every side, except on the westward, where it was bounded by the Mersey. There were, however, a number of detached houses erected in various spots beyond those limits, but not in the form of regular streets(2) or rows of houses; they had evidently been built with the double object of being near the seat of business, and of being in salubrious or rural situations; the large houses then and still standing on the south side of Mount-pleasant may be mentioned as examples.

Several of the streets which are now populous, and are in the heart of the town, were then rural lanes, amongst which

(1) Exclusive of the Mariner's Church.

(2) Ranelagh-street and Shaws-brow were both built, or nearly so, but being principal outlets from the town into the country, they can scarcely be considered as exceptions, because the town did not then extend to the right and left of them, and the main outlets of nearly every town are usually built before the masses of houses and buildings reach so far; there were, however, some streets partially laid out, beyond the above mentioned limits; but, being merely contemplated streets, and in some instances having only one or two houses erected, and sometimes not any, it is not considered necessary to describe them here.

may be particularised, the upper end of Mount-pleasant, (formerly called Martindale's-hill,) a large portion of which was then unpaved; Byrom-street, which though containing some houses was then little more than a country road leading towards Walton; Folly-lane, where Upper Islington now stands, which was the way towards West Derby; the road to Prescot, now London-road; and the two roads to Toxteth-park, one of which afterwards formed the site of Great George-street, in which a few houses only had been erected, on the east side, at the end opening into Duke-street, and the other was where St. James'-street is now built. Another rural lane, then called the Everton-road, on the site of which Richmond-row now stands, extended from the town to Everton: on the south side was a tavern, called, the Loggerheads, with a garden attached to it, which was the property of, and was afterwards occupied as a private residence by several gentlemen named Nicholson, successively, and is now again a tavern, called by the old name, the Loggerheads, and stands on the south side of Richmond-row, nearly opposite the end of Fox-street.

Liverpool, when viewed from the estuary of the Mersey, did not exhibit either a commanding or handsome appearance. It presented to the view a seaport town of moderate size, possessing three floating docks, and a dock which was empty at low water, all of which will be more particulary described afterwards; a tolerably sized basin, and three graving docks. The spires of the churches of St. Nicholas, St. George, and St. Thomas; the towers of those of St. Peter, St. Ann, and St. James, and the cupola of that of St.

(1) It joined Brownlow-hill road as at present, behind the spot where the Fever Hospital now stands, and after that junction they formed a country lane, which passed over Edge-hill towards Wavertree.

(2) The walls of St. James' Church were built, but it was not completed or used for Divine service until in the Summer of 1775.

Paul; the ancient embattled Tower at the bottom of Waterstreet; the Town-hall; the parish Workhouse on Brownlowhill; the old Custom-house on the east side of the Old Dock, and the more ancient Custom-house," then used as the tidesurveyor's office, at the south-west corner and lowest end of Water-street; a large number of windmills in different parts of the town and neighbourhood; and several cupola-like chimneys of earthenware works, and of glass works, were the most conspicuous objects seen from the Mersey. There were neither Goree warehouses nor any other commercial buildings then standing on the east side of the quay of George's Dock; but there was an unbuilt piece of ground extending a considerable distance on the south side of the tide-surveyor's office, before mentioned. A timber-yard of Mr. Moss, and a cooperage of Mr. Chaffers, occupied the space of ground where many of the Goree warehouses, to the southward of Water-street, now stand. (2) Liverpool could not then boast of extensive piers, or handsome marine parades fronting the river, but George's parade, on the east side of the Mersey, existed; it was, however, a narrow walk when compared with the one which now bears that name. The parade formed a very pleasant walk 320 yards in length, and was fenced and bounded on the east by wooden palisades. It was destroyed on enlarging George's Dock; and the present George's parade was formed in lieu of the

(1) The Author has seen an old abstract of a deed, a marriage settlement, dated the 7th of April, 1758, upon the intended marriage of Thomas Walmsley and Elizabeth Turner, which described some property in Water-street, where the old Custom-house stood, late rented "by Alderman Moorcroft at £4:5s, and 12 lbs. of prunes per annum." (2) It is remarkable, that in a view of the west side of Liverpool, taken in 1770, by Mr. George Perry, of which some copies were engraved, the Goree warehouses were introduced by anticipation; and the Author has been informed by a member of the family of Mr. Perry, that he obtained for that purpose the elevations of the warehouses from London, from the architect employed respecting them. In his curious and accurate plan of Liverpool, of 1769, he calls them "new intended warehouses."

old one, but further from the dock, and on ground inclosed from the shore of the river. In a book of poems, written about the end of the last century, by Mr. William Colquitt, who was the brother of the Town-clerk of that name, one on Liverpool contains the following extraordinary lines: if the style should amuse the reader, he, in common candour, ought not to imagine that the literary productions of all the Liverpool poets, who lived at the close of the last century were precisely of the same class :

"Behold the esplanade near George's Dock,

Where you may see ships sailing round the Rock, And Cheshire's distant sylvan shades and fields, That for this plenteous market so much yields." (1) On the north end of the parade was a small slip and pier; and afterwards, in the French revolutionary war, a battery of guns was mounted on the latter.

The fort and barracks which subsequently stood on the North Shore, at the north end of Bath-street, had not been then erected; but a battery was made in the American revolutionary war on the pier on the north side(2) of the entrance or gut leading into George's basin, consisting of thirty-two pounders and eighteen pounders, which were said to have been removed from St. Nicholas' Church yard, where they had previously been mounted. It had not originally any breast-work, but one was afterwards hastily formed of balks of timber in consequence of an alarm of an enemy being in the Irish sea.

In proceeding to describe the public buildings and

(1) Poems by William Colquitt, A.B. late of Christ College, Cambridge, page 27, lent to the Author, by an estimable, kind-hearted and much-lamented gentleman, the late Sir Thomas Brancker, whose death occurred after a part of this Work had been sent to the press. The Author embraces this opportunity of expressing his respect for the memory of that gentleman, and also his obligations for much valuable information received from him whilst this Work was in progress.

(2) It was not until the French revolutionary war that a battery was erected on the pier, on the south side of the entrance or gut.

institutions which existed in Liverpool, in 1775, the places of worship will be first mentioned.

The Church of Our Lady and St. Nicholas," usually called "St. Nicholas' Church," and occasionally "The Old Church," standing on the east side of George's Dock basin, and south side of Chapel-street, was a conspicuous object from the Mersey. It was formerly a chapel under the parish church of Walton-on-the-Hill, usually called Walton, but it is impossible to ascertain the time when it was built; it must, however, have been of very great antiquity. It has been already shown that it stood there in the 29th year of the reign of Edward the Third, (1356,) and it was probably there at a much earlier period. Liverpool remained a part of the parish of Walton-on-the-Hill until 1699, when it was elevated to the rank of an independent parish by virtue of the Act of Parliament of the 10th and 11th of King William the Third, chap. 36.

The church was, in 1775, a plain Gothic building without any pretensions to beauty, with a square tower, on which stood a small spire.

There was a neat-looking white tavern (Hinde's) then standing in the church yard, close to the tower, and between it and the spot, where the Gothic arch and the steps communicating with the lowest end of Chapel-street now stand. This tavern was of considerable antiquity, commanded an interesting marine prospect, and was at that period much frequented by respectable persons. It remained standing a considerable time after the commencement of the present century.

In 1749 the church yard was enlarged on the west side, a space of ground being added, which is distinguishable by being on a lower level than the other parts.

(1) Introduction, page 31; and see Appendix, No. VI.