THE PARK AT BIRKENHEAD 



The generous spirit and fearless enterprise, that has accomplished this, has not been 

 otherwise forgetful of the health and comfort of the poor.* Among other things, I re- 

 member, a public wash and bathing house for the town is provided. I should have men- 

 tioned also, in connection with the market, that in the outskirts of the town there is a 

 range of stone slaughter-houses, with stables, j'ards, pens, supplies of hot and cold water, 

 and other arrangements and conveniences, that enlightened regard for health and decency 

 would suggest. 



The consequence of all these sorts of things is, that all about, the town lands, which a few 

 years ago were almost worthless wastes, have become of priceless value; where no sound 

 was heard but the bleating of goats and braying of asses, complaining of their pasturage, 

 there is now the hasty click and clatter of many hundred busy trowels and hammers. 

 You may drive through wide and thronged streets of stately edifices, where were only a 

 few scattered huts, surrounded by quagmires. Docks of unequalled size and grandeur 

 are building, and a forest of masts grows along the shore; and there is no doubt that this 

 young town is to be not only remarkable as a most agreeable and healthy place of resi- 

 dence, but that it will soon be distinguished for extensive and profitable commerce. It 

 seems to me to be the only town I ever saw that has been really built at all in accordance 

 Avith the advanced science, taste, and enterprising spirit that are supposed to distinguish 

 the nineteenth century. I do not doubt it might be found to have plenty of exceptions to 

 its general character, but I did not inquire for these, nor did I happen to observe them. 

 Certainly, in what I have noticed, it is a model town, and maybe held up as an example, 

 not only to philanthropists and men of taste, but to speculators and men of business. 



After leaving the Park, we ascended a hill, from the top of which we had a fine view of 

 Liverpool and Birkenhead. Its sides were covered with villas, with little gardens about 

 them. The architecture was generally less fantastic, and the style and materials of build- 

 ing more substantial than is usually employed in the same class of residences with us. 

 Yet there was a good deal of the same stuck up, and uneasy pretentious air about them, 

 that the suburban houses of our own city people so commonly have. Possibly this is the 

 ci^ect of association in my mind, of steady, reliable worth and friendship with plain or 

 old fashioned dwellings, for I often find it difficult to discover in the buildings themselves, 

 the elements of such expression. I am inclined to think it is more generally owing to 

 some disunity in the design — often perhaps to a want of keeping between the mansion and 

 its grounds or its situation. The architect and the gardener do not understand each other, 

 and commonly the owner or resident is tetally at variance in his tastes and intentions 

 from both; or the man whose ideas the plan is made to serve, or who pays for it, has no 

 true independent taste, but had fancies to be accommodated, which only follow confusedly 

 after custom or fashion. It is a pity that every man's house cannot be really his own, and 

 that he cannot make all that is true, beautiful, and good, in his own character, tastes, pur- 

 suits and history, manifest in it. 



But however fanciful and uncomfortable many of the villa houses about Liverpool and 

 Birkenhead appear at first sight, the substantial and thorough manner in which most of 

 them are built, Avill atone for many faults. The friendship of nature has been secured to 

 them. Dampness, heat, cold, will be welcome to do their best. Every day they willim- 



cos, mul ihe deepest public gratitude. Here nature may be viewed in her loveliest garb, the most obdurate heart may 

 be softened, aud the mind gently led to pursuits which refine, purify, and alleviate the humblest of the toil-worn." 



Few towns, in modern times, have been built with such regard to sanitary regulations, as Birkenhead, and in 

 instance has so much been done for the health, comfort and enjoyment, of a people, as by those energetic individu- 

 whose names the rise and progress of Birkeuliead are so intimately counecled." Dr. J. H. Robertson 



