72 



IX. CONCLUSION 



One cannot reflect upon those things without mingled 

 feelings of pleasure and melancholy. Within the geogra- 

 phical limits known as " the Port of Liverpool" these 

 articles have been brought to light. This village, with its 

 church and burying ground, have probably been submerged; 

 this spacious harbour has become a sandbank, and the locality 

 of the dense bank has become a pathway for ships. Within 

 the same limits, the deserted village has become a town of 

 warehouses : the retreat of the monk and the eremite has 

 become a wharf for the commerce of all nations ; and the 

 secluded park echoes to the hammer of the workman. 

 Through the smoke of a hundred steam-boats we look upon 

 the ivied ruins of an ancient abbey ; and the changers of 

 money, or the merchants in our modern Tyrus, pause 

 among the competing attractions of sugar casks and cotton 

 bales, to examine the buckle of a knightly belt, or the pin 

 that fastened a Saxon maiden's hair. 



I am convinced that there are more such relics in our 

 neighbourhood, if one only knew where to find them ; and 

 I cannot conclude these remarks without expressing a hope 

 that, imperfect and perhaps erroneous as some of them are, 

 they may yet serve to bring to light something that will be 

 less doubtful, and at the same time more interesting and 

 valuable. 



FOURTEENTH MEETING. 



ROYAL INSTITUTION, June \st, 1846. 

 The PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



The President read a letter from St. Vincent, giving 

 an account of a singular phenomenon exhibited by a river 

 there, which, after entirely disappearing amidst the masses 

 of volcanic matter, following the eruption of a neighbour- 

 ing volcano in 1812, had subsequently re-appeared, and 

 found its way to the sea. During dry weather, however, 

 it flows in a continuous course to the sea, whilst in rainy 



