JAMES MUSPRATT 83 



pleasant place of residence, may have been 

 the principal reasons that caused St. Helens 

 to be selected as the seat of the alkali trade 

 by Muspratt and Gamble. They invaded a 

 very prettily situated, nice little country town. 

 It was the residence of several well-to-do 

 families, who lived in substantial, comfortable 

 homes, attached to their shops, or close to 

 their business. Gardens and well-stocked 

 orchards ran from street to street, the roads 

 that led out from the town were lined with 

 avenues of trees, and on all sides were rich 

 farm lands, with well-cultivated hedges, and 

 abundant timber. The streams that con- 

 verged from Eccleston and Rainford, and ran 

 down the Newton and Sankey valleys to the 

 Mersey, were stocked with trout. If, when 

 these founders of the industry that would so 

 enrich this town, could, when they were 

 selecting the site, have had a vision of the 

 transformation they would initiate, they might 

 have shrunk from the enterprise. There lay 

 a smiling, peaceful valley, rich in fruits and 

 flowers, and a rippling, crystal brook : 



"And even while I drank the brook, and ate 

 The goodly apples, all these things at once 

 Fell into dust, and I was left alone 

 And thirsting, in a land of sand and thorns." 



