48 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



ers here are tanned hemp, having the appearance, at a little 

 distance, of old worn brown velvet. In sailing qualities the 

 advantage is every way with us ; in the build, the rig, and in 

 the cut, as well as the material of the sails ; for our cotton 

 duck will hold the wind a great deal the best. Ninety-nine 

 in a hundred of our single-masted market-boats, in a light 

 wind, would run around the fastest coaster in the Mersey 

 with the greatest ease. They are not calculated at all for 

 working to windward, but are stiff and weatherly, and do very 

 well for boxing through the Channel, I suppose ; but for such 

 business we should rig schooner fashion, and save the expense 

 of an extra hand, which must be wanted to handle their heavy 

 mainsail and boom. Further up, we saw on the beach sev 

 eral cutter-rigged yachts. They were wide of beam, broad 

 sterned, sharp built, and deep, like our sea-going clippers. 



The immediate shores grew low as we entered the Mersey. 

 It was nearly calm, but though the surface of the water was 

 glassy smooth, it was still heaving with the long muscular 

 swell of the sea until we reached the town. We approached 

 nearer the land, where, on the right hand, there was a bluff 

 point, bare of trees, with large rocks cropping out at its base ; 

 beneath the rocks a broad, hard, sand beach, and ]ow on the 

 water s edge, a castle of dark-brown stone, the only artificial 

 defence, that I noticed, of the harbour. The high ground was 

 occupied by villas belonging to merchants of Liverpool, and 

 the place is called New Brighton, and bearing a resemblance 

 to our New Brighton. There is the same barrenness of 

 foliage, and some similarity in the style of the houses, though 

 there, are none so outrageously out of taste as some of those 

 that obtrude upon the scenery of Staten Island, and none 

 so pretty as some of the less prominent there. 



As we entered the cloud that had hitherto interrupted our 

 view in front, we could see, on the left, many tall chimneys 



