254 Country Rambles. 



collection also of ancient weapons, miscellaneous curio- 

 sities, and paintings. A wonderful and probably unique 

 spectacle, as regards our own country, is presented upon 

 entering the quadrangle. A very considerable portion 

 of its large area is occupied by a pair of yew trees, much 

 older than the building itself, and to accommodate 

 which the builder seems to have given his first thought 

 while measuring, not forgetting that while his walls 

 would remain unchanged, the trees would grow. They 

 are not of the same age. The yew being one of the 

 trees which are distinctly unisexual, it is plain that the 

 object in introducing the second individual was to 

 secure red berries, such as are still produced abundantly 

 every year. In 1736 the Speke estate passed, through a 

 marriage, into the hands of one of the Beauclerk family, 

 concerning whom the historians seem to care to say no 

 more than is needful; and in 1780 it was purchased by 

 Mr. Richard Watt, an opulent Liverpool merchant. 

 Continuing in his family, it is now held by the lady 

 Miss Ada Watt whose kindly permission to enter the 

 gates is indispensable. 



Hale, renowned for its cottage-gardens, with lilies and 

 roses beyond the counting, is a quiet, peaceful, salubrious 

 little place, claiming celebrity as regards historical men- 

 tion long anterior to that of Liverpool. When the site 

 of that wealthy city was known to few but fishermen, 

 Hale, so its people assert, already possessed a royal 

 charter. To-day the archaeologist turns with interest to 

 the remains of a mansion which in its way must have 



