10 A HANDBOOK FOR SOUTH PORT. 



Southport and for visitors that it may unhesitatingly be 

 pronounced unique. The Brighton and Westminster Aqua- 

 riums, which come nearest, have no actual gardens outside ; 

 here, on the other hand, the external portion is not inferior to 

 any part of what is covered in. The area of this fine property 

 is about nine acres. Possession of the ground was obtained 

 about 1872 by a Company whose first expenditure approached 

 ;ioo,ooo, and who certainly selected a site which it would 

 be impossible to consider other than the very best for such a 

 purpose, having its front entrance in the principal thoroughfare 

 of the town, tramway cars from north and south passing the 

 gates every few minutes. Looking out in the rear upon the 

 sea, the outside flower-gardens protected from high winds by 

 a peculiar local depression of the ground they occupy, what 

 locality more eligible could be found ? Crossing the bit of 

 garden space just within the gates, and entering by the 

 principal doorway, the steps upon the left hand lead into the 

 Aquarium, which is one of the completest in the kingdom, 

 containing some thirty or forty tanks, with pools also for sea- 

 lions and other large aquatic creatures. Upward steps from 

 the same point lead into a splendid Pavilion, 170 feet in length 

 and 44 in breadth, and which gives access at one extreme 

 to the great Concert Hall, fitted to hold an audience of 2,000, 

 and at the other to the Conservatory. When in 1805, Sir 

 James Edward Smith wrote his notice of the evening-primrose 

 for the original English Botany, he said his specimens came 

 from some dreary sands a few miles north of Liverpool ; they 

 were gathered at a place without a name. Now, upon the 

 very spot he speaks of, or close by, there is the noblest and 

 loftiest botanical palace after Kew and Chatsworth existing 



