Aug. 



1884.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



163 



oxpanse, and fit for the haven of commercial fleets. This 

 was, I believe, the Seteia iEstuarium of Ptolemy. About a 

 ceDtiiiy fand a h;ilf since the Dee from Queenferry to 

 Chester was embanked, and thereby the agricultural area 

 of these ii-lands gained about 50,000 acres. For persons of 

 true pedestrian tastes, a ramble from Parkgate to Hoylake 

 along the high ground parallel with the coast here has 

 greac charms, and in the vicinity may be seen the favourite 

 resorts of many of the merchant princes of Liverpool. 



Birkenhead — which originated in a Benedictine Priory 

 of the twelfth century, possessing the importatit monopoly 

 of the ferrits over the Mersey — is a place of commerce, 

 and in its present aspect in no way resembles the Berkin 

 de Birchen of Edward III. Then one vast, beautiful forest 

 extended in leafy luxuriance from the Dee to the Ribble, 

 and thus amply justified an old local distich — 



From Birchen haven to Hiltre 



A squirrel might hop from tree to tree. 



The shores of the Dee, by the way, are memorable as the 

 place whence the English freelances and other worthies 

 of the feudal time used regularly to set out for excur- 

 sions to Ireland — excursions which, doubtless, sowed the 

 fatal seeds of nineteenth-century Fenianism. 



Traversing the coast at Bidston Hill is the historic 

 Liverpool Observatory. I say historic, for here all the 

 chronometers go to be regulated, and the equatorial of 

 twelve feet focal length and eight and a half inch aperture, 

 with other special scientific appliances, are worthy tobeduly 

 chronicled — more so than the doings of many of the iron- 

 clothed gentlemen who found these remote shores a good 

 place for rendezvous when on spoliation bent. From the 

 lighthouse here a magnificent view can be had both of the 

 estuaries of the Dee and of the Mersey, of Liverpool, that 

 lordly seat of British commerce ; of Birkenhead, Seacomb, 

 Hoylake, Flint, a long and grand expanse of distant Welsh 

 mountains, and, nearer to the gazer by far. New Brighton, 

 which is just a pretty medley of seaside houses and hotels 

 standing on a sandy promontory north of Birkenhead, and 

 commanding extensive and lovely views of the Irish Sea. 

 The lighthouse here is constructed of Anglesea granite, 

 and cemented with a peculiar volcanic substance, brought, 

 I am told, from Etna, and possessing the useful property 

 of hardening more and more with the lapse of time. 



One place on this coast must not be overlooked, that is 

 Leasowl Castle, a singular quaint erection near a shoal 

 known as Mookbeggar Wharf. This spot is associated with 

 a racecourse, and as long ago as 1593 races were run here, 

 and it was about then that Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, built 

 Leasowl as a sportsman's lodge. It is said that the unfor- 

 tunate Duke of Monmouth was prominent in one of these 

 races in 1683, and once on a time Leasowl was quite a 

 centre of Lancashire fashion. Although the magnificent 

 forests which once clothed these shores in such sylvan 

 beauty have long since perished, ample traditions thereof 

 remain in the neighbourhood, and in the hall at Leasowl 

 are preserved specimens of the Cervus elephas, not to speak 

 of fibuhe and rings which silently remind us of the grandest 

 civilisation of the Pagan world. 



We now enter the region of the great Pennine range, 

 that vast expanse of lofty moorlands and enormous 

 masses of hill and mountain stretching south of the famous 

 Cheviot hills. These ranges lie much nearer the Irish Sea 

 than to the North Sea, and reach considerable altitudes — 

 Cross Fell being 3,000 ft. ; Mickle Fell, 2,591 ft. ; Whern- 

 side, 2,41-1 ft. ; and Ingleborough, 2,373 ft. above the sea 

 level. The Cumbrian group of mountains lie in the west 

 of the Pennine Chain, which is, in a manner, continued 

 right down to the Cornish highlands, and is bound to the 



main range by lofty moorlands, beginning near Whernside. 

 These moorlands dip and form the striking pass of Shapfell 

 — the commercial road between all West England and 

 Scotland — and north of Sliapfell is the broad and beautiful 

 valley of the Eden, ending in the famous estuary of the 

 upiier portion of the Sol way Firth. Southward is the 

 narrow estuary of the River Lune, on which stands 

 Overton, whose inhabitants have become celebrated 

 through their quaint petition, that, being surrounded 

 by the sea twice every twenty-four hours, they might 

 have a minister of their own instead of being 

 obliged to go to Heysham. The Lune, which gave its 

 name to Lancaster, doubtless, as antiquaries tell us, the 

 Lengovicum of Roman days, flows into Morecambe Bay, 

 one of the most beautiful indentations of the whole English 

 norih-west coast. Inland, within the wild and picturesque 

 region bounded by the Lune on the one hand and the 

 Sol way Firth on the other, soars up in great grandeur a 

 compact and somewhat circular mass of mountains, preci- 

 pitous in general upon their northern and western faces, 

 but subsiding gently to the wide sweep of Morecambe Bay 

 in long and easy declivities. From the centre of this 

 group, which imparts such a distinctive and romantic 

 character to the north-west of England, there soars up the 

 " mighty Llewellyn " (3,118 feet) as Scott calls it. Then 

 there is the famous Skiddaw (3,054 feet), embalmed in the 

 somewhat obsolete poetry of Southey, and Scafell, already 

 mentioned, the loftiest peak in all England ; and southward 

 the hills slope away into the sea in the picturesque penin- 

 sula of Furness. Within, of course, is the great series of 

 lakes, but with these I have here no concern. 



Returning to the shore I note that on the pretty penin- 

 sula formed by the mouths of the Lune and the Cocker 

 may be seen the ruins of Cockersand Abbey, once occupy- 

 ing the third place among the proud array of Lancashire 

 monasteries, and, subsequently to the Reformation, falling 

 into the possession of the Dalton family, who raised a 

 whole regiment of cavalry for the service of Charles I. All 

 along the coast, or but a little way inland, are to be found 

 objects of great interest to archMologists. 



Morecambe Bay receives the waters of the Lune, the 

 Keer, the Winster, the Kent, and the Leven rivers, and is 

 set in the midst of some of the very finest scenery in these 

 islands. The coast is remarkable for its very picturesque 

 sinuosities, and is characterised by its many lovely valleys, 

 its noble parks, and in many cases rich woods, that come 

 down to the very .shores. The towns on or near the coast 

 are mostly ancient, and all are rich in historic associations 

 and generally abound in archaic remains of great and 

 enduring interest ; and in few, if any, regions of England 

 are such truly picturesque villages to be found. 



When the tide is out the enormous stretches of sand 

 form an extensive plain which, in olden days, was traversed 

 by the famous "Over sands" coach running from Lancaster 

 to Ulverston. But the route was always perilous, con- 

 sequent on the shifting nature of the sands and the action 

 of the rivers flowing into the vast Bay. In one churchyard 

 alone are the graves of over one hundred persons drowned 

 while attempting, at dangerous seasons, the passage of the 

 alluring but treacherous sands ; and many are the legends 

 current in the locality of hair-breadth escapes and romantic 

 episodes connected with the far-stretching Bay. The rail- 

 way constructed across the bend of Morecambe Bay ranks 

 high as among the most remarkable achievements of modern 

 engineering science, and was beset with extraordinary 

 difficulties. The works are a monument of the genius of 

 Mr. Brunlees, and have resulted inter alia in restoring 

 land to agriculture where for generations fishermen cast 

 their nets. The whole region abounds in places of interest, 



