LIVERPOOL, 
that the ftreets are too narrow for health, convenience, or 
Ornament. In the ancient parts of the town, indeed, lit- 
tie attention Seems to have been paid to regularity or ele¬ 
gance ; and the houfes are fo crowded, that the inhabi¬ 
tants are more indebted for health to nature than art. 
Neatnefs and convenience feem to be the higheft points 
which the architecture here arrived at for many years. 
But the extension of commerce and increafe of opulence 
have introduced a tafte for fplendour. Several entire new 
Streets at the fouth end of the town, which have obtained 
the name of New Liverpool, are a proof of what is here 
advanced. One great beauty of the town feems to have 
efcaped the observation even of the natives ; that is, the 
gradual opening from the dock, at the bottom of Pool- 
lane, to St. George's church. This Street gradually rifes 
and extends in the form of a cornucopia, till it terminates 
in a fpacious market. In fhort, the town exhibits, at pre- 
fent, the appearance of opulence and refinement. The 
Itreets are well paved, and during winter tolerably fur¬ 
nished with lamps. Of late years it has received many 
great alterations and imprpvement;, which ftill continue 
to proceed notwithstanding the prefTure of tile times. 
In the year 1790, it confided of 8876 houfes; but their 
number now is little fhort of 15,000, of which 1406 are 
(July 1813) uninhabited. 
On the 14th of September, 1802, a fire broke out, the 
molt exteniive in its devastation which Liverpool has ever 
known ; and, in refpeCt to vvafte of property, one of the 
inoft destructive which has happened in the British domi¬ 
nions fince the great fire of London in 1666. A little 
before ten o’clock in the evening, a fmoke was obferved 
to iffue from a lower room in one of the largeft ware- 
houfes (laid to be occafioned by a fnuff of candle falling 
among Some fhavings), which continued to increafe for a 
confiderable time before the doors and windows were 
forced ; but, as foon as an entrance was given to the ex¬ 
ternal air, the fmothered flames burfl out with a violence 
and impetuofity that equally defied refiftance and approach. 
In a few hours this immenfe pile of warehoufes from 
Brunfwick-fireet to Water-ftreet, and alfo the noble 
range of warehoufes erefted in front, next to the dock, 
were reduced to a heap of ruins. Thefe piles of ware¬ 
houfes had for feveral years been the admiration of all, and 
probably were not to be matched in the whole world. 
The celebrated warehoufes at Antwerp, as well as thofe 
of Venice, equally famous, were neither fo lofty nor com¬ 
modious. The whole number defiroyed was about thirty, 
from fix to thirteen ftories high, and of a proportionable 
depth. The tide being fortunately at flood, it afforded 
an opportunity to the /hipping to remove beyond the 
reach of the flames. Providentally alfo not a Angle indi¬ 
vidual loft his life during the conflagration ; though one 
died in confequence of the bruifes he received by fome 
ruins falling upon him. The value of the property de- 
ftroyed, according to a medium computation, may be 
listed thus: Buildings, 52,000b fugar, 51,000b cotton, 
26,000!. coffee, and other Weft India produce, 40,0001. 
grain, ito,oool. tallow, hemp. See. i6,oool. total, 295,000). 
Liverpool has two weekly markets, Wednefday, and 
Saturday; fairs, July 25, Nov. 11, and every Wednefday 
fortnight for all forts of cattle. It is a corporate town, 
and feTids two members to parliament. It Lent members 
23 & 35 Edward I. but made no other return till the reign 
of Edward VI. It is governed by a mayor, annually 
chofen on St. Luke’s day, a recorder, and common-coun¬ 
cil of forty-one, including the mayor, recorder, and town- 
clerk. Whoever has borne the office of mayor is after¬ 
wards ityled an alderman. Right of election (1729, 
March 5) was agreed by the counfel on both fides to be 
'in the mayor, bailiffs', and freemen, of the fa id borough, 
and not receiving alms. Number of voters, 2300; re- 
turning-officcp’s, the mayor and two bailiffs. “ Previous 
to the reign of Charles II. the freemen at'large Cxerciled 
the right of chooiing their own mayor, aldermen, and 
common-council, as in the city of London; but about 
Vol- XII. No. 875. 
83 7 
that time the body corporate afiumed the power of filling 
up all vacancies, without their will and approbation j 
they have lately, however, refumed their right, which had 
been fo arbitrarily and illegally withheld from them. 
The freemen of Liverpool are free alfo of Briftol, and of 
Waterford and Wexford in Ireland.” Oldfield's Hiji. Bor . 
The members in the prefent parliament are li'aac Gafcoyne, 
efq. and the right hon. George Canning. Liverpool is 
20 miles north of Chefter, and 203 north-weft of London. 
Lat. 53.23.N. Ion. 2. 58. W. 
The boundaries of Liverpool extend confiderably be¬ 
yond the town in different directions. Thefe are marked 
by Stones, placed at certain diftances, called mcer-Jloncs. 
The fpace contained within thefe boundaries is called the 
liberties of the town ; and it is cuftomary for the mayor 
and corporation to ride round them annually. The ex¬ 
tent of thefe liberties from eaft to weft is 2300 yards, and 
from north to fouth 4420 yards. Near the town is a five- 
mile horfe-race courfe; the fineft, for its length, in Eng¬ 
land. 
Liverpool, with the country about it, including the 
fouthern part of Lancashire, formerly constituted a part 
of the kingdom of the Brigantes, according to Richard 
de Cirencefter, a monk of Weftminlter. In the time of 
the heptarchy, the country about Liverpool was a part of 
the kingdom of Northumberland ; the river Merfey being, 
in the Saxon times, the boundary of the kingdom of 
Mercia. 
From hence, the Merfey opening into the Irifti fea, may 
be feen the great and famous road of Hayle-Lake, re¬ 
markable for having been the rendezvous of the army 
and fleet under king William, for the conqueft of Ireland, 
anno 1689 ; for here the men of war rode, as our (hips do 
in the Downs, till the tranfports came to them from Chef¬ 
ter and this town. 
The foil is dry and fandy for two miles round Liver¬ 
pool. The north-eaft Shore difclofes a profpect of barren 
fands for an extent of twenty miles; between the town 
and Kirkdale is a fine vale of rich marl under the fur- 
face, which affords excellent pafture; this was formerly 
arable land. The land near the town is very fertile in po¬ 
tatoes, a root no lefs ufeful to the poor than agreeable to 
the rich and profitable to the farmer. The cultivation of 
this vegetable bas been fo much encouraged here, that 
the landholder frequently depends more upon a good crop 
of potatoes than of wheat or other grain. 
Six milesnorthofLiverpool,upon the Shore, nearCroSby- 
point, are the remains of a large foreft, extending, at pre¬ 
fent, upwards of a mile towards Formby. What might 
have been its original extent, either in that or in any other 
direction, feems at prefent impofiible to afeertain; but it 
is wonderful to remark, that velfiges of it are vifible, dip¬ 
ping weftwardly, even into the fea, which, doubtlefs, from 
the changes made in a Series of years, covers great part of 
the land on which a confiderable portion of it grew. 
Upon a Shore where there are frequent wrecks, and pieces 
of Ship-timber fo often thrown up, it is probable, from 
the fimilarity of appearances, that this foreft has not been 
often noticed with much distinction from Such wrecks of 
the Sea; but the fmalleft degree of inquisitive inspection 
is Sufficient to difeover, to a certainty, that this was ori¬ 
ginally a foreft, as there are num’oeriefs trunks of trees, 
handing uptight fome feet above the furface, in the yery 
places where they muft have grown, with their prodigious 
roots extending into the ground in all directions, in their 
natural pofitions, though a great part of tfieir branches, 
by being thrown promifeuouily about, exhibit, at the 
firft view, very much the appearance of an ancient Ship- 
wreck, or rather of many of them together. 
Having fatisfied the mind of the reality of a foreft, a 
confiderable degree of astonishment arifes on its being 
found in a place where it is impossible it Should have 
grown, Supposing the adjoining objefits to have been in 
the State they now are. Not that it is impofiible for trees 
to flourish on the fea-coait, experience having proved the 
joD contrary.; 
/ 
