[Illustration: THE PERCH ROCK LIGHT.]
The American transatlantic tourist, after a week or more spent upon the
ocean, is usually glad to again see the land. After skirting the bold
Irish coast, and peeping into the pretty cove of Cork, with Queenstown
in the background, and passing the rocky headlands of Wales, the steamer
that brings him from America carefully enters the Mersey River. The
shores are low but picturesque as the tourist moves along the estuary
between the coasts of Lancashire and Cheshire, and passes the great
beacon standing up solitary and alone amid the waste of waters, the
Perch Rock Light off New Brighton on the Cheshire side. Thus he comes to
the world's greatest seaport--Liverpool--and the steamer finally drops
her anchor between the miles of docks that front the two cities,
Liverpool on the left and Birkenhead on the right. Forests of masts loom
up behind the great dock-walls, stretching far away on either bank,
while a fleet of arriving or departing steamers is anchored in a long
line in mid-channel. Odd-looking, low, black tugs, pouring out thick
smoke from double funnels, move over the water, and one of them takes
the passengers alongside the capacious structure a half mile long, built
on pontoons, so it can rise and fall with the tides, and known as the
Prince's Landing-Stage, where the customs officers perform their brief
formalities and quickly let the visitor go ashore over the fine floating
bridge into the city.
At Liverpool most American travellers begin their view of England. It is
the great city of ships and sailors and all that appertains to the sea,
and its 550,000 population are mainly employed in mercantile life and
the myriad trades that serve the ship or deal in its cargo, for fifteen
thousand to twenty thousand of the largest vessels of modern commerce
will enter the Liverpool docks in a year, and its merchants own
7,000,000 tonnage. Fronting these docks on the Liverpool side of the
Mersey is the great sea-wall, over five miles long, behind which are
enclosed 400 acres of water-surface in the various docks, that are
bordered by sixteen miles' length of quays. On the Birkenhead side of
the river there are ten miles of quays in the docks that extend for over
two miles along the bank. These docks, which are made necessary to
accommodate the enormous commerce, have cost over $50,000,000, and are
the crowning glory of Liverpool. They are filled with the ships of all
nations, and huge storehouses line the quays, containing products from
all parts of the globe, yet chiefly the grain and cotton, provisions,
tobacco, and lumber of America. Railways run along the inner border of
the docks on a street between them and the town, and along their tracks
horses draw the freight-cars, while double-decked passenger-cars also
run upon them with broad wheels fitting the rails, yet capable of being
run off whenever the driver wishes to get ahead of the slowly-moving
freight-cars. Ordinary wagons move upon Strand street alongside, with
horses of the largest size drawing them, the huge growth of the
Liverpool horses being commensurate with the immense trucks and vans to
which these magnificent animals are harnessed.
Liverpool is of great antiquity, but in the time of William the
Conqueror was only a fishing-village. Liverpool Castle, long since
demolished, was a fortress eight hundred years ago, and afterward the
rival families of Molineux and Stanley contended for the mastery of the
place. It was a town of slow growth, however, and did not attain full
civic dignity till the time of Charles I. It was within two hundred
years that it became a seaport of any note. The first dock was opened in
1699, and strangely enough it was the African slave-trade that gave the
Liverpool merchants their original start. The port sent out its first
slave-ship in 1709, and in 1753 had eighty-eight ships engaged in the
slave-trade, which carried over twenty-five thousand slaves from Africa
to the New World that year. Slave-auctions were frequent in Liverpool,
and one of the streets where these sales were effected was nicknamed
"Negro street." The agitation for the abolition of the trade was carried
on a long time before Liverpool submitted, and then privateering came
prominently out as the lucrative business a hundred years ago during the
French wars, that brought Liverpool great wealth. Next followed the
development of trade with the East Indies, and finally the trade with
America has grown to such enormous proportions in the present century as
to eclipse all other special branches of Liverpool commerce, large as
some of them are. This has made many princely fortunes for the merchants
and shipowners, and their wealth has been liberally expended in
beautifying their city. It has in recent years had very rapid growth,
and has greatly increased its architectural adornments. Most amazing has
been this advancement since the time in the last century when the mayor
and corporation entertained Prince William of Gloucester at dinner, and,
pleased at the appetite he developed, one of them called out, "Eat away,
Your Royal Highness; there's plenty more in the kitchen!" The mayor was
Jonas Bold, and afterwards, taking the prince to church, they were
astonished to find that the preacher had taken for his text the words,
"Behold, a greater than Jonas is here."
[Illustration: ST. GEORGE'S HALL.]
Liverpool has several fine buildings. Its Custom House is a large Ionic
structure of chaste design, with a tall dome that can be seen from afar,
and richly decorated within. The Town Hall and the Exchange buildings
make up the four sides of an enclosed quadrangle paved with broad
flagstones. Here, around the attractive Nelson monument in the centre,
the merchants meet and transact their business. The chief public
building is St. George's Hall, an imposing edifice, surrounded with
columns and raised high above one side of an open square, and costing
$2,000,000 to build. It is a Corinthian building, having at one end the
Great Hall, one hundred and sixty-nine feet long, where public meetings
are held, and court-rooms at the other end. Statues of Robert Peel,
Gladstone, and Stephenson, with other great men, adorn the Hall. Sir
William Brown, who amassed a princely fortune in Liverpool, has
presented the city with a splendid free library and museum, which stands
in a magnificent position on Shaw's Brow. Many of the streets are lined
with stately edifices, public and private, and most of these avenues
diverge from the square fronting St. George's Hall, opposite which is
the fine station of the London and North-western Railway, which, as is
the railroad custom in England, is also a large hotel. The suburbs of
Liverpool are filled for a wide circuit with elegant rural homes and
surrounding ornamental grounds, where the opulent merchants live. They
are generally bordered with high stone walls, interfering with the view,
and impressing the visitor strongly with the idea that an Englishman's
house is his castle. Several pretty parks with ornamental lakes among
their hills are also in the suburbs. Yet it is the vast trade that is
the glory of Liverpool, for it is but an epitome of England's commercial
greatness, and is of comparatively modern growth. "All this," not long
ago said Lord Erskine, speaking of the rapid advancement of Liverpool,
"has been created by the industry and well-disciplined management of a
handful of men since I was a boy."