'Twixt Mersey and Dee

Preface

. "Let bygones be bygones" is a phrase by no means to be taken literally, it just depends what the bygones are. The young look forward to life to come, the old look backward on life that has been, and with what clinging love do the old folk croon together, recalling the happy past with the preface "I remember." Such bygones are pleasures to recount. New people arise, scenes change, but memory reverts to the bygones and pleasantly calls back the days that are now on history's record. From farm to village, from town to city, the humble beginning has its invariable interest. Though the records are chiefly old time histories in this book, many incidents that have happened during the present generation will be given place, but the real cause of its existence was suggested by the easy access to outlying villages in the peninsula of Wirral afforded by new lines of railway.

The idea occurred to me that an afternoon's outing might be made more agreeable if a guide book were put together showing the principal features worthy of inspection in some of the rising hamlets between the Mersey and

PREFACE.

. VI the Dee, interspersed with local histories, antiquities, etc., and remarks upon some of the more interesting persons who may have dwelt therein. The publication of the little work, "Memories of Birkenhead," and its gratifying reception, was a strong incentive to go farther afield. In closing these intro ductory remarks, I wish to acknowledge the kindness of the Liverpool Corporation in permitting the repro duction of the local sketches by W. G. Herdman, the rights of which are reserved to this book only ; of Mr. G. H. Parry, of the same library, to whose clever draughtsmanship I am indebted for the copy of the survey of Granville Collins ; of John Hargreaves, Esq., Eock Ferry, and many others who have assiduously con tributed items from their stores of knowledge. HILDA GAMLIN. Camden Lawn, Birkenhead.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. The River Dee, 1684-1689 frontispiece. Woodside Ferry, 1791 4 Sectional View shewing Roman Bridge ... ... 27 Old Town Hall and Courthouse, Birkenhead ... 52 Eastham Village 72 Bebington Church ... ... ... ... ... 74 Bebington Village ... ... ... ... ... 77 Port Sunlight 81, 82 Bidston Lighthouse and Observatory 90 Gateway of Bidston Hall ... ... ... ... 115 Leasowe Castle ... ... ... ... ... ... 126 Seacombe Potteries, 1841 ... ... •■■ ••• 132 New Brighton Pier and Promenade ... ... 136 New Brighton Lighthouse 139 Old Hoyle Lake Lighthouse 145 West Kirby Church 168 Bishop Wilson's Birthplace, Burton Village ... 232 Parkgate 254 The Hall, Birkenhead Priory PAGE CONTENTS.

Chapter I

The Abbey of Birkenhead— Vale Royal— The Old Hall— A Visitor to the Ruins of the Abbey in 1822, and what he found there 1

Chapter II

St. Mary's Church — Canon Knox — Mr. John Aspinall makes a Presentation — Shipbuilding commences — Waterloo Place, and those who lived there — The good old-fashioned Shops — Mr. Hugh Williams — Woodside Perry — The Old Stage Coaches — Birket River — Discovery of a buried Roman Bridge ....... 11

Chapter III

The Fete at the Opening of Birkenhead Hotel — The Brothers Willoughby — The hunting days — Keen business men buy land— The First Settlers — Practical Joking — Mr. William Cole — Notes in the First Rate-book — The Opening of Birkenhead Market — Mr. Joseph Pirn — Birkenhead Park— The Police Force— The Riots ... .32

Chapter IV

Steam-boats arrive in the Mersey — Bad Repute of the River Boatmen — Their impositions and risky ventures — Lines by a Gentlemen detained in the Isle of Man in the last century — The King's Tailor buys the Rock Ferry — Nathaniel Hawthorne's Notes on Rock Ferry ... X CONTENTS. PAGE 65

Chapter V

Oxton — Eastham — The Church and old Yew Tree — The picturesque Village — Pool Hall — An old Stage Coachman's Hoax — Bebington seen by Nathaniel Hawthorne — Thomas Francis — The Mayer Museum — Joseph Mayer, Esq., F.S.A.— Port Sunlight— Bromborough— The Battle of Brunenburh ......"..

Chapter VI

Cheshire Customs and Sayings — Bidston Early in Present Century — Harvest Games — The Cake Play — Neck Cutting — Prison Bars — Country Observances — Old-fashioned Servants ; their Wages, and Accounts of Masters for Moneys Advanced — Bidston Windmill — Bidston Parish Church — Mural Tablets — Churchwardens' Accounts — Rogation Day Procession at Wallasey — Old Robinson's WiU 87

Chapter VIII

Leasowe Castle — James, Duke of Monmouth, at the Races — Old Racing Stables at Wallasey — Different Owners of Leasowe Castle— The Lighthouse — Rules about Star Grass or Rushes— The Wreck of the Smack Emblematic— Prehistoric Remains — Tidal Changes — Submarine Forest — Treasure Trove — Wrecks and Wreckers — New Brighton — Edwin Waugh 119

Chapter IX

Miss Seward's Visit to Hoy lake — The New Royal Hotel- Its Lights Conducive to Shipwrecks— Samuel Baxter Buys the Township — John Eccles Buys the Manor House with much Legal Formality— The Church of Holy Trinity— Cast Ashore— Meols Reaches .... CONTENTS. XI

Chapter X. Page

West Kirby— Date Tablets— The Parish Church— The Sundial's Bill— What the Weathercock Cost— The Bells— The Cow Charity — Charles Dawson Brown — Historic Stone Portraits about the Church — The Rector's remonstrance with the Matrons — Mural Stones — Stained Glass Memorial Windows — The Local Autocrat — Superstitions — Convalescent Home for Children — Hilbre Island — Earls of Chester in trouble — Festival of the Musicianers — Ayton's Visit to Hilbre .... 1C0

Chapter XI

Calday Manor and Grammar School — Bennett's Charity — The Troublesome Schoolmaster — Decay of Important Local Families — The Rathbones of West Kirby — Heswall — Mural Tablets — The Local Burial Ground — The Heswall People Staunch to Queen Caroline — Thurstaston — Irby — Gleggs of Irby and Grange inherit Backford 18C

Chapter XII

Neston — The Old Quay House— The Parish Church — In the Belfry Tower— The Church Struck by Lightning— The Old Vicarage — Archdeacon Clarke meets his Match — Date Tablets— The Royal Oak — Ladies' Club — Mr. James Stonehouse — His Rhymes — His Tribute to Charles Dickens — The Barnacle Geese — Billy Kemp — Sands o'Dee 203

Chapter XIII

Burton Village — The Congreves of Burton — Interesting Historical Pictures at Burton Hall — Tablets in the Church — Bishop Wilson — Elizabethan inspection of Arms — Burton Head — Discovery of, Skeletons — Denhall — The Collieries — King William III at Gayton— Edward Tarlton's Unpaid Bill — The Church at Woodchurch — Colonel Vincent Ashfield King .... CONTENTS. 283

Chapter XIV. Page

The- River Dee— The Holy Legend— Parkgate— Notable Passengers from Parkgate to Ireland — Theophilus Cibber Drowned at Sea — Shipwrecks : Lawsuits in consequence — Emma, Lady Hamilton at Parkgate — A most Fashionable Watering Place— The George Hotel— A Chat with Mrs. Duncan, the last of the Bathing Women at Parkgate — Mrs. Fitzherbert — The Schools — In Memory of Nelson Burt —Mr. Churton's Donkey Race .... 241

Chapter XV

Samuel William Ryley, "the Itinerant" — His home at Parkgate — His Life Story— Charles Matthews befriends him — Nannie Guile — Old Ryley's Poverty and Death — The Rev. Mr. Grenfell tries to coax the tide — Plans in 1825 to form a Ship Canal from Parkgate to Manchester — " The Scene was changed" ........ 203

Chapter XVI

Rise and Decline of the Great Birkenhead Landowners — " And their place knew them not" — The Worsleys, Clevelands, Prices of Bryn-y-Pys, and Pulestons of Emral

Chapter I

The Abbey of Birkenhead— Vale Royal— The Old Hall-A Visitor to the Ruins of the Abbey in 1822, and what he found there. RUINED Abbey! A lingering relic of the buried past, the majesty of its decay is mighter than modem masonry in its best facings. Therein the monks kept tedious vigils, held their fasts and feasts, and lived their pious lives. From the dim cloisters rose the sound of psalm and chanted hymn, a song of peace upon the quiet land. Vassal and lord sought refuge from troubled lives within its sacred walls ; and now the ancient pile stands ruined — deserted — and nature, regarding the crumbling relics with compassionate eye, with graceful art weaves round them time's verdant crown, and at their base the long-past race lie mouldering in forgotten graves. The Benedictine Monastery, dedicated to St. Mary and St. James, and made subordinate to the Abbey of St. Werburgh of Chester, the remains of which stand near Monk's Perry, was founded as far back as 1153, and was occupied, as is usual in similar monastic communities, in charitable offices, prayer, and manual labour.

The pious founder, Hamon de Massie, baron of Dunham Massey, son and heir of Hamon the fourth, made certain gifts of land and church to be enjoyed by the brotherhood of the Abbey of Birkenhead. The land consisted of small crofts of about one acre, but the more important donation was that of the Church of Bowden, its advowson, and all appurtenances, "to have and to hold unto the said Prior of the Convent of Birkenhead, there serving God ; and his successors for ever." One of the monks from Birkenhead was buried in Bowden Church in 1328, by name Robert de Millenton. In 1277 King Edward I visited the abbey, passing up the river to Stanlaw, rowed in the abbot's barge, early in the month of August. From Stanlaw he pro ceeded to lay the foundation stone of a new abbey, in keeping with a religious vow he had made when threat ened with the disaster of shipwreck.

He reached the shore in safety, and selected one of the most fertile spots in England whereon to erect the commemoration of his gratitude for deliverance from death at sea. The situation was so beautiful, and the surrounding country yielded such an abundance of all that was needful for man's use, that the appropriate name was bestowed upon it of the Vale Royal of England. Into this monastery he removed an order of Cistercian monks who wished to vacate their own priory of Denhall. On the site of the Bluecoat Hospital at Chester, there formerly stood the Hospital of St. John the Bap tist, founded by Randal Blundeville. It contained a master, three chaplains, and thirteen citizens of Chester " being poor and sillie or poor and feeble persons." By a charter of Edward II it was given to the Prior of Bir kenhead and his successors.

The pensioners, according to their founder's directions, were to have each a good loaf daily, a great dish of pottage, a piece of flesh or fish, and half a gallon of competent ale ! — a tolerable allowance for a poor and feeble person ! Notwithstand ing the apparent free luxury to be obtained in this hospital, in the reign of Edward III it only maintained one chaplain and six poor women, and it fell away so much that, under Henry VIII, the Corporation of Chester lectured the Prior of Birkenhead for not keeping the hospital as designed by the founder, to which his reply seems reasonable, namely, that the revenues were not sufficient ! During the siege of Chester the hospital was destroyed, but was afterwards rebuilt by Colonel R. Whitley, to whom Charles II gave the estate for life ; the reversion was afterwards given to the Corporation of Chester.

Birkenhead Priory has successively been known as Bricheoed, Byrkett, Birkehedde, and Burkett Wood Priory. The Priory at Birkenhead nestled among the shad ing foliage of the luxuriant aged oak trees which composed Birket Wood. The brotherhood tilled the soil, and carried their produce to Liverpool on market days ; they rented a house in Water Street, where they warehoused whatever was not disposed of. It was called " Ye Granery to Birket Priory," and was sold when the Priory was dissolved. In the time of Edward II, travellers were sorely dis tressed in passing from Chester to Liverpool by way of Birket Priory, for want of a house for rest and refresh ment, and the Priory in consequence was burdened with charges, and strained in its hospitality beyond its re sources ; therefore the King empowered the monks to build houses for the relief of such wayfarers.

In his majesty granted the license to the Prior which enabled him to give accommodation to those who were detained on the coast on account of " the contrariety of weather, and frequent storms." The ferry charges were twopence for a horseman, and a farthing for anyone on foot, but on Saturdays and Liverpool market day a halfpenny, and for a man and what he could carry, a penny. Small as the sum seems, considering the labour entailed, it was, however, ob jected to as exorbitant, and an action was commenced against the Prior by one William Braas in the reign of Edward III. The ferry used by the monks was in all probability on the verge of Birket Pool, its sheltered situation and shallowness being a better harbour and safer landing place than any other on the adjacent bank. In the 27th year of the reign of Henry VIII, an Act of Parliament granted to the King all monasteries and priories under the annual value of £200, and, as the revenue of Birket Priory did not produce that amount, it lapsed to his majesty.

The Chapel of the Priory was used as a domestic chapel* after the Reformation till augmented by Queen Anne's bounty. On the right of the Priory stood what was called "Birket House," and in later years "The Hall." It possessed no particular excellence as a building, but had a most desirable site on a fertile spot of rising ground surrounded by a plantation. During the civil wars which troubled the reign of * On the 26th of September, 1816, was married " at Birkenhead Chapel, James Aspinall, Esq., son of John Bridge Aspinall, Esq., of Cleongar Hall, in Cheshire, to Harriet, daughter of William Charles Lake, Esq., of Birkenhead Priory." This was before St. Mary's Church was built, and other examples might be given. WOODSIDE FERRY IN Charles I, this house was garrisoned by his troops, who thus commanded the passage to the river ; but on Sep tember 22, 1644, it was taken by the Parliamentarians.

In a letter written the next day is said: "This last night the enemy possessed themselves of Birket House, in Worrall, wherein we had a small garrison." Mr. Parry Price rebuilt and added to the Hall. It passed through varied phases, being at one time a farm house, then a boarding school, a temporary chapel, a lodging house, etc. In 1843 the Hall (which was last tenanted by Mrs. Leycester, and then called the Priory) was pulled down, and its site and gardens laid out in streets. The building material was made use of to erect two houses on either side of Quarry Bank, in Whetstone Lane. A walk from the Woodside Boat House, across the fields, to Birkenhead Priory was, early in this century, considered a retired promenade on the margin of the river. The view from this point embraced Helsby Hills and Beeston Castle.

The venerable pile of the Abbey ruins and the Hall were the sole structures in the landscape, and the time-worn, stunted oak trees which abounded on the southern promontory of Birkenhead gave a picturesque beauty to the scene. In the sketches of the Abbey, early in this century, the refectory was connected with the chapter house by three fine gothic archways, the boundary of a former portion of the edifice. A casual visitor to the Abbey in 1822 has left a curious record of his peregrinations. The article in question enlarges upon the spacious landscape and its rural luxuriance, and its readers are told that it will perhaps not be a matter of astonishment that an average of at least one hundred persons daily visit Birkenhead during the summer. Of course these embraced indivi duals of varied tastes and characters, who indulged in a custom still extant of writing on doors and walls, and carving on trees, which had been practised within the Abbey to such an extent that it would be difficult to find a spot where another signature might be put without eradicating a predecessor.

Although nearly a century has elapsed since the incisions were made, the trunk of the old tree in the centre of the refectory is still to be seen lettered from the ground to a height beyond the reach of man standing on terra firma. Faint traces of letters can be found op the stones of the edifice, but they are almost obliterated by the elements. " He cut our names upon a tree And said that we should stand, When he came back to me, And read them hand in hand." Upon that tree initials in hearts, circles, diamonds and squares bespeak the loves of two generations back — love that looked forward to happy life to come. A venerable tree, with countless letters embedded in its bark, and like enough no man lives who cut one. A new deal door, at the north-west entrance, the writer of 1822 found to have been most favoured by those who wished to memorialise their visit.

To use his own words, " Not a few lead pencils have been absorbed in the ocean of names." The door remains, but all names have faded away. There were hundreds of initials from A to Z. Several Mr., Mrs., Jane, Mary, Eliza, and the like homely names of our female fore bears ; coupled with Henry, Charles, Alfred, etc. ; and he took the opportunity of informing Mr. and Mrs. S., of Manchester, August 12, that J. A. had libelled them by attaching — Not Married ; and the same person charged James Watt, of Bolton, with being drunk last Sunday. Others, like Satan reproving sin, subjoined reproof such as, " A white wall serves paper for a fool," and 'Tis empty glory sure to scrawl a name Where any fool a passport finds to fame. In the refectory, a wit had scratched the following couplet — Here revelled once the fat old monks On prime strong hock and good rich junks.

Over the refectory door that led to the cemetery of the then newly-built St. Mary's Church — To this complexion we must come at last. And near the door of the cells was — 'Tis now the dwelling of the toad. 'Tis now the serpent's dark abode Others of higher thought had inscribed, " Prepare to meet thy God ; " and in a conspicuous place was Watts' couplet — Life is the time to serve the Lord, The time t' insure the great reward. The concluding sentence of the notetaker is, "I cannot but express a wish that the proprietor would give in structions to cut down the sycamore trees in the north chamber, which, though they contribute to the temp orary beauty of the dormitory, will only hasten the entire dilapidation of these interesting remains. Al ready has the destructive ivy insinuated itself through nearly all the interstices of the walls and cloisters, and the entire disappearance of the east wing seems likely to detract in a very few years from the beauty of the landscape."

Prophetic admonition ! The fine gothic windows and columns have gone — not a vestige remains to mark where they stood. The remains of this interesting abbey are well worthy of the attention of the antiquarian, the old stones heaped in heedless ruin bear close inspection ; the carving being curious and well defined, the nume rous heads, male and female, whether of king, queen, lady, knight, priest or scholar, are in excellent preser vation,* and absence of appreciation on the part of custodians is too plainly in evidence. The utter neglect of the dormitory is painful to notice, yet it contains primitive workmanship of great interest and admits of pleasurable examination. The window of what may have been the private oratory of the Prior is a curious specimen of rough and ancient contrivance.

Small as was the window, the outside is embellished with three fine stone heads in good condition, though partly con cealed by pendant ivy.t In the year 1818, as the grave diggers were preparing a grave for a Mrs. Rowlands, of Chester, they dug up the stone now inserted in the wall of the chapter house by the entrance door, bearing the inscription to the me mory of one of the priors, Thomas Rayneford, who was inducted to the Priory in 1460, and held office for thirteen years. The date on the stone is 1473. Under neath it were found three skeletons in a very perfect state, the teeth particularly so. * These masks most probably date only from the time of the erection of St. Mary's Church. t Only two heads now ; one has been wilfully broken in two since these notes were written. The Priory ruins are now the property of the Cor poration of Birkenhead, the purchase-money having been raised by subscription.

Mrs. Minton, a very old resident in Birkenhead, headed the subscription list with £50, and it is interesting to note that her family (the Powell family) owned the ruins entirely in the seventeenth century. As a fitting close to this chapter there seems no more appropriate matter than the subjoined verses of touching truth from the pen of a local workingman-poet whose name is subjoined. THE OLD PRIORY. (ST. MARY'S GATE, BIRKENHEAD.) Gaunt and grim the Priory stands Dust stained with age, and gray ; Ivy bedecks the eaves and walls Fast crumbling to decay. O'er moss-clad fallen stones the weeds Entwine with prickly briar — "A roofless wreck" o'ershadowed by St. Mary's towering spire. Yet long ago, thou, too, wast grand, Noble, and fair to see, The Mersey 'neath thy sacred walls Paid homage unto thee : Kissing the daisied and primrose banks With the swirl of a swelling tide; Where seabirds undisturbed would hie, On the flowing stream to ride.

From stately trees the thrush piped high A matin and evensong, The squirrel perched on the highest branch, Free and far from the madding throng ; And holy monks, with solemn tread, Would wend their way to prayer, In answer to the vesper bell, For peace, sweet peace ! reigned there. But ah ! how strange the scene to-day, — Marked is the change, I trow, For monk and cowl and vesper bell Are vanished long ago. Where once was solitude and calm, There is now a city's din, Vale, wood, and bell have disappeared, King Commerce has stept in. But sweet romance still clings to thee, Though robbed of pomp and state In the ancient days of civil strife, When Cromwell sealed thy fate. Gaunt and grim the Priory stands, Silent its vesper chimes, Dust-stained with age, a crumbling wreck, A relic of olden times. Will. Wetheral Townshend Birkenhead, Eastertide, 1895.

Chapter II

St. Mary's Church — Canon Knox — Mr. John Aspinall makes a Presentation — Shipbuilding commences — Waterloo Place, and those who lived there — The good old-fashioned Shops — Mr. Hugh Williams — Woodside Ferry — The Old Stage Coaches — Birket River — Discovery of a buried Roman Bridge. "HERE AS the Chapelry of Bir kenhead had become too small for worshippers, and the burial ground too limited, Francis Richard Price, Esq., Lord of the Manor, decided to build a new church. On the afternoon of Monday, the 26th of July, 1819, the first stone of the Church of St. Mary was laid by the Right Hon. Lord Kenyon, at twelve o'clock, in presence of a large crowd of what was called "genteel company." The weather was beautifully fine, and the ceremony very impressive. Lord Kenyon, who had come from Hoylake, where he was staying, descended into the foundation and laid the first stone.

A bottle containing the current coins of the reign of George III was deposited in the stone, over which was placed a copper plate bearing the following inscription : — " The first stone of this Church was laid by the Right Hon. Lord Kenyon, Baron of Gredington, in the County of Flint, this 26th day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nine teen, and the fifty-ninth year of the reign of King George the Third. Erected by Francis Richard Price, Esq., Lord of the Manor. Edward Newton, Minister. Thomas Rickman, Architect." It can only be interesting to read the remarks made by his lordship as he accomplished his part in the first project that was to give impetus to the foundation of a new town to cover the fields and demolish the fertile lands which ranged as far as the eye could see.

His lordship expressed his gratification at having been invited to share in the proceedings. "No man," he said, " felt more anxious for the people of the United Kingdom than himself, and he was convinced that their happiness would be best promoted by the diffusion of sound religious principles, and by true Christian habits. On this ground he greatly rejoiced in the (then) late legislative measure for erecting places of worship where the wants of the place or the increase of the population made them necessary." He remarked that " the sacred Person who came into the world to save sinners directed his discourses principally to the poor, and it was a characteristic of the gospel that it was to be preached to them, and it was especially to provide room for the poor that more church room was to be made ; that the first miracle which the Saviour worked was for the benefit of a person who had built a synagogue for the Jews ; and as the sacred work in which he had taken part was des tined for the diffusion of the gospel, he hoped that a blessing would be vouchsafed to the edifice the first stone of which he had had the honour of laying."

The Rev. Edward Newton closed the proceedings with a suitable prayer. The new church was built partly on the old grave yard and partly on a piece of land joining thereto, at at the sole expense of Mr. Price. On Monday, December 17, 1821, the church was consecrated for divine worship by the Lord Bishop of the diocese, who arrived at the Birkenhead Hotel about ten in the morning, which event was signalised by the ringing of the new peal of bells. He was attended by his chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Vanbrugh, rector of Aughton. The consecra tion service commenced about eleven o'clock, prayers being read by the Rev. Mr. Campbell, rector of Wal lasey, and the sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Newton. The vocal part of the ceremony was per formed by the pupils of the Blind Asylum, the chants, psalms, and anthems being rendered with their excep tional excellence.

The fineness of the day, and the attraction of the singing, drew large numbers of persons from Liverpool. On November 12, 1821, the six bells in the church tower rung a peal for the first time, and on the same day was laid the keel of a new steamer for passengers only, which was to be the largest plying at the river ferries, and was intended for Birkenhead service. The church bells were called into requisition to inaugurate every great ceremony, and their sweet, brilliant tones summoned the inhabitants to hurry out on gala days with a clash and a clang that bespoke importance of the occasion whatever it might be. In 1828 the late Rev. Andrew Knox came to Bir kenhead as curate-in-charge of St. Mary's Church. No resident saw more changes, nor watched with greater interest the rapid advancement of the riverside village, than did this young curate, who had but recently changed his life career, and left the army to enter the Church.

When very young, he was with his regiment, en route for Waterloo, in 1815. They had reached Portsmouth, but the news arrived that peace was proclaimed, and their services were not required. The beautiful tablet to his honoured memory testifies to his length of days in Birkenhead, and that of his wife. A very good bust of the rev. gentleman is placed at the top, above a coat of arms in marble. Up each side a floral desigo, with gold background, borders the inscription as follows : — Born July 8, 1797. Vicar, 1831-1881. Died October 12, 1881. In Memory of the Revd. Andrew Knox, B.A., Vicar of Birkenhead, Honorary Canon of Chester ; and of his Wife, Katherine, this Tablet is erected. Andrew Knox came to Birkenhead as Curate-in-Charge of St. Mary's in 1828, was appointed Incumbent in 1834, and Laboured here for 53 years.

He found in his wife a loving and devoted helper ; she fell asleep in Jesus, May 29, 1868, aged 69 years. During his Incum bency the Rural Township of Birkenhead was Incor porated with Tranmere, Oxton, and part of Bebington, first as a Parliamentary, then as a Municipal Borough with a population of 80,000. The public spirit and Christianity with which he promoted everything tend ing to the advancement of his Fellow Townsmen, as well as the extension of Churches and Schools, won for him the respect and affection of all classes. A firm friend, ready to advise and willing to sympathise, he lived his life truly, did his work thoroughly, and now he rests in Peace. " With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation." — Psalm xci, 16. Another tablet commemorates the memory of Wil liam Bickerton, who for forty years was lay assistant in various departments of the parish work of St. Mary's. A very beautiful pure marble monumental tablet is erected to the last two male issue of Mr. Hetherington, one of the pioneers of Birkenhead.