The whole of the Lancashire coast is low, and it is in many places skirted by bogs or mosses. The wide inlet of Morecambe Bay stretches far into the land, and the tide comes in sudden, strong, and high, as into all the openings upon this western coast. At low water there is an endless stretch of white sand, called, near Morecambe, the Lancaster sands.

The town of Lancaster stands on the slope of a hill rising from the river Lune; on the top of the hill is the strong and stately castle, "the honour and grace of the whole town." It is now used as the county gaol.

The low level land between Lancaster Bay and the mouth of the Ribble is called the Fylde; there are two or three bathing places, for the folk of the busy towns, upon its coast-Fleetwood and Blackpool. The sea is now drawing back so far from Southport, a watering place south of the Ribble, that the long pier hardly reaches the water.

III.
LIVERPOOL.

LIVERPOOL Contains nearly half a million people; there are in it streets of warehouses, full of the goods which its "merchant princes" have brought from over the sea, or are going to send forth in ships to all parts of the wide world. There are streets full of fine shops; there are handsome buildings-St. George's Hall, with its magnificent organ, the Sailors' Home, the Town Hall, the Custom House. There are endless narrow streets, where the poor folk live; but there are not

factories, as in Manchester, for everybody is busy about the shipping, or, in some way, about COMMERCE. The chief business of Liverpool is to send abroad the cotton goods of Lancashire, and to bring in the raw cotton from America and elsewhere. But this is far from being the only business of this great port, which has the largest foreign trade in the kingdom. Linen, woollen stuffs, iron goods, salt, soap, and sugar, earthenware and glass, and most British manufactures are sent abroad; and whatever things are produced in all lands upon the face of the globe-pleasant to the eye, or good for food, or in any way useful or precious-these are brought into England by the ships of this mart of nations, this crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth.

The ships from Ireland bring not only butter and eggs, pork and bacon, but a constant stream of Irish people. Many of these settle in Liverpool, which has a large Irish population, mostly poor folk who have no clear way of getting a living. But many come merely to take their places in the emigrant ships which carry them over the ocean to find a home and work and wages in the New World. English and Scotch people also sail in these huge, crowded ships, for Liverpool is the chief emigration port in the kingdom.

It is very important that there should be abundant room for the countless vessels which are always to be seen in Liverpool harbour, waiting to be loaded or unloaded, or to be repaired after some stormy voyage. The town stands at the mouth of the river Mersey, whose wide estuary forms a splendid harbour; it is three-quarters of a mile across at Liverpool, and still wider higher up. Such a chain of docks has been made

D

in these waters for shipping as is not to be seen anywhere else in the world, except in London; there are thirty-eight of them, stretching more than six miles along the river side. What are docks? They are simply basins for the ships to stand in, hollowed out of the bank of the river. Each one is large enough to hold many ships, and they are divided from the river by strong walls with huge gates, which are opened to let the vessels pass in and out.

There are two kinds of docks, wet and dry. Wet docks are used for the loading and unloading of vessels, and are generally full of water, so that the ships may keep afloat. This is contrived by shutting the gates before the tide goes out, so that the dock remains full when, along the river banks, the water has gone down. Ships which are to be repaired are floated into the dry docks, so that the workmen can easily get at them, the tide is allowed to ebb from these docks, and the gates are shut when they are empty of water. Around the docks are quays, mostly crowded with sea-faring folk, and with warehousemen busy about the lading of the ships. Truly a wonderful sight, full of interest and busy life, is the shipping of Liverpool.

The first wet dock made in our country for merchant ships was in Liverpool; and Lancashire may also boast of the first railway for passengers (between Liverpool and Manchester), and of the first English canal.

The Tame and the Goyt, two streams which rise in the moorlands, join at Stockport to form this Mersey river, which is so famous for its traffic.

The land is low between the Mersey and the Moors, sinking here and there into bogs: Chat Moss, which has been partly drained, is one of the largest of these.

THE COTTON TOWNS.

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IV.

THE COTTON TOWNS.

THERE are more people in Lancashire than in any other county of England, and by far the greater number of these are employed in some way or other about cotton; they spin, or weave, or bleach, or print, or buy, or sell,

cotton.

Manchester, a city with more than half a million of people, is the centre of this great manufacture. It stands on the Irwell, a tributary of the Mersey, and these are the two hardest worked rivers in the world.

Salford, on the other side of the Irwell, is joined to Manchester by bridges; the two make one monster, crowded town, or city, for Manchester is a bishop's see, and the cathedral is the fine old church of St. Mary. It is one of the richest cities in the world, and has gay shops in Market Street, and some handsome buildings the Town Hall and the Exchange, the Free Trade Hall and Owens College; but statues and buildings are alike grimy with the smoke of the tall mill chimneys. Everywhere there are warehouses, some of them handsome, in which the cotton is stored -raw cotton for the mills, or manufactured goods for the shops. These, and the mills, and the endless streets of small brick houses where the mill “hands" live, show that Manchester is a great manufacturing town.

A circle drawn round Manchester at a distance of ten miles or so from Market Street would take in a district which is almost one huge town, or, indeed, one huge factory. Bolton, Bury, Middleton, Rochdale, Oldham, Ashton, Staleybridge, Stockport, which are

all cotton towns, lie within this ring, and between them and the centre, Manchester, are endless "cotton villages and mills.

There are several reasons why this particular district should be the chief seat of the cotton manufacture. Five centuries ago, when Edward III. married the daughter of the Earl of Hainault, a province of Belgium, he thought a great deal of the skill of her country people in spinning wool and weaving clothcotton was not then known-so he invited a number of these Flemish clothiers to settle in England that they might teach his own people. Many of these came to Bolton, and were soon busy with their spinning wheels and looms. Three centuries later, in the reign of Elizabeth, the king of France grievously persecuted his Protestant subjects; wherefore they also came, clever, industrious people, skilful spinners and weavers, to take refuge in friendly England, where they were made very welcome. Many of these followed the strangers who had first come to Bolton. They came in the sabots which may still be heard clattering through the streets of many a foreign town; and these same sabots, wooden clogs with brass buckles, have been worn in Lancashire ever since by men and women, lasses and lads, and a wonderful clatter they make as they come pouring out of the mills at noon.

Again, the high moor lands give rise to many streams which join the Mersey, and, on their way, supply water for bleaching-works and dye-works. Then, the towns within this circle lie upon a wide coal-field, in which the coal measures reach a depth of 7000 feet and yield capital coal. The beautiful cannel coal, which is bright and smooth like jet, is found in this district; it burns with a clear flame and hardly any smoke.