of his seamen sailed voyage after voyage with
him. It was these old hands that were attached to him who I suspect kept
the others in subjection. The men used to make much of me. They made me
little sea toys, and always brought my mother and myself presents from
Africa, such as parrots, monkeys, shells, and articles of the natives'
workmanship. I recollect very well, after the _Mary Ellen_ had been
converted into a privateer, that, on her return from a successful West
Indian cruise, the mate of the ship, a great big fellow, named Blake, and
who was one of the roughest and most ungainly men ever seen, would insist
upon my mother accepting a beautiful chain, of Indian workmanship, to
which was attached the miniature of a very lovely woman. I doubt the
rascal did not come by it very honestly, neither was a costly bracelet
that one of my father's best hands (once a Northwich salt-flatman)
brought home for my baby sister. This man would insist upon putting it
on the baby somewhere, in spite of all my mother and the nurse could say;
so, as its thigh was the nearest approach to the bracelet in size of any
of its little limbs, there the bracelet was clasped. It fitted tightly
and baby evidently did not approve of the ornament. My mother took it
off when the man left. I have it now. This man used to tell queer
stories about the salt trade, and the fortunes made therein, and how they
used to land salt on stormy and dark nights on the Cheshire or Lancashire
borders, or into boats alongside, substituting the same weight of water
as the salt taken out, so that the cargo should pass muster at the
Liverpool Custom House. The duty was payable at the works, and the cargo
was re-weighed in Liverpool. If found over weight, the merchant had to
pay extra duty; and if short weight, he had to make up the deficiency in
salt. The trade required a large capital, and was, therefore, in few
hands. One house is known to have paid as much as 30,000 pounds for duty
in six weeks. My grandfather told me that in 1732 (time of William and
Mary), when he was a boy, the duty on salt was levied for a term of years
at first, but made perpetual in the third year of George II. Sir R.
Walpole proposed to set apart the proceeds of the impost for his
majesty's use.

The Salt houses occupied the site of Orford-street (called after Mr.
Blackburne's seat in Cheshire). I have often heard my grandfather speak
of them as an intolerable nuisance, causing