lucifer matches. Ditch and
hedge--the one with waving sedges and "Forget-me-nots" the other with the
May blossom loading the evening air with its balmy breath--were as
prevalent, at the time I speak about, in Everton, as you will now find in
any country district. It was a pleasant place in summer and autumn time.
The neighbourhood of the Beacon was our favourite resort. Many a
pleasant day we have spent at the top of it. The hill was covered with
heather and gorse bushes. In winter it was as wild, bleak, and cold a
place as any you could meet with.

In the summer it was the delight of holiday-makers. A day's "out" to the
Beacon, at Everton, was a very favourite excursion. The hill-side on
Sundays used to be thronged with merry people, old and young. The view
obtained from Everton Beacon-hill was a view indeed.

And what a prospect! What a noble panoramic scene! I never saw its
like. I do not think, in its way, such an one existed anywhere to be
compared with it. At your feet the heather commenced the landscape, then
came golden corn-fields and green pasture-lands, far and wide, until they
reached the yellow undulating sand-hills that fringed the margin of the
broad estuary, the sparkling waters of which, in the glow and fulness of
the rich sunshine, gave life and animation to the scene, the interest of
which was deeply enhanced, when on a day of high-tide, numbers of vessels
might be seen spreading their snowy canvas in the wind as they set out on
their distant and perilous voyages. In the middle ground of the picture
was the peninsula of Wirral, while the river Dee might be seen shimmering
like a silver thread under the blue hills of Wales, which occupied the
back ground of the landscape. Westward was the ocean--next, the Formby
shore attracted the eye. The sand-hills about Birkdale and Meols were
visible. At certain seasons, and in peculiar states of the atmosphere,
the hummocks of the Isle of Man were to be seen, while further north
Black Combe, in Cumberland, was discernible. Bleasdale Scar, and the
hills in Westmoreland, dimly made out the extreme distance. Ashurst
Beacon, Billinge, and at their back Rivington-pike, were visible.
Carrying the eye along the Billinge range, there were Garswood-park,
Knowsley and Prescot; the smoke from the little town of St. Helen's might
have been seen behind them. Far away to the eastward were the
Derbyshire-hills. Then we saw those of Shropshire, until the eye