rested
on the Chester ranges, Beeston and Halton Castles being plainly before
us. The old city of Chester was discernible with a good glass. The eye
moved then along the Welsh hills until it rested on the Ormeshead and
travelled out upon the North sea. Below us, to our left, was the town of
Liverpool, the young giant just springing into vigorous life and
preparing to put forth its might, majesty and strength, in Trade,
Commerce, and Enterprise. The man of 1801 can scarcely believe his eyes
in 1862. The distant view is still there, from the top of Everton church
tower, but how wonderfully is all the foreground changed.

The Beacon stood on the site of the eastern corner of Everton church. It
was a square tower of two stories, and approached from the present
Church-street by a little lane. Church-street was then a sandy winding
road, having on one side the open heathery-hill, and on the other a low
turf wall which enclosed the fields called "the Mosses," which were
indeed little better than marshes. The Beacon was constructed of the red
sandstone taken from the vicinity. I am no antiquarian, so that I can
give but a poor opinion of its original date of erection. It was said by
some to have been of great age--long previous to the time of Queen
Elizabeth. Some even ascribed it to the time of the Earl of Chester; but
a learned friend of mine once told me, when talking on this subject, that
that could not have been the case, as Beacons were not erected in tower
shapes until after the time of Edward the Third. Beacons, previously to
that period, were merely lighted fires in cressets, grates, baskets of
large size, or of faggots piled up. Everton Beacon certainly looked very
old and dilapidated, and had stood the shock and buffet of some
centuries. Its size was about six yards square; its height twenty-five
feet. The basement floor was on a level with the ground, and was a
square room in which there was, in one corner, a fireplace, much knocked
about and broken. There was also a flight of narrow stone steps which
led to the upper chamber. It was utterly bare of any fittings whatever;
but in the walls were indications of there having been fixtures at some
time. There being no door to it the cattle which grazed on the hill had
access to it at all times of storm or wind or heat, or as their bovine
inclinations should prompt them to seek shelter, so that the floor, which
was unflagged, was always in a very dirty s