ssed a princely fortune in Liverpool, has
presented the city with a splendid free library and museum, which stands
in a magnificent position on Shaw's Brow. Many of the streets are lined
with stately edifices, public and private, and most of these avenues
diverge from the square fronting St. George's Hall, opposite which is
the fine station of the London and North-western Railway, which, as is
the railroad custom in England, is also a large hotel. The suburbs of
Liverpool are filled for a wide circuit with elegant rural homes and
surrounding ornamental grounds, where the opulent merchants live. They
are generally bordered with high stone walls, interfering with the view,
and impressing the visitor strongly with the idea that an Englishman's
house is his castle. Several pretty parks with ornamental lakes among
their hills are also in the suburbs. Yet it is the vast trade that is
the glory of Liverpool, for it is but an epitome of England's commercial
greatness, and is of comparatively modern growth. "All this," not long
ago said Lord Erskine, speaking of the rapid advancement of Liverpool,
"has been created by the industry and well-disciplined management of a
handful of men since I was a boy."

KNOWSLEY HALL.

A few miles out of Liverpool is the village of Prescot, where Kemble the
tragedian was born, and where the people at the present time are largely
engaged in watchmaking. Not far from Prescot is one of the famous homes
of England--Knowsley Hall, the seat of the Stanleys and of the Earls of
Derby for five hundred years. The park covers two thousand acres and is
almost ten miles in circumference. The greater portion of the famous
house was built in the time of George II. It is an extensive and
magnificent structure, and contains many art-treasures in its
picture-gallery by Rembrandt, Rubens, Correggio, Teniers, Vandyke,
Salvator Rosa, and others. The Stanleys are one of the governing
families of England, the last Earl of Derby having been premier in 1866,
and the present earl having also been a cabinet minister. The crest of
the Stanleys represents the Eagle and the Child, and is derived from the
story of a remote ancestor who, cherishing an ardent desire for a male
heir, and having only a daughter, contrived to have an infant conveyed
to the foot of a tree in the park frequented by an eagle. Here he and
his lady, taking a walk, found the child as if by accident, and the
lady, considering it a gift from Heaven brou