here now houses show themselves in hundreds,
nay, thousands, and where I have gone bird-nesting, and picking wild
flowers, and mushrooming in their season. Lord! what changes I have seen
and yet live to see; and I am very thankful for His mercies, which have
been manifold and abundant. Wallasey Pool was a glorious piece of water
once, and many a good fish I have taken out of it in the upper waters.
The view of Birkenhead Priory was at one time very picturesque, before
they built the church near it and the houses round it. I recollect when
there was not a dwelling near it. It seemed to stand out well in the
landscape, and certainly looked very pretty. It was a great shame that
persons should have been permitted to carry away the stones for building
or any other purpose. Had not a stop at last been put to this sort of
work there would not in time have been a vestige of the old Abbey left.
I recollect that there was a belief that a tunnel or subterraneous
passage ran under the Mersey to Liverpool from the Priory, and that the
entrance in 1818, when the church was built, had been found and a good
way traversed. That passage was commonly spoken of as being in existence
when I was a boy, and I often vowed I would try to find it. I have been
up the tunnels or caves at the Red and White Noses many a time for great
distances. I was once fishing for codling at the Perch, and with two
young companions went up the caves for at least a mile, and could have
gone further only we became frightened as our lights went out. It was
thought these caves ran up to Chester Cathedral--but that was all stuff.
I believe they were excavated by smugglers in part, and partly natural
cavities of the earth. We knew little then of archaeology or geology, or
any other "ology," or I might be able to tell a good deal about these
caves, for I saw them more than once, but I now forget what their size
and height was. The floor, I recollect, was very uneven and strewed
about with big stones, while the roof was arched over in the red
sand-stone. The encroachment of the sea upon the Wirral shore has been
very gradual, but regular, for many years. Within the memory of man the
sea has made an inroad of nearly, if not quite, a mile from its former
high-water mark. It was not until the erection of the Wallasey
embankment that a stop was put to its ravages.

When I stand on the Pier-head, or take my daily walk on the
Landing-Stage, I often pause and re