the time to
that effect. Previous to 1817 the town was wretchedly lighted by oil
lamps which used to go out upon all trifling occasions and for
insufficient reasons. They only pretended to show light at the best of
times. The lamps were not lit in summer nor on moonlight nights. They
were generally extinguished by four or five o'clock in the morning.

The gentry were at one time attended by link-men or boys in their night
excursions. These links were stiff, tarred ropes about the thickness of
a man's arm. They gave a flaring light with any quantity of
bituminous-odoured smoke. In front of one or two of the old houses of
Liverpool I have seen a remnant of the link days, in an extinguisher
attached to the lamp iron. I think there is (or was) one in Mount
Pleasant, near the house with the variegated pebble pavement in front
(laid down, by the way, by a blind man). The link-extinguisher was a
sort of narrow iron funnel of about six inches in diameter at the widest
end. It was usually attached to a lamp-iron, and was used by thrusting
the link up it, when the light was to be put out.

People in those days seldom went out at night without a lantern, for what
with the ruggedness of the pavements and the vile state of the roads it
was by no means safe to life or limb to go without some mode of
illuminating the way.

Gas was introduced in 1816 and 1817. Only one side of Castle-street was
lighted at first. While we now acknowledge the invaluable introduction
of this fluid, when we consider the vast area over which it casts its
pleasant and cheerful beams, and the price we also pay for such an
unmistakable comfort and blessing, we shall not fail to peruse the first
advertisement of the Gas Company with intense interest. With this belief
I insert a copy of it. The rate of charge and the mode of ascertaining
the quantity of light consumed cannot but prove curious to us and rather
puzzling perhaps to understand.

LIVERPOOL GAS-LIGHT COMPANY.

SCALE OF CHARGES per Annum for Burners of various sizes, calculated
for lighting to the hours below mentioned:--
Till Till Till Till Till
8 9 10 11 12 o'Clock.
o'Clock. o'Clock. o'Clock. o'Clock.
One
Argand. l. s. d. l. s. d. l. s. d. l. s. d. l. s. d.
No. 1, 3 0 0 3 18 0 4 16 0 5 12 0 6