which twenty-five old men, natives of the village, sat down, whose average age was 81 years; fifteen waited at table whose age were 71 years each; and six, aged 61 years each, rang a peal on the church bells while the others dined. The male population at the time

was under 1000.

Bexhill church is very ancient. Part of it is Norman, and of massive proportions. The chancel is early English; while the side windows are of the perpendicular style, having been, as was frequently the case in the fifteenth century, inserted probably in the place of smaller and plainer ones. The interior sadly requires the intervention of a bold and skilful restorer. The stranger should not quit Hastings without having visited Bexhill.

But whatever other places be overlooked, a day should be set apart for a visit to Pevensey and Hurstmonceaux. Pevensey is a dozen miles from Hastings; but the railway will set you down there in half an hour; and they may, therefore, be properly considered as contiguous. The chief object in visiting Pevensey will, of course, be to see its castle. No barrier prevents you from examining it. Care is taken to preserve it as much as possible from injury, whether by the elements or by idle people; but it is left quite open to every one to wander at will about it. The chief path to the village lies right across its area; and the peasant whistles along it, as heedless of the former history of the vast structure, as he is of that of the village it overlooks.

The appearance of the castle is very striking. You pass through a huge gateway that has been defended by a succession of round towers of prodigious strength, and separated by drawbridges, and find yourself in a wide green field, with trees of considerable size about it, and surrounded by the dilapidated remains of mighty walls, the fragments of towers and gate-houses, and other shapeless erections, the mouldering relics of the once impregnable fortress. Though all is wildly torn and battered, the vast extent of the grim grey masses, half enveloped in a garment of ivy, their enormous bulk and thickness and commanding position, render them singularly impressive. The castle stands on an eminence, whose southern base, the sea, though now a mile distant, once beat against. On the land sides a broad and deep moat ran round the walls. The walls are nine feet thick: the huge round towers are at least equally substantial, and though of great antiquity are yet quite stable. The walls enclose an area of about seven acres.

At what period Pevensey Castle was erected is not known. From the occurrence of what are generally considered to be Roman tiles, and the arrangement of courses of stones in what is called herring-bone work, which is also found in Roman buildings, it is commonly said that at least parts of it are of Roman date. But these features are also met with in structures known to be of Norman erection, and consequently are no safe criterion as to the age of any edifice. It seems most likely, indeed, that the older parts of this castle

are of an early Norman date. It is known, however, that there was a castle prior to the conquest, and that it was garrisoned by the Conqueror. The subsequent history of the castle is a stirring one, and demonstrative of its enormous strength. When Odo, bishop of Bayeux, declared for Robert Curthose, he threw himself into Pevensey Castle, and William Rufus proceeded with his whole army to lay siege to it. For six weeks it withstood every effort of the monarch, and it was not till the provisions of the garrison were wholly exhausted, and Robert had failed to come to his relief, that the bishop surrendered. In the reign of Stephen it was held by the Earl of Clare for the Empress Matilda, and though the king himself directed the attacks upon it, he was utterly unable to make an impression, and obliged to abandon the siege. In 1265 an unsuccessful attack was made upon it by Simon Montfort, son of the renowned Earl of Leicester. Towards the end of the following century it was gallantly and successfully maintained by a lady. Sir John Pelham, its governor, had embraced the cause of the Duke of Lancaster (afterwards Henry IV.); and when he departed for the north of England to join the Duke's army, he left the command of the castle to his wife, Lady Jane Pelham. The yeomen of the southern counties, meanwhile, who had formed themselves into an army to support Richard, marched in great numbers against Pevensey Castle; but Lady Pelham successfully resisted all their efforts to obtain possession of it. It is last mentioned as a fortress in the reign of Elizabeth; the two culverins that point seaward are of her time; and upon one of them her initials are inscribed. From the time of Elizabeth the history of the castle is unknown, till it is mentioned, in the Parliamentary Survey of 1675, as being in ruins. Occasionally Pevensey Castle was used as a state prison. The most important prisoners recorded to have been confined in it were, King James I. of Scotland, who was for a while detained here by order of Henry V.; and Joanna of Navarre, widow of Henry IV., who suffered a harsh imprisonment here from 1418 to 1422, she being suspected of having caused the death of her husband. Roger Mortimer, and his brother Edward Duke of York, were also for a while prisoners within it.

The village of Pevensey is beyond the castle from the railway station. Pevensey was once a town of importance, being one of the principal ports for carrying on intercourse with France and Flanders; and it was (and indeed still is) a member of the cinque port of Hastings. It is now a mean village of about fifty small houses, and more than a mile distant from the sea. The little church under the shadow of the castle is only a portion of the ancient one. Close to the castle on the other side is another and much larger church. It belongs to the little village of Westham, and is a very good example of a country church in the perpendicular style of architecture. The tract once covered by the sea is now known as Pevensey Marsh. Hurstmonceaux is between five and six miles north

THE LAND WE LIVE IN.

LIVERPOOL.

Ir an English town would lay claim to the honour or credit of antiquity; if it would shew that it has arrived at a genteel old age, and has chatted with the Normans and perhaps the Saxons of early times, and has taken a bustling part in the turmoil of warlike days—one of the first objects of its local historians would be, to find its name in Domesday-book. William the Conqueror employed the six years, from 1081 to 1087, in a thorough survey of the kingdom, whence resulted an entry of all the towns and manors in the so-called Domesday-book.

Alas, for LIVERPOOL! If her merchants dived into the records of past centuries, to find something to her honour in the days of chivalry and feudalism, they would be sadly at fault. Liverpool is not mentioned in Domesday-book; and Mr. Baines thinks this a sufficient ground for the opinion that no such town existed in the Conqueror's days. It struggled into existence, however, by degrees, as a small fishing village; and we have a most ample assemblage of names by which to designate it; for we find at various times, that it was called Lyrpul, Litherpul, Lyverpull, Lyverpol, Lyferpole, Lirpoole, Lierpul, Litherpoole, Leverpul, Liverpole, and, at length, Liverpool. That it was situated on the side of a pool, which gave rise to the latter part of the name, seems to be admitted; but whether the first part relates to the lever bird, or to a Saxon adjective, implying a "gentle" pool, the antiquaries do not seem to have determined.

LIVERPOOL IN PAST AGES.

As in many other cases, castles and their lordly owners are talked of before the people were deemed worthy of a note of record. Roger of Poictiers is said to have built a castle at or near this spot soon after the conquest; and to king John is attributed the building of another structure, long known as Liverpool Castle, which was not finally destroyed till 1721 it boasted of its embattled walls, towers, fosses, and drawbridges, and doubtless took part in many a baronial struggle. The fishery of the Lancashire side of the Mersey was given to the Abbots of Shrewsbury; so that we may well suppose the individual position of Liverpool to have been an humble one.

Mr. Baines, in his History of Lancashire,' draws attention to some of the circumstances which originally determined the localization of commerce in England. He says:-"From the disturbed semi-barbarous and ignorant state of the people, it was long before any part of England rose to commercial eminence. When, however, the impulse was first given, it operated principally on the southern and eastern coast of the kingdom, the parts nearest to the continent of Europe, and especially to Flanders, France, the Spanish peninsula, and the commercial republics of the Mediterranean. At an early period, London became the seat, not only

of government, but of the principal commerce of the kingdom; Bristol, from its excellent position, the ready communication which it afforded with Ireland, the early rise of the woollen manufactures of the west of England, and the general wealth and tranquillity of the southern and western districts of the kingdom, also became a place of great importance. Hull, from its position opposite to the coasts of Holland and Flanders, and the Hanseatic towns, then the great seats of manufacturing and commercial prosperity, also rose rapidly; whilst the Cinque Ports, and our great naval stations, were left little behind. For many years, however, the ports of the north-west of England were destitute of all these sources of prosperity. No manufactures existed in the interior; no means of communication with the districts where manufactures now exist; no capital for distant enterprises; no communication with Holland, beyond the occasional sailing of a military expedition. A few fishing boats and coasting vessels formed, for ages, all the commercial marine of the port of Liverpool, which now sends forth its ships by thousands to all parts of the world, and from which not less than four hundred vessels have been known to sail with a single tide." The same writer collects the scattered allusions to Liverpool found in our early annalists and topographers; and the paucity of such allusions sufficiently indicates the small importance of the spot. King John granted a charter and a common seal to Lyrpul.' The town paid a tollage to Henry III., of eleven marks, seven shillings, and eight pennies; and the same monarch, on the payment of a fee of ten marks, granted certain municipal privileges to the town. In the same reign a building called the 'Tower' was erected it stood near the bottom of Water-street, on a site now occupied by commercial warehouses: and it is supposed to have served as a watch-station for the Lancashire coast: it served afterwards for several ages as an occasional residence for the earls of Derby and Man, then as an assembly-room, then as a prison; until, in 1819, it disappeared for ever— commerce killed it!

Edward I. commanded that no precious metals should leave the kingdom, and he sent an order to this effect to sixty different ports: yet Liverpool is not named. Ten years afterwards he ordered all the ports on the western coast to send ships to aid him in an attack on Ireland: yet Liverpool is not named. The truth is, that in 1272, Liverpool contained only 168 houses, and about 800 inhabitants. Half a century later, when Edward III. levied an armament for his expedition to France, Liverpool made a bold effort, and supplied one barque and six men," at a time when Bristol supplied 24 ships and 600 men ! It was shortly after this that the church of St. Nicholas was built: near it was a statue of that saint, the patron of seamen, who used to present a peace-offering to him when about to depart on a voyage, and a wave-offering on their

There is a curious incident to show how much more lordly influence prevailed than commercial influence, in the fifteenth century. The Stanleys owned the 'Tower,' in Water-street; and the Molyneuxes held Liverpool Castle; and these two powerful families had a feud respecting the limits of their domains, which they were disposed to settle by force of arms. The justices of the peace, hearing of a commotion in Liverpool, in 1424, went thither, and found the representatives of the Stanley family surrounded by two thousand adherents. "We asked him," say the justices, in a report sent to the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancasterf "the cause of that assemble of king's people, and he us informed, that the said Richard Molyneux would come hither with great congregations, riots, and great multitudes of people, to slea and beat the said Thomas Stanley, his men and his servants; the which he would withstand, if he might. And he, the said Thomas, said that he would find sufficient surety of the peace for him, and all his, so the said Richard would find the same; and hereon, the Friday next after, the sheriffs arrested the said Thomas, and committed him to ward; and the said sheriff made cry that the people that there was should go with him to help him to execute his office; after which he proceeded to West Derby Fen; and there, in a mow, within the said town, he saw the said Richard, with great congregations, route, and multitude, to the number of 1000 men or more, arrayed in manner as to battle, and coming on fast towards Lierpull town; and the said sheriff arrested the said Richard, and committed him to ward." The Government found means to check these ebullitions; but they are worthy of record as a mark of the times.

Down to the time of Henry VIII., baronial quarrels and municipal privileges are the chief matters to which the Liverpool annalists draw attention. Leland tells us that, in his day, "Lyrpole, alias Lyverpoole, a paved town, hath but a chapel." He also speaks of a "small custom paid that causeth merchants to resort;" and says that there was "good merchandise at Lyrpole, much Yrisch Yarn that Manchester men do buy there." This latter statement is curious; for it exhibits to us Liverpool as an agent in supplying Manchester with the materials for textile manufactures --a small beginning of the great results since exhibited. The "Irish yarn" here alluded to was most probably flax, and formed one of the items of Liverpool imports from Ireland, which have always constituted a notable portion of the commerce of that port. Still the shipping arrangements must have been exceedingly small; for we are told that, even so late as 1565, the vessels belonging to Liverpool amounted only to twelve, manned by seventy-five sailors.

It was in the year 1561 that a circumstance arose, which may be said to have been the commencement of dock operations. A dreadful storm occurred, which destroyed the only haven of which Liverpool could

from whence the town had in part derived its name, was turned into a much better haven than had before existed. The town seems to have advanced a little after this; for Camden, writing in 1586, says :-"The Mersey spreading, and presently contracting its stream. from Warrington, falls into the ocean with a wide channel, very convenient for trade, where opens to view Litherpole, commonly called Lirpoole, from a water extending like a pool, according to the common opinions, where is the most convenient and most frequented passage to Ireland: a town more famous for its beauty and populousness than for its antiquity." What the evidence may have been for this character of "beauty and populousness," we are not told; but Camden must have judged by an humble standard. In the commencement of the next century, Liverpool had a cause of dispute with Chester, in which her insignificance was made very apparent, contrasted with the position of her ancient and proud neighbour. Even in 1634, when ship-money was levied, the High Sheriff wrote to the Government to the effect that, "if you shall tax and assess men according to their estate, then Liverpool being poor, and now goes, as it were, a begging, must pay very little."

When the troubles of Charles I. commenced, Liverpool soon fell into the power of the Parliamentarians ; but Prince Rupert besieged it. We are told, at that time," the fortifications of Liverpool consisted of strong and high mud walls; and a ditch, twelve yards wide, and nearly three yards deep, enclosed the town from the east end of Dale-street, and so westward to the river. Dale-street end, at that time, south and south-east, was a low marshy ground, covered with water from the river." Prince Rupert called it, in derision, a mere crow's nest;" but it proved to be strong enough to bear a severe siege: he took Liverpool; but had to surrender it up again to the Parliamentarians very soon afterwards. During the Commonwealth, Liverpool advanced steadily as a shipping port, but still remained in a subordinate rank. In the next reign we hear of a Liverpool merchant carrying on a vigorous suit at law against king Philip of Spain, on account of damage sustained from a Spanish man-of-war.

A description of Liverpool was written in 1673, by Blome, from which we gather the following particulars concerning its condition at that time:—“ Lerpoole, or Leverpoole, commodiously seated on the goodly river Mersey, where it affords a bold and safe harbour for ships, which at low water may ride at four fathoms, and at high at ten; which said river is navigable for many miles into the country, and affords abundance of all sorts of fowl and fish, especially great quantities of lampreys and smelts of the largest size, so plentifully taken, that they are commonly sold at twenty a penny,

Its church (though large and good, wherein were four chantrys of ancient and honourable foundation) is not enough to hold its inhabitants, which are many, amongst which are divers eminent merchants and tradesmen, whose trade and traffic, especially into