“At the upper end of the tunnel, which is 2,250 yards long, there is one pair of engines on each side of the road; it being found that a much more regular motion is given by this means to the carriages. The engines are high-pressure, with side-levers, similar to marine engines; the connecting-rods, however, are reversed, and work the crank downwards, and are connected to a horizontal shaft of great strength running across and under the road in a tunnel, upon which shaft a large drum-wheel is placed that works the rope. In each engine-house is a raised platform, upon which the man stands who works the engines; this platform leads to a balcony on the outside of the engine-house, from which the man can look down the mouth of the tunnel; a signal is given by means of an air-pipe running through the tunnel, so formed at the upper end as to produce a sound when the air is forced into it from the lower extremity. This, I believe, is the invention of Mr. King, of Liverpool. The engine-man on hearing the signal, opens the steam-cock, and the engines start instantly. This work was designed by Mr. Grantham, of the foundery of Messrs. Mather and Dickson, of Liverpool, where the machinery was constructed.” Having now given an account of the whole journey, we must proceed to a brief history and memoir of Liverpool itself. CHAPTER X. LIVERPOOL. LIVERPOOL is an ancient sea-port, borough, and market town, 205 miles from London, containing 205,964 inhabitants, exclusive of 10,000 seamen. Of its remote antiquity but little can be asserted, amidst the great contrariety of opinion which is held on this subject. Liverpool is not noticed in any of the Roman Itinera, neither does the name occur in the Norman survey. After the conquest it was granted by William, to Roger de Poictiers, together with all the land between the Ribble and the Mersey, and subsequently forfeited. It was thereupon granted to the Earls of Chester; and on forfeiture by their descendants, to Edmund, son of Henry III., as parcel of the honour of Lancaster; and it remained an integral part of the duchy possessions, until its alienation by Charles I., in 1628.