Liverpool a few years since: by an old stager — John Shaqi
Liverpool a few years since: by an old stagerAspinall, James
History
Liverpool a few years since: by an old stager
Aspinall, James
Liverpool (England) -- Biography; Liverpool (England) -- History
scudding along with all sail set over the interminable ocean of
garrulity, and with our catalogue of worthies growing into a far greater
magnitude than that of Homer’s ships.
“Who goes there?” It is Mr. Birch, afterwards Sir Joseph, the father of
our late worthy representative. A noble-looking specimen of the merchant
prince and the “fine old English gentleman” was Mr. B., and much esteemed
and respected by all who knew him. And look at the tall, commanding
figure that now approaches. It is Mr. Brooks, the father of the
venerable Rector and Archdeacon of that name. And there were the
Walkers, who lived in Hanover-street, and who in their day were the very
tip-top of the tip-tops, and the head of all the gaiety and fashion of
Liverpool. And there were the Gregsons, ever one of our first and
leading families; and the Heskeths, and the Midgleys, and the Caldwells.
And Arthur Heywood, then a middle-aged man, has a foremost place in our
recollections. And there were the Rathbones, Bensons and Croppers, of
that generation, as brave-hearted and active and zealous philanthropists
as their descendants of the present day. And there was Hugh Mulleneux,
who went through a long life marked by deeds of charity, and who to the
last of his life, was one of the most guileless and sterling men we ever
met with. And there were the other families of the same name, with a
different spelling, Thomas Molineux, William Molineux, and other
brothers, of whom we can safely say that we never heard any evil, and
knew much good. They had hearts exactly in the right place, and with the
right feelings in them. They are worthily represented yet amongst us.
Nor must we forget to chronicle the name of old Mr. Yates, whose sons
still walk worthily in the steps of their respected sire. And there were
Hughes and Duncan, and the celebrated world-famous “Tom Lowndes,” who
shot like a meteor across the sky of the commercial world, and who, in
the magnificence of his speculations, would have thought no more of
bidding for the United States for a cabbage garden, or of undertaking to
pay off the national debt at a week’s notice, than he would of swallowing
his breakfast. A fine fellow comes next, Mr. Nicholson, or Colonel
Nicholson, as we used to call him, a title which, we believe, he bore in
the Militia. He was a gentleman, out and out, through and through, every
inch of him, in look, in bearing, in manner, in feeling. We never saw,
to our fancy, a handsomer man than he was in those days, and amiability
sat on every feature of his noble countenance. And how he could skate!
How we have by turns laughed, and trembled, and shouted, and clapped our
young hands as we have watched him darting along on the St. Domingo pit,
and then cutting figures of eight and all sorts of fancy forms and
hieroglyphics on the ice, and taking the most surprising leaps, and
achieving all kinds of dangerous miracles. But, _arma cedunt togæ_. The
soldier subsequently subsided into the citizen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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