On the Bootle shore, somewhere about where the Hornby dock is situated, there stood two high landmarks--very conspicuous objects marking the fairway through the Rock Channel, then very much used; they linger in my memory, associated with many pleasant donkey rides around them. Bootle church in those days had two towers, and the old church was quite as ugly as the one now existing. The Dock Committee built the sea wall of the Canada dock some time before the docks were constructed. I remember about the year 1848 seeing seven ships wrecked against this sea wall; they had dragged their anchors and were driven ashore by a north-west gale. Wrecks on the Bootle and Seaforth shores were quite common occurrences. The farmers in the district fenced their fields with timber from ships stranded on the shore, and the villagers were not above pilfering their cargoes. The barque "Dickey Sam" with a cargo of tobacco from Virginia was stranded on the Seaforth sands in 1848, and an onslaught was made on her cargo by the villagers; and to protect it, my father organised a body of young men to stand guard over it--not an easy matter, as the hogsheads of tobacco were strewn along the beach for several miles. His efforts were rewarded by the underwriters presenting to him a silver salver with an appropriate inscription. Access to Seaforth and Waterloo from Liverpool was afforded by a four-horse 'bus, which ran in the morning and evening; express boats also sailed along the canal in summer, starting from the bridge at Litherland. It was a pretty walk through the fields to Litherland, and a charming sail along the canal to the wharf in Great Howard Street. Riding on horseback on the sea-shore was a very favourite pastime. Many business men rode into town, keeping to the shore as far as Sandhills Station. On the road to Liverpool, and midway between Bootle and Liverpool, surrounded by fields, were the ruined walls of Bank Hall, which for 500 years had been the residence of the Moores, one of the most celebrated Liverpool families; they were large owners of property, and for that long period were closely identified with the public life of the little town. The Hall had been pulled down and the materials used for the erection of the large stone farm buildings and an important farm-house. In my boyhood days the barns and farm-house still remained, and also the ancient garden wall, flanked with high stone gate-posts and surmounted by large carved stone urns, such as were common in the early Georgian period. A deep and wide ditch ran along the front of the wall, which was part of the old moat. The Ashcrofts were the tenants of the farm, and I can remember making hay in a field which would be about the site of the present Bankhall railway station. Further along again, in Great Howard Street, stood the jail, commonly called the French prison, many French prisoners of war having been confined there during the Peninsular war.