Bromborough Hall, Garden Front 168 The Old Dutch Garden 170 The Lady Chapel, Liverpool Cathedral 201 Fatehpur Sikri 244 Benares 245 The Himalayas 248 The Taj Mahal 249 Yachting on Windermere 256 Portrait 261 CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS. A Great City--its people and its institutions, as seen by a contemporary presents incidents that do not specially appeal to the historian, who is more concerned with the larger features and events which mark its growth; but those incidents may serve as sidelights upon the movements and the spirit of the times, and woven round the outlines of a life which has been threaded in the weft of its activities, may afford a background to bring into more prominent relief and give juster proportion to the characters and the actions of the men who have built up its prosperity. My story will therefore be of the men and the incidents of my time, which I think may perhaps possess more than a passing interest, and I hope serve to awaken pleasant memories. As I do not intend to write a record of my family life, which with its abounding happiness--some great sorrows--successes and disappointments--must be a sacred thing, I shall only make such references to my family, or to those friends still happily with us, as may be necessary to my narrative. My great-grandfather, who was born at Plymouth, was a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and served on board the "Foudroyant." He was killed in action, and his widow, in recognition of his courage, was awarded a Post Captain's pension. She had one son, my grandfather, George Forwood, who came to Liverpool, where in 1812 he joined Mr. John Moss as partner in the Otterspool Oil Works (Mr. Moss was the father of the late Sir Thomas Moss, Bart.). My grandfather appears to have been a man of considerable ability. Mr. Hughes, in his _History of Liverpool Bankers_, describes him as "an exceedingly able man, possessing some public spirit." His published letters and pamphlets on economic subjects show that he took much interest in the pressing questions of the day, and was very active in promoting the repeal of the Corn Laws and in the amendment of the Poor Laws. My father, the late Thomas Brittain Forwood, was born in Russell Street in 1810, and was educated at Dr. Prior's school in Pembroke Place; he received what was known as a good classical education, and up to the close of his life his knowledge of Latin was fresh and accurate, and he could quote freely and aptly from Latin authors. He was gifted with a love for mechanics, and he claimed to have made a locomotive when a boy, using as cylinders two surgical syringes.