CHAPTER IX. THE DISTRICT OF MOUNT PLEASANT. WE closed the last chapter at the Adelphi Hotel, where in the days of its founder, James Radley, the wayfarer might feelingly have adopted Shenstone's stanza: Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found, CHAP. Adelphi Before condescending upon particulars, let us take a general Locality. survey of the declivity up which Ranelagh Street and Mount Pleasant form the main artery. In ancient times, a road starting from the south side of the Pool continued along the line of Hanover Street, Ranelagh Street, and Mount Pleasant, until it reached the summit of the hill about the corner of Hope Street. Here its direct course was arrested by the Moss Lake or Turbary, an amphibious sort Moss Lake. of district, water or marsh, according to the seasons, which extended from Brownlow Hill to Parliament Street. The road then made a diversion northwards, following the present line of the Workhouse Wall, round the shore of the lake, up Brownlow Hill, to the corner of Smithdown or Smetham Lane, when it turned again southwards along the eastern shore, and so on along its present course into the open country. Such was the state of things when Sir Edward Moore compiled his "Rent roll" (A.D. 1667). This Moss Lake was in his "Moore opinion a subject of vital importance to his estate. The matter Rental." stood thus. The district being sometimes land and sometimes water, had a divided duty to perform. In summer it formed a quarry for turf, which was a valuable fuel when wood and coal were dear. Moore says, "I dare assure you, you may sell fifty pounds worth at least of turf to the town in a year; for of СНАР. "Moore Rental." Moss Lake. Water my knowledge you have good black turf at least four yards deep; if so, it may be worth two hundred pounds an acre, and y u have ten acres of it; in a word, you know not what it may be worth, lying so near a great town; and if you leave half a yard of the bottom ungotten, once in forty years it swells and grows again." Now this Moss Lake lying on the table-land could send its surplus waters either north by the course of the Pool brook, or south by way of Toxteth Park, and a contest arose between Moore and the Molyneux family which way the watercourse should run. Says the Liverpool squire, "Within the memory of man the Lord Mullinex hath erected two water mills in Toxteth Park, and raised dams for them within his said park, and hath laid the water over and upon the moss or turf room belonging to me . . . so that I could not get the said turf, by reason the Lord Mullinex caused his millers to lay their dams upon my moss to a great height," etc. Hereupon arose disputes and threatening letters; but as the cavalier party to which the Molyneuxs belonged were in the ascendant, Moore thought it better to "sit down with this great wrong, and to be contented with less fires, till it stil please God to raise me a greater interest and him a weaker,” Writing in the latter part of the nineteenth century, with all the accomplished facts of a great commercial commurity about us, it is difficult to realise the modest, timid expectations of our predecessors two hundred years ago as to the future of Liverpool. Edward Moore was a keen sharp-witted man so far as the prospects of the locality, which were closely connected with his own interest, were concerned. He saw clearly that the tide of prosperity had set in which was to carry Liverpool forward; but the channel through which it was to flow presented itself to him as of very limited extent. It is curious to read his notions as to the harbour accommodation required speaking of this little stream running from the Moss Lake: "There is two great reasons wherefore the town ought to keep that watercourse the right and usual course, which if otherwise, it may prejudice the town very much: the first is, there is no watercourse convenient or about the town for skinners, dyers, or other such trades as this, which runs down the Gout to the Pool Bridge; the second reason is, if ever the pool be cut navigable, of necessity all such cuts, wherein ships are to rile, must either have a considerable fresh stream to run continua a He CHAP. course. through it, or else there must be dams of water to let out with floodgates when necessity requires for cleansing of the channel; and truly God and nature hath made all the places between the Waterpool and the stone plate so convenient for raising excessive great dams, and then to supply these dams, so great a fresh from off the Moss Lake, that though my eyes may never see it, yet I am confident that God Almighty, which makes nothing in vain, hath ordained this to be the greatest good for this town." Truly this is an illustration of How the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. Moore's principle was quite correct, and does credit to his judgment. It is now in operation, not on the petty scale to which his view was limited, but in the noble river, the deep outflow of which is maintained by the same scouring process which he wished to apply to the pool, the harbour of the day. After this general survey of the district in the seventeenth century, we will now return to Ranelagh Street. Building began Ranelagh to extend itself in this direction in the second quarter of last Street. century, and in 1765 the street was nearly completed on both sidies. The roperies along Deane and Great Charlotte Streets Roperies, on the west side have been already mentioned. On the east side three rope-walks existed, extending from the back of the houses in Ranelagh Street to the south end of Renshaw Street. The centre one belonged to Mr. Charles Goore, mayor in 1767. It was afterwards carried on by Mr. Thomas Staniforth, mayor in 1797, who erected the mansion fronting Ranelagh Street, afterwards the Waterloo Hotel, taken down in 1873 and the site absorbed into the Central Railway Station. His son Samuel was mayor in 1812, and resided at the house in question. This ropery was continued down to about 1836. It was carried under the street at Newington Bridge by an archway. The property was afterwards converted into an arcade, in- Arcade. tended to be a counterpart of the "galeries" of Paris. This was not found to be successful. Singular to say, all attempts to naturalise in this country covered passages for shops, which one would think were well adapted to our humid climate, have 1 Mr. Starforth, whose aspect was somewhat forbidding, went by the net of “ Silky Sam." Some amusing anecdotes are told of him by te "od Stager" in Liverpool a Foo Years Since. His son Thomas insert i the property of Colonel Bolton, and resides at the mansion of Storrs Hall, Windcrmere. CHAP. Station. been uniformly failures. Probably the difficulty of preventing them becoming the resort of improper characters may have something to do with this unfortunate result. After a time the property was offered for sale, and passed into the hands of Messrs. Brassey, Peto, and Holme, the eminent contractors. It had become by this time the mart for second-hand furniture, which it continued to be to its demolition. Subse quently it was purchased by the Sheffield and other unitesi Railway Railway Companies, for the purposes of their station. Great alterations have been made in this quarter by the introduction of the railway. The entire character of the neighbourhood has been changed, and every trace of its original aspect has been swept away. In the trials which took place as to the Valuations. value of property taken for this purpose, very large sums were awarded. Houses and land, which in 1766 were advertised to be let at £12:12s. per annum, brought in 1868 £40 per square yard. Ranelagh Street was for many years a quiet, d'all suburb of moderate-sized houses. Even in 1825, the date of a view given by Herdman, a large proportion were still private houses, some of them little better than cottages. Business slowly developed itself, and gradually shops took the place of the private residences. One of the earliest shops was that of Mrs. Eleanor Cæsar, a fashionable milliner, about 1818, who had a son rejoicing in the classical name of Julius, but whose functions rather resembled those of the deposed tryrant of Syracuse than the dictator of Rome, he being an usher in a school. Shops. Ranelagh The name of the street was derived from a house of entertainment which occupied the site of the Adelphi Hotel. Tis was established about 1722. Originally it was called “The White House," which name it familiarly retained to the end of its career, being so called in Perry's map of 1769, but in imitation of the famous metropolitan tea gardens, it assumed the name of Ranelagh House and Gardens. The situation was pleasant, and the grounds agreeably laid out, with a pavilion in the centre, under which music, vocal and instrumental, was performed, adjoining which was an ornamental fish pond. From an original handbill in my own possession, which has been copied in Mr. Brooke's History, it appears that after the concerts fireworks were exhibited, much after the manner of Old Vauxhall. After remaining as a place of public resort for nearly seventy years, about 1790 it was demolished, and a terrace of godly CHAP. IX. Dr. Carson. Hotel. mansions erected in its stead. The southern house of the row was long occupied by Dr. James Carson, an eminent member of the medical profession, who came into collision with his professional brethren on many occasions, more especially on the memorable trial of Charles Angus, to be mentioned hereafter. The situation of this terrace marked it as especially adapted for an hotel, and in 1826 the northern house was taken by Mr. James Radley and opened as the Adelphi Hotel. Mr. Radley Adelphi was the model of a keeper of a hostelry. Polite and easy in his manners, gifted with a nice tact which enabled him to adapt himself to every situation, and endowed with a rare talent for organisation, he soon rendered his house the most popular hotel in Liverpool, and extended its fame far and wide. He gradually added house to house, until he had absorbed the entire site of the old Ranelagh House. After his decease the business was disposed of to a joint-stock company, who have made extensive alterations, and who, it is hoped, will not allow the ancient fame of the house to lose its lustre. Pleasant. We will now ascend the slope of Mount Pleasant. The Mount name indicates something rather different from what we now find it, and calls up visions of far stretching landscapes and umbrageous shades, of distant views Of crowded farms and lessening towers, nor would the idea be incorrect at the time the name was At the turn of the road on the summit a crooked lane veered southward following generally the line of Hope Street. At the Hope Street. corner of this road, there stood from time immemorial a quaint looking gabled tavern with a bowling green attached. BowlingBowling was a very favourite recreation of our ancestors, and greens. Liverpool possessed its fair share of accommodation for the purpose, but this is believed to have been the oldest. Cartwright, writing September 19, 1687, says: "I went with Sir Thomas Grosvenor, Mr. Massey, and my son to Liverpool, dined with my Lord Molineux at the Bowling Green." Sir Thomas Johnson, in the Norris Correspondence, also alludes to it. The house was called successively by the names of the landlords; at one time “Richardson's," at another time “Martindale's," from whom the street for some time was called Martindale Hill. In 1753 the house was kept by William Roscoe, and in that year Rscoe. |