Birkenhead

“ There are many handsome modern churches, all built since 1821. Roman Catholics are especially numerous, owing to the presence of a large Irish population. The town is well furnished with open spaces. Birkenhead Park was opened in 1847, Mersey Park in 1885; while a tract of moorland 6 m. distant in the township of Thurstaston, was allotted to the borough of Birkenhead in 1887; and Meols Common, comprising over 50 acres of pastureland on the shores of Liverpool Bay, was made over to the corporation in 1900. ”

“ He remained at Coniston for six years, and then removed to Hawkshead, where he dwelt for another eight, and then, finding the country practice, with long rides and exposure to all kinds of mountain weather, becoming too hard and too heavy for him, he removed to Bebington in Cheshire, where he remained for fifteen years more, and when failing health and three score years of life compelled it, lived there retired until his death in 1874. He is interred in the churchyard of that village in the neighbourhood of Birkenhead. ”

“ Birkland remains a crabbed shadow; life is sharp, pungent—formed with faint blue skies, dim and shining like clear glass with a hard yellow sun stuck like a tethered balloon between saucer-clouds.
Archie Traill, on a free afternoon—an early frost had made the ground too hard for football—in the week after that Birkland evening, stood in the village street as the church clock struck half-past three, and he thanked God for a half-holiday. ”

“ After she married she would be taken from the quiet Quaker society in Philadelphia, in which she always had moved, to one that would put her personal and mental powers to a sharp proof; for Birkenshead, by right of his professional fame, and a curiously attractive personal eccentricity, had gradually become the nucleus of one of the best and most brilliant circles in the country, men and women alike distinguished for their wit and skill in extracting the finest tones from life while they lived. ”

“ Birkland broke in. “You've no right to say stealing. You may as well try and be fair. Traill never stole anything; you'd better be more careful of your words.”
“Well, I call it stealing anyhow,” said Comber hotly. “You can call it what you like, Birkland. I daresay you've got pet words of your own for these things. But when a man takes something that is n't his and keeps it—”
“He didn't keep it,” Birkland said angrily. “You 're grossly prejudiced, just as you always are.” ”

“ So there, my dear Bertie, was I, within a few hours of my entrance into this town, with my top- hat down to my ears, my highly professional frock-coat, and my kid gloves, fighting some low bruiser on a pedestal in one of the most public places, in the heart of a yelling and hostile mob! I ask you whether that was cruel luck or not?
Cullingworth told me before I started that Birchespool was a lively place. For the next few minutes it struck me as the liveliest I had ever seen. The fellow was a round hand hitter, but so strong that he needed watching. ”

“ Here there were hats and bonnets in plenty, marked in plain figures for all to see, and there was one, manifestly a bonnet "suitable for a elderly person," that positively fascinated Mrs. Birkin. Of white straw was it, trimmed with scarlet geraniums and elegant excrescences of watered ribbon of a delicate mauve shade—a truly bridal bonnet, fitted to grace even the marriage of our young lady herself. But its cost was twelve and sixpence, a truly prohibitive price for Mrs. Birkin—"A'most a month's keep," she sadly whispered to herself. She went away from that window. ”

“ Whenever anything was to be done the bellman was sent round. The magistrates constantly employed him, and he paced about the streets ringing his bell, and giving public notices of one kind or other, all day long.
Tall and stout, with a very red face, Ben Birch looked like a beadle, for he wore a laced cocked hat and a laced great-coat. Fully aware of the importance of his office, he was consequential in manner, and his voice, when he chose to exert it, was perfectly stentorian. Ben Birch, we ought to add, was suspected of being a Jacobite. ”

“ I subjoin the account of his death, given me by a friend, as expressing, in fair picture, the character of the man.
"Mr. Birkbeck was returning from the seat of government, whither he had been on public business, and was accompanied by his son Bradford, a youth of sixteen or eighteen. It was necessary to cross a ford, which was rendered difficult by the swelling of the stream. Mr. B.'s horse was unwilling to plunge into the water, so his son offered to go first, and he followed. ”

“ Essentially memorable and arresting is Harvey Birch, peddler and patriot, outwardly no hero at all and yet surpassingly heroic of soul. The skill with which Birch is presented, gaunt, weather-beaten, canny, mysterious—a skill which Brown lacked—should not make one overlook the half-supernatural spirit of patriotism which, like the daemonic impuless in Brown’s characters, drives Birch to his destiny at once wrecking and honouring him. ”

“ Birkbeck was bred a farmer, but these were nurslings of the court and city; they may persevere, for an affectionate courage shone in their eyes, and, if so, become true lords of the soil, and informing geniuses to those around; then, perhaps, they will feel that they have not paid too dear for the tormented independence of the new settler's life. But, generally, damask roses will not thrive in the wood, and a ruder growth, if healthy and pure, we wish rather to see there. ”

“ He and Hellen were strong in saying they would go, when Electra screamed because thou hadst fallen into this sleep. Thou shouldst have seen Hellen. Forgetting me, he darted to her. Here was the chance for Sensel. He leaped down beside me, and loosed the boat. I could but yield.”
“It was wrong of thee, of him. There are other things than that island. Thou shouldst have turned back rather than have risked a life so young and noble as that of Sensel. And, for thee—thou wouldst have bereft a waiting, sorrowing wife and fond children. ”

“ Birkbeck?" "I have." "Is he not a very pleasant, intelligent man?" "He is highly so." "What is he doing?" "Fast spending dollars." "Had he raised any produce?" "None." "Why?" "He had been, he said, occupied in settling his neighbours, who together with himself have been supplied with provisions from Harmony at 100 per cent, above their value; but cheaper, they have [447] said, than they could have then and there raised them." "I, Sir, do not approve of going into the wilderness away from market and society, while land is to be had with both. What is Harmony?" ”

“ I remember Birkhill, because it's the watershed between the Moffat and the Yarrow, and the word "watershed" goes through my mind with a musical white rush, like a cataract. It suggests beautiful faraway things. Besides, there's another reason for remembering. Close by, at Dobbs Linn, the Covenanters used to hide in the time of the great persecution.
We swept through some bare, bleak country before coming to the Yarrow, but the rover brought us back to gentle, cultivated land, with thoughts of her favourite Wordsworth for Mrs. James; and soon we came to a very famous place, Tibbie Shiels's Inn. ”

“ Less worked I for life than for thy peace of mind. Though life is without price whilst thou art of it. Now, it is past belief that I am with thee, that peace and joy are our own, that I hold thy hand, that I kiss it thus!”
Æole had never seen anything so beautiful as his smile. She looked down at her hand, then at his; and upon her came the desire to kiss this hand so enfolding hers. But, her look was more than many kisses, as she said: “Sensel, our lives will prove our thanks.”
“Our life, Æole.”
Now upon his ears smote sore interruption. The voices of Hellen and Electra were very near. ”

“ The description of the loneliness of the bereft has a personal note, and reminds us of her journal, where she expresses the sorrow of being herself the last survivor, and of feeling like a "cloud from which the light of sunset has passed." [122] Raymond, who dies in an attempt to place the standard of Greece in Stamboul, is a portrait of Byron; and Adrian, the late king's son, who finally becomes Protector, is clearly modelled on Shelley. Yet in spite of these personal reminiscences, their characters lack distinctness. ”

“ Birkbeck transacting the business while I was at Shawneetown. My family have several American neighbours at Birks' Prairie, from whom they have received the most 317 friendly treatment; and those with whom I have had dealings, have been uniformly civil and obliging. As we live at the entrance of Wanborough, we have frequently the first offer of game and other provisions brought for sale, and whether we buy or not, we never receive the {244} slightest incivility from them. In selling, they always take care to ask enough, as they can fall their price with a good grace ”

“ His proudest hopes seemed on the point of vanishing. ‘Ah, my revered friend and instructor,’ wrote Berthold to Birkner, ‘you gave me credit for great things; but here, when a light should have risen in my soul, I have learned that that which you termed real artistical genius was nothing but a sort of talent—mere dexterity of hand. Tell my parents that I shall soon return, and learn some trade that I may get my living,’ &c. Birkner wrote back: ‘Oh! would I could be with you, my son, to support you in your depression. It is your very doubts that prove your calling as an artist. ”

“ Birchensha, John, (Birchenshaw) a Welshman, lived in family of Earl of Kildare in his youth, and afterwards taught the viol in London, one of his pupils being Samuel Pepys. He published a prospectus, in 1672, of a complete system of music, intended to be published by him under the title of "Syntagma Musicae." ”

“ Dora drifted away at once, like a leaf lifted on a breath of wind. But Billy went softly forward, slow and willing, lifting his pinched-up mouth implicitly to be kissed. Ursula watched the full, gathered lips of the man gently touch those of the boy, so gently. Then Birkin lifted his fingers and touched the boy's round, confiding cheek, with a faint touch of love. Neither spoke. Billy seemed angelic like a cherub boy, or like an acolyte, Birkin was a tall, grave angel looking down to him. ”

“ But what an unmistakable scamp my friend Slurk must be to have aroused the suspicions of such an innocent unsophisticated little creature as Christinchen! By Jove, though, anybody might be suspicious of a leer and a slouch like his! What if there should be anything in it? Just suppose such a thing for a moment, eh? It’s impossible, to be sure; but the impossible does sometimes happen. How on earth did Birchmore ever happen to have such a fellow about him? I tell you I’ve always had a notion that he may be at the bottom of all this mystery that Birchmore and Kate are so much exercised by. ”

“ Birkbeck was an enlightened philanthropist, the rather that he did not wish to sacrifice himself to his fellow men, but to benefit them with all he had, and was, and wished. He thought all the creatures of a divine love ought to be happy and ought to be good, and that his own soul and his own life were not less precious than those of others ”

“ Hunt's concerned, Birch Street simply doesn't exist! And even Birch Street would have to admit that she gets away with it! I'd say so, too, if I didn't go a step farther and feel that it gets away with her. That's why ridicule can't touch her. You can't laugh at a devotee, a woman possessed, the instrument of a higher power! Mrs. Hunt's a living confession of faith in the absolute rightness of the right people, and a living rebuke to the incurable wrongness of the wrong! Oh, I knew at once what you meant, Ambo, when you called her a dedicated priestess! ”

“ So full was she of this last thought, that out she spoke:
“Hellen, Sensel is our friend. Now wilt thou be sure.”
“Unless he is full of guile, Æole.” Then, because of her hurt expression, he hastened to add, “Æole, doubt hath firm hold of me. But thou wilt forgive.”
She was silent. Therefore, Electra entreated:
“Hellen, thine is a strong, honest spirit,—but it is weighed down by these doubts. Throw them off that thou mayst soar to find trust, peace.” ”

“ Bignell can explore far down the ladder of life, but whether to its lowest rung may well be doubted. There is always some living being to be found preying on the last of the minutest creature last seen.
After a visit to Mr. Bignell's house in Saltash with a friend, I turned to him and said: "I came here believing myself to be an Individual. I leave knowing myself to be a Community."
[Pg 154]
SIR JOHN CALL, BART.
The Dictionary of National Biography says of Sir John Call that he was "descended from an old family which, it is said, once owned considerable property in Devon and Cornwall." ”

“ In 1750 Burke (being then twenty-one) came for the first time to London, to do what so many of his lively young countrymen are still doing—though they are beginning to make a grievance even of that—eat his dinners at the Middle Temple, and so qualify himself for the Bar. Certainly that student was in luck who found himself in the same mess with Burke; and yet so stupid are men—so prone to rest with their full weight on the immaterial and slide over the essential—that had that good fortune been ours we should probably have been more taken up with Burke’s brogue than with his brains. ”

“ In fact, to the peasants of the North, the Birch is as beneficent as is the Palm to the Indians. No wonder, then, that the Russians are very fond of the Birch, and surround their dwellings with it; believing, as they do, that this tree is never struck by lightning.——On the Day of Pentecost, it is a custom among young Russian maidens to suspend garlands on the trees they love best, and they are careful to tie round the stems of the Birch-trees a little red ribbon as a charm to cause them to flourish and to protect them from the Evil Eye. ”