far the new plans meet all the requirements of the case. Eight dwellings, then, form each house; and when we enter one of these dwellings, we cannot but admire the mode in which every inch of room is made available, and cleanliness is provided for. Every dwelling consists of three rooms, opening one into another; one sitting-room and two bed-rooms; or parlour, kitchen, and bed-room, according to the wishes of the inmate. The sitting-room is provided with a range and oven; and at a convenient part of the room is a jet of gas, which is turned on for a certain number of hours in the evening, to be lighted or not at the option of the family. Around are shelves and recesses and cupboards, and other little arrangements which a family well know how to appreciate. The two bed-rooms open into or from this sitting-room; and in one of them (if not both) is placed an iron bedstead, lent to the inmates by the Company, to be used if desired. Those who know how much the use of metal in bedsteads conduces to cleanliness, will see the motive of this arrangement. In a small compartment, wholly closed from the rooms by a well-fitting door, are all the arrangements belonging to the water and drainage of a house, planned on such an admirable scheme, that each small dwelling of three rooms has a complete privacy from all the others, and a degree of salubrity in its constructive economy such as the dwellers in many a house of higher rank might well envy. The little republic of each house-the denizens of eight dwellings, or twenty-four rooms-are eight independent states, so far as regards their domestic arrangements; but they form (if the term may be admitted) a sort of federal union in general matters. On the flat roof of each house is a fine large cistern, capable of holding one thousand gallons; and the supply of water is most abundant for all. Pipes descend to supply all the eight dwellings; and from time to time the whole of the drainage-pipes are flushed by a torrent of water let down from the cistern; all the rain-water, too, that falls on the house-top, is made to contribute to the completeness of the drainage. Down through the centre of the house, from top to bottom, runs a square shaft or hollow trunk, containing within it the drainage, water, dust, and gas-pipes belonging to all the dwellings: the gas is conducted upwards; the drainage and dust are conducted downwards; and the water is conducted both upwards and downwards; but none of the pipes containing them are visible to the inmates of the dwellings: they are enclosed within the vertical shaft, which has iron doors to admit a workman within it when any repairs may be necessary to the pipes. If we were to follow the busy housewife in her daily sweepings of her set of three rooms, we should see one among many remarkable instances of the thoughtful care that seems to have presided over the planning of these houses. A small sliding iron door, eight or ten inches square, is fixed in che corner of a recess, close to the ground; and, on his door being lifted, all the dust and dirt from the rooms are swept into the opening, and the door immoliately closed: from that moment the housewife knows nothing, or need know nothing, of what becomes of the dust; it goes into the dust-shaft, which receives the dust from all the eight dwellings by eight similar openings, and thence descends to a very large dust-cellar beneath the level of the house. A locked iron trap-door, sunk into the avenue behind each house, when opened, gives access to the dust-cellar, and allows of the removal of all the dust; which, as well as the water and gas and drainage of the houses, is not left to the mercy of the inmates, but is superintended by a manager appointed to attend to the whole group of houses. The ventilation, too, is skilfully managed. Every room has two or more air-bricks,' as the builders term them, fixed in the outer wall; that is, a space equal to the size af a brick is left open to the admission of air, covered within and without by an iron grating, and capable of being wholly closed by an iron shutter if necessary. Some of these openings are made near the floor, to admit the fresh air; while others are made near the ceiling, for the exit of heated and vitiated air; and there are also air-flues or ventilating shafts in different parts. The windows, made of cast iron and glazed with plate glass, are hung on pivots, so as to be opened to any extent with great readiness. But the gardens-where are they? Are there none? It will be a drawback, in the minds of many, to the advantages of these admirable houses, that they have no gardens. But if we come to look around us, we find that such pleasant adjuncts are, indeed, very seldom placed within the reach of the working classes in a busy town. Where land, as in Birkenhead is valued by the square yard instead of by the acre, we may without difficulty understand how different an aspect the enterprise of building these houses would have put on, had gardens been attached to them: either the internal arrangements would have been less complete, or the rent would have been higher-in either case frustrating in part the main object in view. Yet, although they have not gardens, in the general acceptation of the term, they have a pleasant substitute for them, such as in England may well be regarded as a novelty. Each house, measuring perhaps about thirty-five feet by twenty-five, has a flat roof, bounded by a sufficiently high and strong parapet; and this constitutes one of the most acceptable terraces imaginable. It has quite an oriental effect; for all the roofs are on the same level, though they do not communicate with each other. A staircase and doorway lead up to the roof, just as if it were one of the stories of the house; and when on the roof, a wide prospect meets the eye, including the greater part of Birkenhead, the Mersey with its shipping, the opposite buildings of Liverpool, and a good deal of open country in the other direction, Now, as all the eight families, or the tenants of the eight dwellings constituting the house, have common access to this terrace, may it not form a pleasant substitute for a garden? It is a common drying-ground for all; and on a summer evening a most welcome spot it is to breathe the fresh air. And may not the Mignionette, and the Geranium, and the Daisy find a | operations were much less advanced than they now little corner, and enjoy the fresh air there too? are, a lively writer in 'Chambers's Edinburgh Journal' And what, it may now be asked, does the working man pay for such a dwelling? To answer this, it must be borne in mind that the dwellings are really for working men, and not for poor men; for men in the receipt of weekly wages, for some handicraft employment; and not for those who are ignorant, day by day, how or where they will rest their head at night. Each dwelling or set of rooms lessens in rent as it approaches nearer to the top of the house. The lowest rental, we believe, is somewhere about half-a-crown a week, which includes payment for the three rooms, and those numberless little conveniences (including gas) to which allusion has been made; and from that point the rent rises to four or five shillings, according to various-a capital everything." advantages of situation, &c.; but in every dwelling, even of the lowest rent, the sanatory arrangements are as fully carried out as in those of the more expensive kind. Some of the corner houses afford more than three rooms to a dwelling; and these command a higher rental. These details have been somewhat long and minute; but the subject really deserves it; for while so much is being written and said about Sanatory Regulations and the Health of Towns, it is well to glance at what has actually been done. The building of these workmen's dwellings is, as the French would say, "un fait accompli ;" the mind and the money have been applied; and it remains to see what results will be produced. Some of the dwellings are already occupied; and when the Dock enterprizes bring more population into that quarter, doubtless they all will be. As to the rate at which the speculation will remunerate the Dock Company (to whom the houses belong), they can afford to wait while the results develope themselves; but in all probability it will be quite sufficient. As to the advantage of a working man having three such rooms and the other accommodations for three shillings or so, per week, let those decide who know what are the rentals in close, damp, ill-ventilated, and ill-regulated houses, in the midst of our busy towns. In a more central part of Birkenhead, a group of houses, very similar in many respects to those just described, has been constructed by one of the members of that family, the Lairds, whose name is so intimately associated with the recent progress of the town; and these, being nearer the scene of present working operations, are nearly all occupied. THE NEW STREETS. One hardly knows where Birkenhead begins or ends. So much that is new meets the eye on all sides-so many links are there between new buildings and green fields that the real extent of the town is left in doubt. And if a map or plan be referred to, the puzzle is rather increased than lessened, unless we carefully distinguish between the present and the future, the existing and the proposed. Two years ago, when the The "capital everything" is coming by degrees. During the intervening period of two years, many of the buildings alluded to in this description have been advanced towards completion. Yet many of the streets are so long, and planned on such a grand scale, that several years must elapse before they are all built and occupied. And well so, too; for as the town is destined to grow with the growth of the docks, an incautiously-rapid extension of the town would be a useless sinking of capital: the members would outgrow the heart. Great, however, as are the works yet to be done, the plan shows how well arranged is the system which is to guide them. There is one street, sixty feet in width, extending for a length of two miles, in a perfectly straight line, from the vicinity of the market to the workmen's dwellings; and there are six other streets, parallel to it, and lying, like it, between the Park and the Docks, whose length varies from one to two miles. Beyond the workmen's dwellings, and all around the beautiful Park which will shortly call for a word or two of our notice, are other new streets, mostly of ample width. As a general rule, all the main streets extend from south-east to north-west; and are crossed in the other direction by shorter ones. Few as may yet be the houses built in these five long streets, yet the underground arrangements are completed for establishing the town on a healthy basis. A most extensive system of sewerage has been formed, ramifying into all, or nearly all of the streets. Dr. Robertson, in the work before quoted, gives a tabular view that illustrates in a striking degree the comprehensive scale adopted in the arrangements of this new town. He states that there are eight miles of street sixty feet in width, thirteen miles about forty feet in width, and others of intermediate or of lesser width, making a total of about thirty miles of street, of which nearly twenty-seven miles are provided with sewers on a most ample scale. Yet, even with all this completeness of arrangement, it would appear from Dr. Robertson's details, that the utmost vigilance on the part of the town commissioners will be requisite, to prevent the plan from being marred in part by individual negligence. Many houses and strects and courts have been built by private individuals, perhaps before the complete development of the present plans, in which a careless neglect, or probably a mistaken economy, has placed the indwellers beyond the reach of the advantages offered by the admirable drainage of the town. The street drainage, under the management of the commissioners, seems to be admirable; the house drainage, under individual care, seems to admit of much improvement in many localities; and Dr. Robertson has rendered good service by drawing attention to the subject, while Birkenhead is yet young and growing. The Birkenhead folks are not a little proud of their Hamilton-square,-the Belgrave of that town; and a fine square it certainly is. It occupies six or seven acres of ground; and the stone-fronted houses, with their rusticated basement, their columnar fronts, and their frieze and parapet, assuredly present a majestic appearance. But our friend the Scotch tourist pleasantly alludes to a certain Edinburgh city, whose bevy of new streets and squares spoiled him for an appreciation of the beauties of Hamilton-square. This square seems likely to be occupied by-and-by for banks, offices, and public buildings; for the commercial aristocracy of the town show a liking for the more distant and secluded environs, where villas are dotted about in very pretty confusion. THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS. Everything in Birkenhead looks as if it had sprung from one source. Everything seems to owe its birth and its growth to a small knot of individuals, who, having wealth as well as experience, and public spirit as well as wealth, are in, and around, and among, all the great undertakings of the place. If we look at the names of the main streets, there we find included the names of these active commercial and social improvers; if we would know who were the projectors or who are the Directors of the Railways-either the existing Chester and Birkenhead, or the incipient Manchester and Birkenhead-here, again, we find them; if we ask who are the Town Commissioners, or the Dock Warehouse Company; who built the market and the Park, and the workmen's dwellings; who are building the churches, and the school-house, and the parsonage ;-to all we find that the answer includes the mention of a comparatively small list of names. In some cases it is in a corporate capacity: in others in an individual and voluntary spirit, that the pervading agency is seen but seen it is in one way or other. Nothing illustrates this better than the new churches -some of them very fine ones-which have been lately built at Birkenhead. St. James's Church, before mentioned as occupying the centre of a radiating series of streets near the workmen's dwellings, has been constructed at the expense of Messrs. Laird, Potter, and Jackson. It is in the early English period of Gothic architecture; and the warm hue of the red sandstone imparts to it a very beautiful appearance. Another church, St. Anne's, in Beckwith-street, has been built with the same description of stone, at the sole expense of Mr. Potter; the name of Jackson is associated with other churches either built or in course of erection; and other names, also, among the magnates of the place, are associated in a similar way with many of the improvements and constructions at Birkenhead. One of the new churches, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a revival of the Norman style, but with the questionable taste of having a string of grotesque and distorted heads round the upper part of the building, similar to those which have so often excited the wonder of visitors to the 'Round' at the Temple Church. These heads had a meaning in Anglo-Norman times; but they have none in our days. The public buildings of Birkenhead cannot, of course, compete with those of older and more historical towns, being, for the most part, of minor character. The Roman Catholic and Dissenting Chapels, the Dispensary, the Theological College, &c., call for no remark. A good feature in the arrangements of the town is the construction of Abattoirs or slaughterhouses. These Abattoirs are built of freestone, and contain sheds and pens for cattle, and all the necessary conveniences for applying them to their destined purpose. The New Market (Cut, No. 4), is a fine structure situated near Hamilton-square. As compared with two other markets that have recently attracted notice by their size and completeness-those of Newcastle and Liverpool-it yields a little to them in point of size, but is still a most capacious and well-arranged place. It is 430 feet long, by 130 broad. The area is divided into three arcades or avenues by iron columns, and is covered with a light iron roof. The entire area is vaulted beneath; and the vaults so constructed, kept well ventilated by suitable arrangements, constitute store-houses for the reception and depositing of provisions. THE PARK. But the Park! If there be one feature more than another that attracts, and ought to attract, the attention of a visitor at Birkenhead, it is the noble public park, one of the finest in England. That a town possessing a water frontage, and opposite a busy port, should strive to make itself a port likewise, is no more than might be expected. That fine churches, and public buildings, large houses and long streets, should spring up in such a town, we are led to expect by analogy with other quarters. That all the improvements of a scientific age should be brought to bear on the operations of a new town, is a homage to science and to good sense which we have a sort of right to demand. But that, in a place where land is becoming more and more valuable, 120 acres should be set aside for a public park, open to all for healthful recreation, and laid out in a beautiful manner, is more than we could 0.-VOL. I. have ventured to ask or hope for-and yet this has the morals, and the health of the people, by creating been done at Birkenhead! and extending their opportunities of iunocent and intellectual recreation-the most effective rivals of the ale-house and the gin-shop."- "Who can see," the writer asks, "the crowds that gather round the barrelorgan in the streets, or the window of the printseller; or that visit the National Gallery and the Museum; or who throng the aisles of Westminster Abbey on a Monday afternoon; or who flow through the newlyopened apartments at Hampton Court; or who, in these fine evenings, inhale health and pleasure in the beautiful inclosure of the Parks-without being convinced there is, even in what are called the lower classes of society, a natural taste for the Arts, and an innate susceptibility of mental enjoyment, which it is the duty, as well as the policy, of a wise and benevolent government to cultivate and improve?" Great is the good which has been effected by the agitation of this question for the last few years; and hearty the thanks due to the earnest men who have kept it steadily under the public ken. It was observed several years since, in the Penny Magazine' :— "The time seems to be approaching, when our busy townsmen will have, if not green fields, at least a substitute for them, in or near the thickly-thronged haunts of industry. During the rapid progress of manufactures since the commencement of the present century, men scarcely dreamed of the changes which were going on around them. By silent steps the radius of each one of our great towns has gradually increased; till those streets which were formerly in the margin are now hemmed in all around, and spots which were formerly fields are now included within the inhabited circle. This has arisen, not only from the natural increase of population in the towns, but from the migration thither of part of the agricultural population. In some towns this increase of houses has gone on at such an astonishing rate, that public attention begins now to be forcibly directed to the probable consequences that will ensue to the health of the inhabitants When the tenure of land in England is considered, it is obvious that this system cannot be obviated except by government grant or private liberality. If a man possesses a piece of ground, he will dispose of it in the way most conducive to his own interests, either as building-ground or for some other purpose, according to the circumstances of the case. It is of no use to expect that the ground landlord will lay by a part of his plot of ground as a public exercise or pleasure-boretum,' in 1840, he well observed, "It has often ground; he, as an individual, does not do so, and will not do so. It must be by efforts of a more distinct and decided nature that the end will be obtained." Small were the beginnings, but the fruits are ripening most pleasantly. Some years ago the House of Commons passed a resolution, that in all new Enclosure Bills, provisions must be made that some portions of the waste lands about to be appropriated, should be set apart for the healthful recreation of the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns and villages. This is one mode of ensuring the so-much-desired end; and as the parties are fully cognizant of it before the Enclosure Act is applied for, no unfairness is wrought. Another mode of proceeding is by granting crown property, or granting money from the public purse, for the purchase of property, with the intention of forming public parks or recreation-grounds. Let our Regent's Park, and Primrose-hill, and Victoria Park, bear witness how welcome such spots are to the pent-up Londoners; and let the three parks which were opened at Manchester, in the autumn of 1846, show how enjoyable are such breathing-spots to the closely-wedged cotton-working denizens of that town! It was well said in the Quarterly Review, some ten years ago, that it is a duty incumbent on society at large to support such plans as may "minister to the amusements, It was a fine and generous feeling that led Joseph Strutt, of Derby, to make the munificent gift of the Arboretum' to the inhabitants of that town. A descendant from the Jedediah Strutt who took part with Arkwright in laying the foundation of the gigantic cotton manufacture, and belonging to a family which has ever put a liberal construction on the relations that ought to exist between the employer and the employed, the wealthy and the hard-working, the influential and the dependent; Mr. Strutt felt that he was laying a good ground-work for the moral and physical advancement of the people, when he gave to Derby, near which town his manufacturing operations are conducted on a vast scale, a pleasant, open spot of ground, where instruction and healthful relaxation may go hand in hand. In an address which he delivered on opening the 'Ar been made a reproach to our country, that, in England, collections of works of art, and exhibitions for instruction and amusement, cannot, without danger of injury, be thrown open to the public. If any ground for such a reproach still remains, I am convinced that it can be removed only by greater liberality in admitting the people to such establishments; by thus teaching them that they are themselves the parties most deeply interested in their preservation, and that it must be the interest of the public to protect that which is intended for the public advantage. If we wish to obtain the affection and regard of others, we must manifest kindness and regard toward them; if we seek to wean them from debasing pursuits and brutalizing pleasures, we can only hope to do so by opening to them new sources of rational enjoyment. It is under this conviction that I dedicate these gardens to the public; and I will only add, that as the sun has shone brightly on me through life, it would be ungrateful in me not to employ a portion of the fortune which I possess, in promoting the welfare of those amongst whom I live, and by whose industry I have been aided in its acquisition." The grandeur and princely scale on which the Birkenhead Park has been planned, ought not to lessen in our minds the value of the smaller park, or 'Arboretum,' constructed by Mr. Strutt at Derby. He wrought at ment to other places, I may mention that the eventual outlay will be such as to warrant and incite similar formations. The total cost of the land, with the unavoidable expenses of laying out, planting, and suitable lodges, being £127,775 17s. 6d. ; which has been met by the building-land alluded to, and which, already partially sold, is computed, at a liberal valuation, to be worth £126,173 10s. 6d,; leaving the actual cost of this splendid memorial of zeal and talent at a sum of about £1,600 only!" a time when public feeling was only just becoming ripe | diate economical practicability, and as an encouragefor such a work; and when a disinterested example was required from some quarter or other. He appropriated eleven acres of ground on the southern margin of the town; he gave to the late Mr. Loudon full powers to convert these into a beautiful pleasure-ground and shrubbery; and after expending about ten or twelve thousand pounds on the work, he presented it to the corporation for the use of the town, in the month of September, 1840. The walks and paths, upwards of a mile in length; the pleasant hillocks and green mounds, artificially constructed to diversify the scene; the circular and oval beds of small shrubs; the collection of foreign and indigenous trees and shrubs, inscribed with the Latin and the English names of the plants-all show how well Mr. Loudon fulfilled the duty allotted to him. Most nobly has Birkenhead followed in the path here marked out. The new Park exceeds in magnitude everything of the kind hitherto given by our corporate bodies, or by private individuals. Of a vast area of about 190 acres, about seventy have been set apart for building purposes, and the entire remainder laid out in shrubberies, walks, and drives, for the use of the public for ever; and to Mr. Paxton, whose celebrity, in connexion with Chatsworth, the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the Crystal Palace of 1854, is so well known, was entrusted the office of bringing the waste ground into a form of beauty and grace. The Park is, in every respect, a most delightful place. It is an oblong, irregular, five-sided piece of ground; the sides measuring, perhaps, from 600 to 1200 yards in length each, but with nothing formal either in their direction or their angles. There is a carriage-drive, winding in a gracefully curved line through the Park, at no great distance from the external boundary; and between this drive and the boundary, are the seventy acres of ground now nearly occupied by villas, and a few terraces of good houses. A drive also crosses the Park from east to west; and, in various directions, are gravelled and well-ordered footpaths-now winding round a pretty lake, now crossing a bridge to a little island in the centre of the lake, and now approaching near the margin to be occupied by the villas. Mounds and hollows, shrubberies and flowerbeds, meet the eye in pleasant succession; and all alike reveal the taste and the liberality which have presided over this spot. There are seven or eight entrances to the Park, in different directions; and at one of these a graceful Ionic gateway has been constructed. THE FUTURE OF BIRKENHEAD. It is curious to observe the mode in which Birkenhead has had to battle against a want of local or selfgovernment. Unlike most other important places, it has hardly known who are its masters or who its servants. Its growth has been so rapid, that there has been scarcely time to marshal its social forces in effective array. It is like a newly-built house, whose arrangements can only be completed by degrees; or like a new colony, whose members have had to look about them to see who shall be their leader; or like an undeveloped mining district, which, possessing a germ of wealth within itself, has had to decide who shall be the first to break ground, and show to the light of day what is hidden within. Members of parliament, mayors, aldermen, common-councilmen, recorders—where are they? Has Birkenhead none of these? And if not, what has she as substitutes? Dr. Hunter Robertson, after treating of what has been done, what has not been done, and what ought to be done, in respect to the sanatory arrangements of Birkenhead, speaks of the Park in the following terms: "It is cheering to approach such an object of almost unqualified approval, and to contemplate for a moment another evidence of the energy, prescient care, and almost paternal consideration, indicated in the convenient and beautiful Park (ground converted from a pestilent morass to ornamental pleasure-grounds,) for ever secured to the free use and resort of the population of Birkenhead, and which, however calculated to extend the enjoyment and promote the health of the people, will also be found equally estimable for its social effects, and the enlargement of that sympathetic union which should universally pervade a great commercial family. There also exists, in this case, scope and matter for a self-gratulatory and independent feeling in the mind of the resident, who, while appreciating its advantages, is also conscious that he holds the privilege as no chary favour or deputed permission, but in virtue of a right, to be freely transmitted to his successors, subject only to the necessary and comparatively trifling expense of its culture and supervision; for I find, on reference to proper documents, that the whole The year 1833, as was before in part explained, of the internal portion laid out in carriage-drives, witnessed the first attempt to give to this spot somewalks, lakes, and ornamental grounds, dedicated in thing like the dignity of a town. An Act obtained in perpetuity for the recreation of the public, exclusive that year recites that the township' or 'cnapelry' of seventy-one acres about the verge, reserved for the of Birkenhead was without a market; that the roads erection of suitable villas, comprises the vast area of and streets were much in want of paving, lighting, 113 acres; and, as a further proof of its more imme- | watching, and cleansing; and that there was no exist |