This was the first populace I have beheld; for even the Irish,
on the other side of the water, acquire a respectability of aspect. John
Bull is going with his whole heart into the Turkish war. He is very
foolish. Whatever the Czar may propose to himself, it is for the
interest of democracy that he should not be easily put down. The
regiment, on its way to embark, carried the Queen's colors, and, side by
side with them, the banner of the 28th,--yellow, with the names of the
Peninsular and other battles in which it had been engaged inscribed on it
in a double column. It is a very distinguished regiment; and Mr. Henry
Bright mentioned as one of its distinctions, that Washington had formerly
been an officer in it. I never heard of this.
February 27th.--We walked to Woodside in the pleasant forenoon, and
thence crossed to Liverpool. On our way to Woodside, we saw the remains
of the old Birkenhead Priory, built of the common red freestone, much
time-worn, with ivy creeping over it, and birds evidently at hone in its
old crevices. These ruins are pretty extensive, and seem to be the
remains of a quadrangle. A handsome modern church, likewise of the same
red freestone, has been built on part of the site occupied by the Priory;
and the organ was sounding within, while we walked about the premises.
On some of the ancient arches, there were grotesquely carved stone faces.
The old walls have been sufficiently restored to make them secure,
without destroying their venerable aspect.
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