These steps were much hollowed by the feet of
those who had come to the well; and they reach beneath the water, which
is very high. The well probably supplied water to the old cotters and
retainers of Tranmere Hall five hundred years ago. The Hall stands on
the verge of a long hill which stretches behind Tranmere and as far as
Birkenhead.
It is an old gray stone edifice, with a good many gables, and windows
with mullions, and some of them extending the whole breadth of the gable.
In some parts of the house, the windows seem to have been built up;
probably in the days when daylight was taxed. The form of the Hall is
multiplex, the roofs sloping down and intersecting one another, so as to
make the general result indescribable. There were two sun-dials on
different sides of the house, both the dial-plates of which were of
stone; and on one the figures, so far as I could see, were quite worn
off, but the gnomon still cast a shadow over it in such a way that I
could judge that it was about noon. The other dial had some half-worn
hour-marks, but no gnomon. The chinks of the stones of the house were
very weedy, and the building looked quaint and venerable; but it is now
converted into a farm-house, with the farm-yard and outbuildings closely
appended. A village, too, has grown up about it, so that it seems out of
place among modern stuccoed dwellings, such as are erected for tradesmen
and other moderate people who have their residences in the neighborhood
of a great city.
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