From Worcester we took tickets to Wolverhampton, and thence to
Birkenhead. It grew dark before we reached Chester, and began to rain;
and when we got to Birkenhead it was a pitiless, pelting storm, under
which, on the deck of the steamboat, we crossed the detestable Mersey,
two years' trial of which has made me detest it every day more and more.
It being the night of rejoicing for the taking of Sebastopol and the
visit of the Duke of Cambridge, we found it very difficult to get a cab
on the Liverpool side; but after much waiting in the rain, and afterwards
in one of the refreshment-rooms, on the landing stage, we took a Hansom
and drove off. The cloudy sky reflected the illuminations, and we saw
some gas-lighted stars and other devices, as we passed, very pretty, but
much marred by the wind and rain. So we finally arrived at Mrs.
Blodgett's, and made a good supper of ham and cold chicken, like our
luncheon, after which, wet as we were, and drizzling as the weather was,
and though it was two hours beyond his bedtime, I took J----- out to see
the illuminations. I wonder what his mother would have said. But the
boy must now begin to see life and to feel it.
There was a crowd of people in the street; such a crowd that we could
hardly make a passage through them, and so many cabs and omnibuses that
it was difficult to cross the ways. Some of the illuminations were very
brilliant; but there was a woful lack of variety and invention in the
devices.
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