{"id":"01KG8AKRPENZZGRXKVMVNM162A","cid":"bafkreigopop7oudpyhorcaq5okarpbyhhx354mwi26hmmazfwsoqfxkasa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5753,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 8","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":5667,"text":"come upon the Title Page, which, in the middle, is ornamented with a\r\npiece of landscape, representing a loosely clad lady in sandals,\r\npensively seated upon a bleak rock on the sea shore, supporting her\r\nhead with one hand, and with the other, exhibiting to the stranger an\r\noval sort of salver, bearing the figure of a strange bird, with this\r\nmotto elastically stretched for a border—_“Deus nobis haec otia\r\nfecit.”_\r\n\r\nThe bird forms part of the city arms, and is an imaginary\r\nrepresentation of a now extinct fowl, called the _“Liver,”_ said to\r\nhave inhabited a _“pool,”_ which antiquarians assert once covered a\r\ngood part of the ground where Liverpool now stands; and from that bird,\r\nand this pool, Liverpool derives its name.\r\n\r\nAt a distance from the pensive lady in sandals, is a ship under full\r\nsail; and on the beach is the figure of a small man, vainly essaying to\r\nroll over a huge bale of goods.\r\n\r\nEqually divided at the top and bottom of this design, is the following\r\ntitle complete; but I fear the printer will not be able to give a\r\nfacsimile:—\r\n\r\n_The Picture\r\nof Liverpool:\r\nor, Stranger’s Guide\r\nand Gentleman’s Pocket Companion\r\n_ FOR THE TOWN.\r\n Embellished\r\nWith Engravings\r\nBy the Most Accomplished and Eminent Artists.\r\nLiverpool:\r\nPrinted in Swift’s Court,\r\nAnd sold by Woodward and Alderson, 56 Castle St. 1803.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA brief and reverential preface, as if the writer were all the time\r\nbowing, informs the reader of the flattering reception accorded to\r\nprevious editions of the work; and quotes _“testimonies of respect\r\nwhich had lately appeared in various quarters_ —_the British Critic,\r\nReview, and the seventh volume of the Beauties of England and\r\nWales”—_and concludes by expressing the hope, that this new, revised,\r\nand illustrated edition might _“render it less unworthy of the public\r\nnotice, and less unworthy also of the subject it is intended to\r\nillustrate.”_\r\n\r\nA very nice, dapper, and respectful little preface, the time and place\r\nof writing which is solemnly recorded at the end-Hope _Place, 1st\r\nSept._ 1803.\r\n\r\nBut how much fuller my satisfaction, as I fondly linger over this\r\ncircumstantial paragraph, if the writer had recorded the precise hour\r\nof the day, and by what timepiece; and if he had but mentioned his age,\r\noccupation, and name.\r\n\r\nBut all is now lost; I know not who he was; and this estimable author\r\nmust needs share the oblivious fate of all literary incognitos.\r\n\r\nHe must have possessed the grandest and most elevated ideas of true\r\nfame, since he scorned to be perpetuated by a solitary initial. Could I\r\nfind him out now, sleeping neglected in some churchyard, I would buy\r\nhim a headstone, and record upon it naught but his title-page, deeming\r\nthat his noblest epitaph.\r\n\r\nAfter the preface, the book opens with an extract from a prologue\r\nwritten by the excellent Dr. Aiken, the brother of Mrs. Barbauld, upon\r\nthe opening of the Theater Royal, Liverpool, in 1772:—\r\n\r\n_“Where Mersey’s stream, long winding o’er the plain,\r\nPours his full tribute to the circling main,\r\nA band of fishers chose their humble seat;\r\nContented labor blessed the fair retreat,\r\nInured to hardship, patient, bold, and rude,\r\nThey braved the billows for precarious food:\r\nTheir straggling huts were ranged along the shore,\r\nTheir nets and little boats their only store.”_\r\n\r\n\r\nIndeed, throughout, the work abounds with quaint poetical quotations,\r\nand old-fashioned classical allusions to the Aeneid and Falconer’s\r\nShipwreck.\r\n\r\nAnd the anonymous author must have been not only a scholar and a\r\ngentleman, but a man of gentle disinterestedness, combined with true\r\ncity patriotism; for in his _“Survey of__ the Town”_ are nine thickly\r\nprinted pages of a neglected poem by a neglected Liverpool poet.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 8"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRM0AKT1HBDD19XJYXXB","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRPJX6SFXCVM46W2K0JJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRPEY0G5NS9T0WCF6JA8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.054Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.510Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}