{"id":"01KG8AKS804FEXF6H52MHE38AN","cid":"bafkreibvhkm2ldb4uagbu4l2wjlg4mpmccyqonr3euwafp65tnsa2wukam","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6285,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":6222,"text":"the greater part of the old settlements; that this pool was made into\r\nthe “Old Dock,” for the benefit of the shipping; but that, years ago,\r\nit had been filled up, and furnished the site for the Custom-house\r\nbefore me.\r\n\r\nI now eyed the spot with a feeling somewhat akin to the Eastern\r\ntraveler standing on the brink of the Dead Sea. For here the doom of\r\nGomorrah seemed reversed, and a lake had been converted into\r\nsubstantial stone and mortar.\r\n\r\nWell, well, Wellingborough, thought I, you had better put the book into\r\nyour pocket, and carry it home to the Society of Antiquaries; it is\r\nseveral thousand leagues and odd furlongs behind the march of\r\nimprovement. Smell its old morocco binding, Wellingborough; does it not\r\nsmell somewhat mummy-ish? Does it not remind you of Cheops and the\r\nCatacombs? I tell you it was written before the lost books of Livy, and\r\nis cousin-german to that irrecoverably departed volume, entitled, _“The\r\nWars of the Lord”_ quoted by Moses in the Pentateuch. Put it up,\r\nWellingborough, put it up, my dear friend; and hereafter follow your\r\nnose throughout Liverpool; it will stick to you through thick and thin:\r\nand be your ship’s mainmast and St. George’s spire your landmarks.\r\n\r\nNo!—And again I rubbed its back softly, and gently adjusted a loose\r\nleaf: No, no, I’ll not give you up yet. Forth, old Morocco! and lead me\r\nin sight of the venerable Abbey of Birkenhead; and let these eager eyes\r\nbehold the mansion once occupied by the old earls of Derby!\r\n\r\nFor the book discoursed of both places, and told how the Abbey was on\r\nthe Cheshire shore, full in view from a point on the Lancashire side,\r\ncovered over with ivy, and brilliant with moss! And how the house of\r\nthe noble Derby’s was now a common jail of the town; and how that\r\ncircumstance was full of suggestions, and pregnant with wisdom!\r\n\r\nBut, alas! I never saw the Abbey; at least none was in sight from the\r\nwater: and as for the house of the earls, I never saw that.\r\n\r\nAh me, and ten times alas! am I to visit old England in vain? in the\r\nland of Thomas-a-Becket and stout John of Gaunt, not to catch the least\r\nglimpse of priory or castle? Is there nothing in all the British empire\r\nbut these smoky ranges of old shops and warehouses? is Liverpool but a\r\nbrick-kiln? Why, no buildings here look so ancient as the old\r\ngable-pointed mansion of my maternal grandfather at home, whose bricks\r\nwere brought from Holland long before the revolutionary war! Tis a\r\ndeceit—a gull—a sham—a hoax! This boasted England is no older than the\r\nState of New York: if it is, show me the proofs—point out the vouchers.\r\nWhere’s the tower of Julius Caesar? Where’s the Roman wall? Show me\r\nStonehenge!\r\n\r\nBut, Wellingborough, I remonstrated with myself, you are only in\r\nLiverpool; the old monuments lie to the north, south, east, and west of\r\nyou; you are but a sailor-boy, and you can not expect to be a great\r\ntourist, and visit the antiquities, in that preposterous\r\nshooting-jacket of yours. Indeed, you can not, my boy.\r\n\r\nTrue, true—that’s it. I am not the traveler my father was. I am only a\r\ncommon-carrier across the Atlantic.\r\n\r\nAfter a weary day’s walk, I at last arrived at the sign of the\r\nBaltimore Clipper to supper; and Handsome Mary poured me out a brimmer\r\nof tea, in which, for the time, I drowned all my melancholy.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRKE76XA8GX60MNS3NKC","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKS806H71SAJ5SCFCQHP3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.616Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.209Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}