The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-06-10 00:00:00

WHITSUNTIDE IN LIVERPOOL,

The Whitsuntide Holydays have not, this year, so far,
brought with them their wonted number of pleasure-
seeking visitors to the shores of the Mersey. This was
expected, and the reason is not involved in any proble-
matical mystery. The attractions of the metropolis of
Lancashire have been obscured by the increased induce-
ment held out for paying a visit to the city of the world ;
the Great Exhibition is the grand focus to which all
pleasure's rays converge. Not to be a visitor to the
" World's Fair" would argue a want of taste and a
vulgarity of apprehension ; and the attractions held out
in the palace of glass are suffieie-et to induce all to pay it
a visit. Hence, added to the fact that the whole of the
factories have not yet ceased operations, may be attri-
buted the diminution of visitors to that of former years,
notwithstanding, however, the number of persons brought
up by railway yesterday was very considerable. The
London and North-Western line, on Sunday, brought
a cheap train containing upwards of five hundred passen-
gers from Manchester; and yesterday, from Sheffield, a
similar train, containing upwards of 700 passengers, The
whole number of persons brought by the excursion trains
on this line may be computed at between three and four
thousand, and these are principally from the neighbour-
hoods of Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Greenfield, Mac-
clesfield, Stockport, Preston, Stafford, and the Potteries.
Considerable as the arrivals by this line have been they
fall short of that of the previous years. The same re-
mark will also apply to the East Lancashire and Yorkshire
Railway. The arrivals by the first-named line numbered
3,b50, principally consisting of temperance parties and
school-children from the neighbourhood of Skipton,
Blackburn, Preston, and Rose Grove. By a very admira-
ble and simple arrangement, adopted by the East Lan-
cashire Company, all difficulty in ascertaining the number
contained in each excursion-train is done away with ;
and not only is the number of passengers readily ascer-
tainable, hut also the place whence they come and where
they go, under whose conductorship, and the name or
kind of persons of which the excursion parties are com-
posed : thus,—Temperance Society, 1,000; Young Men's
Society, 300; Primitive Methodist Schools,1,000; and so on
with the hours each train returns and other necessary
information. These facts are ascertained by a printed
tabular form ranged in columns. These particulars are
not by any means unimportant, as they give a tolerably
good criterion of the moral and industrial condition of
the manufacturing districts. By the means alluded to
we ascertain that the movements on the East Lancashire
line yesterday were as follows :

From Colne to Patricroft ..... .
„ Blackburn to Ditto
„ Skipton to Liverpool
„ Blackburn to Ditto
„ Ditto to Blackpool.. ....
„ Ditto to Fleetwood.. .
„ Ditto to Ditto
„ Ditto to Blackpool .....
„ Ditto to Houghton ..
„ Preston to Liverpool
„ Ditto to Ditto . .
„ Burnley to Blackpool ....
~ Rose Grove to Liverpool ....

Passengers
250
• 1000
• 1000
300
, 300
1000
500
• 500
. 1000
. 500
. 200
. 350

The arrangements by the same line for to-day are—
From Liverpool to Rufford 2,000
" Preston to ditto lOO
„ Blackburn to ditto lOO
~ Preston to Liverpool . ..... 5000

7.200
There arrived during the day, by the Yorkshire and Lan-
cashire line, 72 carriages, occupied by the cheap excur-
tionists, and the average capacity of each carriage being
taken at thirty (the estimate formed by all railway officials)
we have a total of 2,210 persons, principally from the
neighbourhoods of Bradford and Low-Moor.
The great bulk of the visitors consisted of persons con.
nected with temperance societies, clubs formed for raising
an excursion fund, public schools, and schools connected
with different bodies of religionists. _

The day proved exceedingly unpropitious, and the
"return" anything but comfortable, for it was not a little
piteous to see the thousands who in the morning had
donned their gayest attire in honour of a visit to cur town,
return in the evening all drabbled and bedaubed,
thoroughly /wet to the skin, and altogether in a form
most questionable and uncomfortable.

Yesterday, at an early hour in the morning, our noble
river exhibited a splendid sight, every approach to the
various piers being crowded with holiday people from the
manufacturing districts, seeking enjoyment and the re-
freshing saline breezes. The Great Landing-stage at
George's Pier was the central resort ; and as nearly every
body of excursionists brought its own band of :music, the
scene was rendered still more enlivening as the gay crowds
embarked for one or other of the Cheshire ferries. A
number of our large9t tug-boats made trips during the
day round the Floating-light. The Welsh boats drafted
off thousands to Bangor, Beaumaris, and the Menai
Straits. The Isle of Man steamer Tynwald left at eleven
o'clock in the forenoon, with nearly 700 passengers on
board ; 170 more, bound also for the island, arrived from
Sheffield too late for the boat ; and about 200 more from
Leeds werein the like predicament. Throughout the morn-
ing Cheshire was alive with parties, obviously not natives,
each party carrying a basket containing the indispensibles
for a pic-nic, having apparently fancied that they were
about to adventure into some desert country, where there
were no shops, no butchers or bakers, no gridirons, no
liquids, wherewith to refresh the inner man, and wash the
dust out of their throats. Unfortunately for the comfort
of these excursionists, the afternoon brought with it a
fall of rain, which drove them from the enjoyment of
parks and howling-greens, and from inhaling the pure
air of the fields and the sea-shore, to shelter ►n what-
ever houses of entertainment opened their hospitable
doors.

This Whitsuntide the favours of the multitude seem
likely to he more equally divided than in past years. The
Seacombe boats, with their reduced fare of one penny,
carried a fair proportion of passengers, all the world not
being bound to New Brighton or to Woodside, and many
chosing to see two ferries and two descriptions of scenery
for their money. The Birkenhead Great Float was an
attraction added since last year; and the walk by Sea-
combe Ferry past the float, and thence to Birken-
head-park, found many admirers. During the forenoon
the Seacombe green and gardens presented a lively scene ;
and most other similar places of resort benefited as well.
The sights presented on the return of the various excur-
sion boats, &c.—the draggled dresses of the women and
the drenched appearance of the males—may, as the gen-
tlemen of the press sit) , " better be imagined than de-
scribed."