The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-12-31 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

EDUCATION.—Accustom a child as soon as it can
speak to narrate his little experience, his chapter of acci-
dents, his griefs, his fears, his hopes ; to communicate
what he has noticed in the world without, and what he
feels struggling in the world within. Anxious to have
something to narrate, he will be induced to give attention
to objects around him, and what is passing in the sphere
of his instruction, and to narrate and note events will be-
come one of his first pleasures; and this is the ground-
work of a thoughtful character.—Educational Magazine.
POTATOE Beossoms.—Having followed your recom-
mendation, of taking off the flowers of the potatoe when
in blossom, I wish to add my testimony to the advantage
derived from doing so, by assuring you that the crop of
potatoes far exceeded that of former years, both in size
and quantity. I had the blossoms left on one row, and
the crop was very inferior, both in size and quantity. I
prevailed upon a poor neighbour to follow the plan, and
the result was the same; and I hope next year to induce
others to try it.—Gardener's Chronicle.
CHRISTMAS-DAY AT THE ANTIPODES.—For some
days before Christmas, in our drives near the town, we
used to meet numbers of persons carrying bundles of a
beautiful native shrub, to decorate the houses, in the
same manner that we use holly and evergreens at home.
Men; women, and children, white brown, and black, were
in the trade; and sometimes a horse approached, so co-
vered with the bowery load he bore, that only his legs
were visible, and led by a man nearly as much hidden ;
carts heaped up with the green and blossomed boughs
came noddingly along, with children running beside them
decked out with sprays and garlands, laughing and shou'-
ing in proper Christmas jollity. I liked to see this at-
tempt at the perpetuation of some of lur ancient homely
poetry of life, in this new and generaly too prosaic co-
lony, where the cabalistic letters £ s d. and R U M ap-
pear too frequently the alphabet of existence. It seemed
like a good healthy memory of home ; and I doubt not
the decked-out windows and bouquet-filled chimney in
many a tradesman's house gave a more home-like flavour
to his beef or turkey, and aided in the remembrance of
old days and old friends alike numbered w th the past.
The shrub chosen as the Sydney " Christmas " is well
worthy of the honour. It is a handsome verdant shrub,
growing from two to twelve or fifteen feet high, with
leaves in shape like these of the horse-chesnut, but only
two or three inches broad, with a dark green, polished,
upper surface, the under one being pale. The scent of
its flowers when freshly gathered, is like that of new-
mown hay. The " Christmas dinner" truly seemed to
me a most odd and anomalous affair. Instead of having
won a seasonable appetite by a brisk walk over the crisp
snow, well muffled in warm winter garments, I had passed
a miserable morning, half dead with heat, on the sofa,
attired in the coolest muslin dress I possessed, sipping
lemonade or soda water, and endeavouring to remember
all the enviable times when I had touched a lump of ice
or grasped a snowball, and vainly watching the still, un-
ruffled curtains of the open window for the first symptom
of the afternoon sea-breeze.—Sketches of New South
Wales.

THE VICTORIA OR HUNT'S BANK STATION, MAN-
CHESTER.—This very important junction-line commences
near the original station of the Manchester and Leeds
Railway, in the Oldham-road, Manchester, which is now
converted into a goods station ; and, after passing for
some distance alongside of the original line, proceeds—
alternately on an embankment, in cutting, and on arches
—to the new joint-station of the two companies at Hunt's
Bank, near the confluence of the Irk and the Jr well ;
being a distance of about 2,320 yards, in which length the
line crosses the Irk three times. and is carried over seve-
ral streets. The junction line descends from the main
line by a steep inclined plane, the inclination of the first
part of which is 1 in 49, and of the remainder 1 in 60.
This plane is worked by stationary engines and endless
ropes, directions being conveyed from end to end by an
electric telegraph ; and from its lower extremity to the
Hunt's Bank, or, as it is now called, the Victoria station,
is a rising gradient of 1 in 132, which is ascended by the
impetus obtained in descending the inclined plane. and is
descended by trains going towards Leeds by gravity alone.
The remainder of the junction line, which belongs to the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, is about
1,790 yards long, and joins the Liverpool line between
the river Irwell and Ordsall-lane in Salford. It is suffi-
ciently level for the convenient use of locomotive engines,
and is principally constructed upon arches, a length of
about 230 yards, alongside of the viaduct of the Man-
chester and Bolton Railway, being supported by an iron
colonnade of very bold and remarkable character, cover-
ing, longitudinally, one-half of the carriage-way of Upper
Booth-street, and allowing free passage for waggons and
other vehicles under its whole length, so as not to inter-
fere with the access to the various carriers' establishments
and warehouses under the arches of the Bolton railway.
The railway is supported here by strong iron girders, the
interstices between which are filled up with arched ma-
sonry ; one end of each main girder being let into the
stonework of the old viaduct, while the other is supported
by one of a series of forty-five massive iron columns, each
of which weighs from four-and-a-half to five tons, and is
based upon a foundation of masonry sunk to the depth of
161 feet from the surface of the street, and resting on the
solid rock. The main girders weigh six tons each, and
the total quantity of iron in the erection is about 1,030
tons. The Victoria station is of extraordinary size, com-
prising five parallel lines of railway from end to end, with
turn-tables and other conveniences, the portion roofed
over being 700 feet long and about 114 feet wide, and
containing nearly 80,000 square feet of iron roofing. The
whole is lighted with gas; the pipes being so arranged
that a single turn of a regulating valve will reduce all the
lights to any required degree, or, on the approach or de-
parture of a train, turn on the fullest illuminating power
i❑ the whole of the station, its offices, and approaches.
There are also refreshment rooms and an hotel, under the
management of Mr. Vantini, of the Euston-square and
Fleetwood hotels. The station and the line from the
Leeds railway were opened on the Ist of January, and the
Liverpool extension on the 4th of May, 1844. The ex-
penditure of the two companies upon this junction line
and station, as given in the first reports after the opening
of each portion respectively, was little short of £370,000,
although the total length of new line scarcely exceeds two
miles and a quarter.—British Almanack for 1845.