Golfers who know Hoylake will be interested in West Kirby
and Hilbre : a Parochial History by Mr. John Brownhill (Liverpool : Henry Young and Sons, 10s. 6d.), for the famous links are in the quiet Wirral parish and Mr. Bernard Darwin has written an excellent chapter on the rise and progress of the Royal Liverpool dub from 1869. Apart from golf, the book is a model of what a local history should be, for it contains all the details about descents of manors and the like that the antiquary needs and at the same time it gives an interesting account of the gradual development of this sandy peninsula between Dee and Mersey into a populous suburb of Liverpool. IIilbre, at the very point, used to be a busy shipping centre when vessels had grown too large to go up to Chester, and William army for Ireland in 1689 embarked at Hoylake. Anna Seward, the " Swan of Lich- field," went there for sea-bathing in 1794 and stayed at the first hotel built in the sandhills. In early Victorian days a racecourse was laid out but did not flourish. Mr. W. G. Collingwood deals with the few Norse or pre-Norman remains found in West Kirby and there are many good illustrations and maps. * * * *
Previous page
