In referring to this watering-place for a second time we feel some difficulty; not that we have said all that can be put forth in connexion with its claims to the patronage of the health-seeking and pleasure-loving population of Lancashire and the surrounding counties, but because our desire has been to introduce, wherever possible, some historical notice of the places which form the subject of our artist's pencil, especially where, as in the present instance, more than one illustration has been given of the same town or port. We must, however, confess, that of Blackpool, historically considered, we have nothing to record. Its chronicles, if ever it possessed any, have been swallowed up by the encroaching waves, which have taken a large portion of what was once dry land to augment their liquid domains.

About half-a-mile from the beach, the stranger's attention is directed to a small rock in the sea, called the "Pennystone," which, according to local tradition, marks the place where a public-house once stood on dry land. In this stone, it is added, were fixed iron hooks, to which travellers usually fastened their horses' bridles while they alighted to refresh themselves with "penny pots of beer,"—a circumstance perpetuated in the name which it still retains.

At the south end of the town is the now dilapidated building called Vauxhall, where, in 1715, the Chevalier St. George lay for some time concealed, while the secret measures were concocting by his adherents for a general insurrection. This house belonged to the family of the Tyldesleys, who at that time, and long previously, had considerable possessions in this country; but being faithful adherents of the House of Stuart, they embraced the desperate cause of the royal exile with undissembled zeal. Sir Thomas Tyldesley, the head of the family at that moment, prepared this house for the reception of the royal adventurer; but this open declaration of his attachment proved ruinous to himself and his descendants. The last male heir joined the standard of the Chevalier in 1745. One of his ancestors was slain at the battle of Wigan Lane, in that county, while marching to the assistance of Charles II.; a monument to his memory was erected by one of his officers in 1679. It is still in tolerable preservation, and bears an appropriate inscription.

East of Blackpool are situated the townships of Great and Little Marton, where a subterraneous forest has been discovered, by digging out the timber from which many of the peasantry obtain considerable sums. Some of the trees are sound enough to make agricultural instruments, barn roofs and fences, and even articles of ornamental furniture. Much of the land in this neighbourhood has been reclaimed from a state of marsh; and there are still remaining, within a few miles, a Moss comprising several thousand acres—so extensive, indeed, as to have passed into a local aphorism, "As inexhaustible as Pilling Moss," being an ordinary mode of expressing anything that is supposed to be without limit. This moss is reported to have, as lately as 1745, altered considerably in its level, and, by a movement to the south, to have destroyed one hundred acres of improved land. It affords a large supply of fuel for the district, and seems likely to continue to do so for generations to come.

The little watering-place, from which we have thus wandered away, owes its name to a pool of water of more than ordinary darkness of colour, caused by the decaying vegetation of the marshes. It has now, however, disappeared under the hand of modern improvement, and given place to a supply of water more than usually pure, and which is not to be often found in such close proximity to the coast.