Southport—formerly South Hawes—is about two miles to the southward of North Meols, near the estuary of the Ribble, and opens upon a magnificent bay. Its situation among the dry sand-hills, or meols, contributes much to the salubrity of the place, and it appears to gain in popularity as it becomes more generally known.

This popular watering-place is of modern erection, as in the year 1809 it contained only eighty-eight houses, but it no sooner obtained the patronage of the wealthy and active merchants of Lancashire, than it sprung up with rapid strides, and those numerous appliances of luxury which its patrons know so well how to appreciate were produced in abundance, while the low, barren sand-hills of this part of the coast were soon covered with spacious hotels, boarding-houses, baths, and all the essentials of a fashionable sea-bathing town. There is no doubt but that at some period the sea must have covered much of what is now dry land, as in the churchyard of North Meols, sea shells, in considerable numbers, are frequently found when the ground is opened for graves, to the depth of five or six feet.

In the vicinity of Southport, and forming part of the same parish, is Martin (or more properly Merton) Meer, once an extensive morass. In Leland's time, it was four miles long and two broad, and emptied itself into the sea. About 1692, Mr. Fleetwood, of Bank Hall, commenced draining this meer by a sluice, shutting and opening with the tide, and died with the idea that he had completed the work. When the water was drained off, eight canoes were found, scooped out of the trunks of trees, in the same mode as they are made among the Indians of the Pacific at this day; one of them had plates of iron fixed upon it, and all were constructed probably before the Roman possession of Britain. In 1755, the Meer was again inundated by a very high tide, owing to the insufficiency of the sluice-gates, and Mr. Eccleston, of Scarisbrick, made a second attempt to drain it, and succeeded until 1789, when a partial inundation from the river Douglas did some mischief, but more extensive injury was prevented by the action of some floodgates, which had been erected to guard against such accidents. In 1813, the sea-gates were again swept away, but the land was protected by the stop-gates as before. Since that time a great improvement has taken place in the Meer, and much of it is now good land.

The practice of sea-bathing—if we may judge by the much improved accommodations at Southport and along the coast—appears to be on the increase. There are many, indeed, who a few years ago would hardly have been persuaded to dip their fingers in salt-water; but, having once become converts to that salutary habit, they would now suffer many privations rather than forego their annual visits to the cheerful "sands" and sea-breezes of their native coast. After an indulgence of this nature, the man of business returns fresh-braced to his counting-house, the student to his books, each with renewed strength and resolution to perform their several duties in the great drama of active life. We are in hopes that those of our compatriots who have really the means of such enjoyment at their command, will at length do justice to the beauty of their own shores. The millions that are squandered in perambulating foreign lands, under the specious pretext of recovering health, or in pursuit of amusement, if spent in England would secure for their owners at least something like an equivalent for their money, and testify in their own persons and in everything around them, not only proofs of good judgment, but praise for their patriotism. This mania, which for so many years has deprived our native watering-places of their legitimate revenue, is certainly on the decline; and we speak from much experience in foreign travel, when we state that, to a well regulated mind, England alone presents, in the greatest proportion, the true requisites for health and rational enjoyment. In no other country of the world is the word "comfort" so well understood; and in no other climate—"damp and dripping" as it has been pronounced by certain morbid peripatetics—can we promise ourselves so much out-door luxury and enjoyment as at "home." But to him who still entertains a doubt on this point, and prefers, with Lucullus, to change his quarters, we recommend Southport by way of experiment, and have no doubt that he will soon make a voluntary surrender of his prejudices.

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