Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/450

 *taining separate cells, for the detention and punishment of any offenders against the law. The most pretentious dwellings stood upon the northern portion of the tract known as the Marsh, and all of them were newly constructed. One near the western extremity was a substantial house with gardens and plantation, inhabited by the clergyman of the parish, the Rev. Robt. Lister. In close proximity was a marine villa with a Chinese porch, belonging to William Hornby, esq., of Kirkham; and a row of white cottages, called Lizmahago, after a race horse of John Clifton, esq., who had erected them for the accommodation of visitors. A pretty white villa was placed more to the rear, and several well-constructed lodging-houses studded the ground between those just mentioned and the old village, where clay and straw had been the time-honoured building materials. The beach afforded no more than three bathing machines, but sundry improvements, both in multiplying the vans and in the establishment of a warm sea-water bath, were in contemplation. No elegant promenade with its expansive sward, as at present, defined the land-*ward margin of the beach, but the whole space, at one end of which Mr. Cookson had erected a windmill, was covered with miniature sand-hills and star-grass, unfolding a most uninviting and deterring aspect to the pedestrian. The church of St. Cuthbert's was built of rubble, rough cast and whitened, and certainly possessed, both externally and internally, no very extensive claims to architectural beauty. The instrumental part of the service was accomplished by means of a clarionet and a bass fiddle. The religious edifice stood in the midst of fields, and was approached by a footpath, sufficiently wide to admit the passage of bathing vans, which were occasionally had recourse to by visitors on wet Sundays, in order to attend the service with dry garments, being then, and for some time afterwards, the only covered vehicles in the place. Lytham Hall, embosomed in lofty trees and plantations, formed an imposing object, being situated half a mile inland, between the village and the church. This noble mansion, comprising three fronts, of which the east is the principal, was commenced in 1757 and completed in 1764, by Thomas Clifton, esq., and superseded the original Hall, erected about 1606, by Sir Cuthbert Clifton. At the date now under examination, its possessor, John Clifton, esq., had laid out a race-course for training purposes, of three miles