tower as it is at present. But on looking closely at the masonry, from outside, Mr. Hopps called my attention to the fact that the upper stone work above the Oak Room window on the southeast front, does not appear so weathered as that of the turrets, or the rest of the tower, for on the former portion the chisel marks are still visible. So possibly another storey was built on to the oldest portion by Mr. Egerton of Oulton when he made it his residence in 1778. Mr. Egerton died there in 1786.

The building next passed by purchase to one Robert Harrison, who sold it in 1802 to the widow of Lewis W. Boode, a West Indian planter, described as of Amsterdam and Peover Hall." It is in the act of sale that the place is first called Leasowe Castle." In 1818 considerable additions and alterations were made to the Castle by Mrs. Boode, from the plans of Foster of Liverpool. Mrs. Boode was Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Dannett, rector of Liverpool. Ormerod described the gardens in 1816 thus:

"The gardens are surrounded with a large fosse and mound, and disposed in terraces and alcoves. The Castle is situated towards the middle of a large level plain called the Leasowe which stretches along the end of Wirral and is protected partially from the inroads of the sea by a range of sandhills, but does not boast of a single shrub to break the monotony of the prospect. This plain, containing about 220 acres, is about to be enclosed. . . in the act the sandhills are directed to be preserved as security from the inroads of the Irish Sea."

These sandhills were eroded away soon after this, for the Act to build the first part of the embankment was passed in 1829.1

During Mrs. Boode's occupancy of the castle, it was frequently turned into a receiving house

1 Mortimer, Hist. of Wirral, p. 294.

and hospital for the survivors of the shipwrecks which were then of frequent occurrence on this coast. Unfortunately the inhabitants looked upon all property cast up by the sea as their own. From the report of the Commission appointed to enquire into the necessity of a police force in 1837, we learn that, for wrecking, the counties of Cheshire and Cornwall were the worst: "On the Cheshire coast not far from Liverpool they will rob those who have escaped the perils of the sea and come safe on shore, and mutilate dead bodies for the sake of rings and personal ornaments."

Mrs. Boode was killed in a carriage accident, 21st April, 1826. A gothic monument was erected to commemorate the accident and placed near the spot where it occurred in Breck Road, but owing to widening the road at this point it does not now occupy its original site. On a stone in the wall which surrounds this monument is the following inscription:

Near this spot Mrs. BOODE of Leasowe Castle was killed by a fall from her pony-carriage April 21st, 1826. May ye who pass by respect this memorial of an awful dispensation and the affectionate tribute of an only child to perpetuate her dear mother's memory beyond the existence of that breast which will never cease to cherish it. Ah, may the sad remembrance which attaches to this spot impress on everyone this salutary warning:

"In the midst of life we are in death."

Mrs. Boode's daughter and heir, Mary Anne, married Col. Edward Cust at Marylebone Church, on 11th January, 1821. Her husband was born in 1794, being the sixth son of Brownlow Cust,1 first Lord Brownlow, and a brother of John Cust, first Earl Brownlow. He was born at 30, Hill Street, Berkeley Square, London. He was gazetted Colonel in the 16th Light Dragoons on

1 Dict. of Nat. Biography.

15th March, 1810, and saw active service in the Peninsular War. In 1816, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, afterwards King of the Belgians, and an Hon. Colonel in the 16th Light Dragoons, appointed Cust as his equerry, and afterwards gave him the Grand Cross Order of Leopold of Belgium. In 1831, when Leopold became King of the Belgians, Cust was created Knight Commander of the Guelphic Order of Hanover. In 1818, he became M.P. for Grantham, and sat for Lostwithiel from 1826 till the suppression of that borough in the Reform Bill of 1832. He became Assistant Master of Ceremonies to Queen Victoria in 1845 and Master of Ceremonies in 1847. He was author of several military histories, for which he received in 1869 the Gold Medal of the Austrian Empire, from the Emperor of Austria. In 1848, he published Sunday Night Readings, and in 1850 Family Readings from the New Testament harmonised and explained. He received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1853. He was made a baronet in 1876.

He married, as already stated, the only child of Lewis W. Boode, heiress also of her mother. She was Bed-chamber woman to H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent, mother of Queen Victoria. She wrote a book on "Cats," being a cat fancier, and died on 10th July, 1882. By her Cust left one son, Leopold (called after his godfather, the King of the Belgians) and four daughters.

In May, 1828, Col. Cust (as he then was) converted Leasowe Castle, his wife's property, into an hotel, but it was not a success, and about 1843 he made his residence there, and visited it at times till shortly before his death in 1878. He was senior magistrate for Wirral for a number of years, and elected one of the first VicePresidents of this Society on its formation in