William Huskisson and the End of Time


William Huskisson*
William Huskisson

I came back from making this film scratching my legs almost until they bled. I wanted to get a close-up of the front of the monument and didn't mind a little mild trespass on the railway verges, but every approach was guarded by the most ferocious nettles it has ever been my misfortune to encounter! I even tried coming back in winter, but they were still there, as vicious as ever, so I gave up.

According to a book I have, the inscription on the monument reads as follows:

This Tablet, a tribute of personal respect and affection, has been placed here to mark the spot where, on the 15th of September 1830, at the opening of the railroad, the RIGHT HON. WILLIAM HUSKISSON M.P. singled out by an inscrutable Providence from the midst of the distinguished multitude that surounded him, in the full pride of his talents and perfection of his usefulness, met with the accident that occasioned his death, which deprived England of an illustrious Statesman and Liverpool of its honoured Representative, which changed a moment of noblest exultation and triumph that science and genius had ever achieved, into one of desolation and mourning and, striking terror into the hearts of assembled thousands, brought home to every bosom the forgotton truth that "In the midst of life we are in Death".