Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/616

CHESTER, an ancient city of England in West Cheshire, the capital of the county, situated on the river Dee, 20 miles from the open sea, 16 miles S.E. of Liverpool, and 179 miles N.W. of London by rail. The city is divided into four principal blocks by the four principal streets North- gate Street, Eastgate Street, Bridge Street, and Watergate Street, which radiate at right angles from the Cross, and terminate in the four gates. These four streets exhibit in what are called " the Rows " a characteristic feature of the city. Their origin is a mystery, and has given rise to much controversy and speculation. In Eastgate Street, Bridge Street, and Watergate Street, the Rows exist on each side of the street throughout the greater part of their length, and may be described as continuous galleries open to the street, over and under which the houses lining the streets project, and which are formed as it were out of the front first-floor of the houses, approached by flights of steps from the roadway. The Rows are flagged or boarded under foot and ceiled above, thus forming a covered way, standing in the same relation to the shops, which are at their back, as the foot pavement does in other towns. In Northgate Street, on the other hand, the Row on the west side is formed as it were out of the ground floor of the houses, having cellars beneath, while on the east side the Row is formed at the same elevation as in the other three principal streets. In these streets are several examples of the old timbered houses of the 17th century, and some good specimens of modern imitations of them, all combining to give a picturesque and foreign character to the town. There is also a chamber with stone groined roof of the 14th century in the basement of a house in Eastgate Street, and another of a similar character in Watergate Street. A mortuary chapel of the early part of the 13th century exists in the basement of a house in Bridge Street.

Plan of Chester.

City Arms.

Chester is the only city in England that still possesses its walls perfect in their entire circuit of two miles. The gateways have all been rebuilt within the last hundred years, the north and east gates on the site of the Roman gates. The Grosvenor Bridge, a single span of stone 200 feet in length, the largest, save one over the Danube, it is believed, in Europe, carries the road to Wrexham and Shrewsbury over the Dee on the south-west, while the old bridge of seven arches is interesting on account of its antiquity and picturesque appearance. The city possesses but few public buildings besides the cathedral and the churches. The castle, with the ex ception of " Caesar s Tower," and a round tower with adjacent buildings in the upper ward, was taken down towards the end of the last century, and replaced by a gateway, a bar racks, a county hall, a jail, and assize courts, all buildings of pure classic architecture after the design of Thomas Harrison, a local architect, who was also the architect of the Grosvenor Bridge. In Northgate Street stands the town hall, a handsome stone building of Continental-Gothic design, which replaced the old Exchange, burnt down in 18G2. The market-place, a little to the south of it, was opened to the public in 1863. Near the north-west angle of the city walls is the infirmary, founded in 1761, capable of holding 100 beds, and furnished with a fever ward in a detached building to the east of it. The savings-bank is a pretty Gothic structure in Grosvenor Street, erected in 1853. The Grosvenor Hotel, rebuilt by its owner, the late marquis of Westminster, is a handsome building near the east gate, the upper stories being timbered in accordance with the style of the old houses in the city. Besides these may be mentioned the general post-office, designed after the Elizabethan style, the custom-house, the free library, the music hall, and the training college. Among the most interesting of the ancient houses are Derby House, bearing the date 1591, Bishop Lloyd s House, and God s Providence House in Watergate Street, and the Bear and Billet in Lower Bridge Street ; the three last bear dates in the 17th century. The Natural Science Society, founded by Canon Kingsley, and the Archaeologi cal Society have their lecture-rooms and museums at the Old Albion in Lower Bridge Street.

Arms of Bishopric.

Besides the Benedictine Abbey of St Werburgh, the

Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the Carmelites had houses in Chester, and the sites of the first and last are still commemorated in the names of Grey Friars and White Friars ; St John s, without the walls, was a collegiate church, with a dean, seven prebendaries, and four vicars. Chester was for a time in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, but in 1075, Peter, then bishop, restored the seat of the see to Chester, and made St John s his cathedral ; his successor, however, removed the seat back to Coventry, and in 1541 Henry VIII. erected Chester into an independent see, and the abbey church of St Werburgh into the cathedral of the diocese. He richly endowed the cathedral, and constituted in it a dean and six prebendaries, now reduced to four, who are styled canons. The , TT-- n i i f IT i A- King s School for public education was founded by the same patron, and in it the king provided that 24 poor scholars should be taught free of charge. The school has now, however, been remodelled, and placed under a board of governors by the Endowed Schools Com missioners. Within the walls are the parish churches of St Oswald, founded about 1093 ; St Peter, founded before the Conquest ; St Michael, probably founded before 1118; St Bridget, founded prior to 1224 ; the Holy and Undivided

Trinity, founded in or before the 12th century; St Mary,