Bridge Street.—Ancient Crypt.—The Blue Posts and the Knave of
Clubs.—Roman Bath.—Grosvenor Street.—New Savings Bank.—The
Cemetery.—Curzon Park and Hough Green.—The Port of Saltney.—St. Michael’s
Church.—St. Olave’s Church.—The Gamull House.—St. Mary’s Church.
HEIGHO! After our bootless lamentation over the deceased Port of
Chester, it is refreshing to return once more to an atmosphere of life
and activity.
Turning our faces towards the south, we have before us BRIDGE STREET,
another of the four great Roman roads of the city. Here again we see the
Rows,—those strange old Rows!—threading their tubelike course along both
sides of the Street. The one upon the right hand is called the _Scotch
Row_, from the merchants north of the Tweed ‘clanning’ together there,
during the two great FAIRS, held annually at Chester from time
immemorial. It should be remembered that, except at these privileged
times, none but freemen were permitted to trade within the city; whence
is to be attributed the large concourse of foreign tradesmen to these
once important Fairs. Since the downfall of this monopoly, the _Scotch
Row_ has become a desert wilderness, so far as business is concerned; but
it will still serve as an admirable index to the stranger of what the
Rows of Chester were a hundred years ago. The street fronts of the
houses in this Row are more than ordinarily diversified,—the square red
brick, the everlasting gable of every shape and size, the stately
bow-window, and the ponderous, overhanging Dutch fronts, all flaunting
their pretensions within this circumscribed space. Previous to 1839, no
special archæological interest attached to this locality; but in that
year while excavating for a warehouse behind the shop of Messrs. Powell
and Edwards, cutlers, a discovery was made which at once set all the
antiquaries of Chester “by the ears.” The late Rev. J. Eaton, Precentor
of the Cathedral, an architectural authority in his day, made the
following Report upon this ANCIENT CRYPT, as it is called, for the use of
the proprietors. To these gentlemen, and particularly to Mr. Edwards,
the representative of the firm, the public are deeply indebted for their
intelligence and courtesy, in not only preserving intact this relic of
the past, but also for so readily affording admission to the structure:—
“The lower parts of several of the houses in the four principal
streets of Chester exhibit indubitable signs that they have been
built on the remains of the religious buildings with which, prior to
the Reformation, this city abounded.
“The ancient Crypt discovered by Messrs. Powell and Edwards is of an
oblong form, running from east to west. The following are its
dimensions, viz. length, forty-two feet; breadth, fifteen feet three
inches; height, from the surface of the floor to the intersection of
the groinings of the roof, fourteen feet. This Crypt was partially
lighted through the upper part of the west end, in which there are
three small windows, divided by stone mullions, and protected by iron
bars. The upper part of the groining on the centre window appears to
have been cut away to admit of more light. On examining the
intersection of the groins, marks were discovered from the lead on
the stone-work, that a couple of lamps had been used for lighting.
The entrance to the east end is by a flight of steps cut out of the
rock to the height of three feet. On the south side is an
Anglo-Norman-Gothic doorway, which is attained by three or four
semicircular steps, and forms an outlet within its inner and outer
wall by another flight of steps to the surface above the building.
In a niche on the south side of the window is a font in excellent
preservation.
“The architecture is Anglo-Norman-Gothic, and the groins are of the
third class of groining, which came into common use about the year
1180, and was succeeded in the next class of groins in the year 1280,
so that if we date this roof as being erected about the year 1230, we
shall not be far from the era of its real construction.”
Messrs. Powell and Edwards make no charge for admission: we must not
omit, therefore, ere we pass out from the _Crypt_, to drop a stray piece
of silver into the hat of the _Blue Coat Boy_ who stands modestly at the
door. Charity is seldom ill-bestowed; but here we have the special
privilege of contributing, in however slight a degree, to the gratuitous
education of the orphan and the friendless.
The Row upon the left hand is the one most frequented, forming a junction
at right angles with Eastgate Row, before described. In the sixteenth
century this Row was distinguished by the name of the _Mercers’ Row_,
from the predominance here, probably, of that most enticing class of
tradesmen. The love of dress and finery was evidently, even in those
days, woman’s chief besetting sin!
A little way down this Row was an ancient tavern, called the _Blue
Posts_, supposed to be the identical house now occupied by Mr. Brittain,
woollendraper. In this house a curious incident is stated to have
occurred in 1558, which tradition has handed down to us in the following
terms. It appears that—
“Dr. Henry Cole, Dean of St. Paul’s, was charged by Queen Mary with a
commission to the council of Ireland, which had for its object the
persecution of the Irish protestants. The doctor stopped one night
here on his way to Dublin, and put up at the _Blue Posts_, then kept
by a Mrs. Mottershead. In this house he was visited by the mayor, to
whom, in the course of conversation, he related his errand; in
confirmation of which he took from his cloak bag a leather box,
exclaiming in a tone of exultation, ‘Here is what will lash the
heretics of Ireland!’ This announcement was caught by the landlady,
who had a brother in Dublin: and while the commissioner was escorting
his worship down-stairs, the good woman, prompted by an affectionate
regard for the safety of her brother, opened the box, took out the
commission, and placed in lieu thereof a pack of cards, with the
_knave of clubs_ uppermost! This the doctor carefully packed up,
without suspecting the transformation; nor was the deception
discovered till his arrival in the presence of the lord deputy and
privy council at the castle of Dublin. The surprise of the whole
assembly, on opening the supposed commission, may be more easily
imagined than described. The doctor, in short, was immediately sent
back for a more satisfactory authority; but, before he could return
to Ireland, Queen Mary had breathed her last. It should be added
that the ingenuity and affectionate zeal of the landlady were
rewarded by Elizabeth with a pension of £40 a-year.”
The first street we meet with on the right hand is COMMONHALL STREET, so
called from the _Common Hall_ of the city having been at one time situate
there. This hall of justice stood upon the south side of the street, and
close to those venerable-looking almshouses still situate there. It had
previously been the _Chapel of St. Ursula_, which was founded there, with
an _Hospital_ for decayed persons, by Sir Thomas Smith, in 1532. The
Hospital of St. Ursula still weathers the storm, in those odd-looking,
tottering almshouses on the south side of this street. Lower down Bridge
Street, on the same side, is another break in the row, formed by
_Pierpoint Lane_, not now a thoroughfare, but through which went a
passage in olden time to the _Common Hall_, just referred to.
Scarcely so far down as this last-named lane, and on the opposite side of
Bridge Street, is a new and handsome range of buildings, erected in 1853
by Mr. Alderman Royle. On the higher side of these premises, and
adjoining the Feathers Hotel, exist a ROMAN HYPOCAUST and _Sweating
Bath_, of surpassing interest, and in a state almost as perfect as when
first erected. The following account of this “ancient of days” is the
result of a recent personal visit to the bath.
It consists of two rooms, considerably below the present level of the
street—the first being fifteen feet long, eight feet wide, and about six
and a half feet deep. The Hypocaust is of rectangular shape, about the
same size, but, except at the entrance, not more than half as deep as the
first chamber. It was originally supported by thirty-two square pillars,
two and a half feet high, and one foot in diameter at top and bottom:
twenty-eight of these pillars still remain. Brick tiles, eighteen inches
square, and three inches thick, surmount these pillars; and over these
are placed tiles two feet square, perforated here and there with small
holes, through which the heat ascended to the _sweating chamber_ above.
The sweating room, or Sudatory, was immediately over the Hypocaust, and
was fitted with seats for the bathers, who soon found themselves in a hot
perspiration. They were then scraped carefully with an instrument
constructed for the purpose, or else plunged into a cold water bath;
after which they were rubbed down with towels, anointed with fresh oil,
and then repaired to the tiring room: there they dressed themselves,
deposited their _denarii_ for the attendants, and then went their way,
having enjoyed a luxury which few but Romans had then learned to indulge
in.
As we have before stated, the buildings above and around have been only
recently rebuilt: but Messrs. Royle, the proprietors, with that
antiquarian zeal, and true public spirit, which have ever distinguished
them, took especial precautions to preserve, both from injury and
molestation, this curious relic of proud old Rome. Since the adjacent
premises have been rebuilt, the bath is much easier of access than it was
before; and visitors can now inspect these remains without any personal
sacrifice, either of cleanliness or comfort.
Lower down than the Roman Bath, there was, until recently, a break in
this Row, occasioned by a narrow lane, which leads up to the stables of
the Feathers Hotel. This inconvenience has now been obviated by a neat
wooden bridge, stretching across the passage from row to row; and we can
now walk along, without the slightest obstruction, till we come to St.
Michael’s Church.
The large and well-conceived street upon the right hand is GROSVENOR
STREET, capable, under proper management, of being made the finest street
of the city. It is flanked on the right side by WHITE FRIARS, formerly
_Foster’s Lane_, in which the Church and Monastery of that fraternity was
at one time situate.
[Picture: Grosvenor Street, and King’s Head Inn]
At the junction of White Friars with Grosvenor Street stands that
capital, well-conducted establishment, the KING’S HEAD INN. This is one
of those quiet, cosy-looking houses, in which, the moment a traveller
enters, he feels himself “at home;” and certainly, under the presidency
of Mr. and Mrs. Bedson, he will find that—“deny it who can!”—domestic
comforts are still to be enjoyed in an old English inn.
Some thirty yards up the street, on the right hand, is Cuppin Street,
before noticed; and nearly opposite to it, an old and narrow street
called _Bunce Lane_, leading off to St. Mary’s Church and the Castle.
Beyond, upon the same side, is an elegant structure of white freestone,
erected in 1853, from the designs of Mr. James Harrison, of this city, to
wit, the Chester SAVINGS BANK. The architecture of this building is of
the Tudor style; and the genius of Mr. Harrison has accomplished a work
which, while highly creditable to himself, is, at the same time, a
genuine ornament to the city. The clock turret at the north-west corner,
though it somewhat destroys the equilibrium of sight, yet, on the whole,
adds much of beauty to the general fabric. The clock, which works four
faces, and chimes the quarters on two melodious bells, was constructed by
Mr. Joyce, of Whitchurch.
The ordinary business of this Bank is conducted in two large rooms,
nearly twenty feet square, on the ground floor; over which a spiral
staircase conducts to the committee and lecture-room, a noble apartment,
forty-one feet long by twenty feet wide, lit on the north and west sides
by four handsome traceried windows. The panelled ceiling, and other
internal decorations of this room, are exceedingly chaste, and in happy
unison with its exterior character. The Bank was formally transferred
here from Goss Street in March, 1853. Here the poor and thrifty hoard up
their little savings; the shillings grow into pounds, and provision is
thus quietly, but surely, made against the rainy day. Let us never
despise the day of small things, remembering that the foundation of many
a rich man’s fortune has been laid with his first shilling deposited in a
Savings Bank.
On the right is St. Bridget’s Church; and from this spot we obtain a
capital view of the CASTLE, including the Grand Entrance, Shire Hall,
Barrack Square, and Julius Cæsar’s Tower. We have noticed the Castle
more particularly in our “Walk round the City Walls;” so we will now pass
on towards the Grosvenor Bridge, one of the modern wonders of old
Chester. From the parapet of this bridge we obtain a splendid view of
the Roodeye and river, as well as of the Viaduct and Railway Bridge in
the distance. This bridge has obtained an unenviable notoriety from its
having broken down with a passenger train, on May 24, 1847, precipitating
the whole of the carriages and passengers into the river below. By this
accident four persons were killed upon the spot, and very many others
more or less injured.
We are no sooner over the Grosvenor Bridge than we feel ourselves at once
out of range of the town, and breathing the fresh and balmy air of the
country. Bowers of trees are on either side of us, through which we can
see, upon our left hand, something which seems like unto a Christian
temple. The gateway we are approaching stands invitingly open; let us
therefore step in, and cast a quiet glance at the prospect around.
Despite the rose-clad lodge which guards the entrance, and the numerous
flowers and shrubs that everywhere greet the eye, we are at once struck
that this is a sacred scene, a royal domain of the grim King Death.
“Tread lightly,” then, all who would venture in hither, for assuredly
“this is holy ground;” and while we reverently scan the numerous
memorials of the departed lying scattered around, let us all prepare, ere
the day be too far spent, to follow them in peace and in hope to our last
earthly home. There are few but have, at some time or other, borne a
friend to the grave—perhaps even the soul and centre of their domestic
hearth; _our_ ‘household god’ lies peacefully _here_. To all such these
lines, coming thus from among the tombs, will lose nought of their
original force and beauty:
Forget not the Dead, who have loved, who have left us,
Who bend o’er us now from their bright homes above;
But believe, never doubt, that the God who bereft us
Permits them to mingle with friends they still love.
Repeat their fond words—all their noble deeds cherish—
Speak pleasantly of them who left us in tears;
From our lips their dear names other joys should not perish,
While time bears our feet through the valley of years.
Yea, forget not the Dead, who are evermore nigh us,
Still floating sometimes round our dream-haunted bed;
In the loneliest hour, in the crowd they are by us!—
Forget not the Dead,—oh! forget not the Dead!
The CHESTER CEMETERY, for such is the beautiful spot we are exploring,
seems as if formed by nature for the repose of the dead—all is so still,
so serenely still, within its halllowed sphere. Nature and Art have
alike combined to produce here a retreat worthy of the dead, and yet full
of beauty and allurement for the living; while on the lake below us
See how yon swans, with snowy pride elate,
Arch their high necks, and sail along in state;
In fine, the beautiful trees and shrubs, the serpentine walks, the rustic
bridges, the isle-dotted lake, the ivied rock-work, the modest chapels,
and, above all, the tombstones of chaste and mostly appropriate design
which meet us at every turn—all point out the Chester Cemetery as a
fitting refuge for all, who in serious mood would “commune with their own
hearts, and be still.” But we must not longer linger here, save to cast
a look towards the ancient city, the river, Castle, and the New and Old
Bridges, which from the north side of the Cemetery present to the eye a
varied and truly interesting panorama.
Opposite to the Cemetery, reached from the Grosvenor Road by a pretty
little suspension bridge, is CURZON PARK, the property of Earl Howe, and
upon which some handsome, aristocratic villas have been erected. It is
from Curzon Park whence that view of the city is obtained which figures
as the frontispiece of this “Guide,” and certainly from no point is old
Chester seen to greater advantage than from this elevated and commanding
locality.
Continuing our course from the Cemetery, we come to what we who live in
towns and travel only by rail, so seldom meet with—a
turnpike-gate,—through which we see the _Grosvenor Gateway_, to be
noticed more particularly hereafter. A road upon the left leads to
HANDBRIDGE and QUEEN’S PARK, and that upon the right to one of the most
thriving suburbs of Chester, HOUGH GREEN, and SALTNEY. Now, _we_ are not
troubled with a superfluity of grey hairs, yet do we well remember
SALTNEY when but two houses occupied the site of the present little town.
There was nothing heard _then_ of the _Port_ and _trade of Saltney_! But
since the cutting of the two great Railways which form a junction, though
not an alliance, at this spot, SALTNEY has rapidly risen in importance
and population. A large Ironworks and coal trade have been established,
new streets have sprung up, yclept severally Cable Street, Curzon Street,
Wood Street, &c., and the number of inhabitants is now computed at about
3000. The new Church, erected in 1854–5, comes scarcely within our
province, standing just beyond the boundaries of the city, which is here
separated only by a narrow lane from the Principality of WALES. Looking
at the rapidity with which building is going on at SALTNEY, and at the
causes which have induced it, we shall not go far wrong in predicting for
this ‘child of the old city’ a long future of commercial health and
prosperity.
Returning once more to BRIDGE STREET, we must pause awhile at ST.
MICHAEL’S CHURCH, standing at the north-east angle of this street and
Pepper Street. A Church existed here, in connexion with a Monastery of
the same name, almost coëval with the Conquest. In the year 1178, John
de Lacy, constable of Chester, whose ancestor Roger de Lacy had devised
the _Monastery of St. Michael_ to the Prior of Norton, gave a messuage
adjoining this church to the Abbot of Stanlaw. Two years afterwards,
viz., on Mid-lent Sunday 1180, this Church and monastery were, with a
large portion of the city, destroyed by fire; and Bradshaw the poet-monk
assures us, doubtless “on the best authority,” that if it had not been
for the virtues attaching to the holy shrine of St. Werburgh, the whole
city would have then “lain in dust and ashes!” He that hath faith enough
to remove mountains, let him swallow this also—_we_ are confessedly an
infidel. The _Monastery_ does not appear to have been rebuilt after the
Great Fire; but of the _Church_ frequent mention is made in old charters
and deeds. It has been several times rebuilt—the last time in 1849–50—so
that it is, at this moment, the newest ecclesiastical edifice in the
city. Mr. James Harrison, the architect of the Savings Bank and Music
Hall, furnished the plans and elevations for the present Church of St.
Michael.
[Picture: St. Michael’s Church, and Lecture Hall]
Perhaps the best view we can have of ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH is from a
little way down Bridge Street, just opposite to that useful building, the
NEW LECTURE HALL. Chester has long stood in need of a room for such
purposes, moderate in dimensions, and conveniently situate; and Dr.
Norton, the proprietor of the new LECTURE HALL, has laudably ministered
to that want, by providing a public room admirably adapted, from its size
and situation, for popular lectures and musical entertainments. Our
illustration embraces a view both of the LECTURE HALL and of ST.
MICHAEL’S CHURCH.
Just behind where we have been standing is a curious relic of the timber
architecture of Chester—the Falcon Inn. A few yards higher up than the
Falcon, the street was for nearly two centuries blocked up by a
strange-looking timber building, erected by Randle Holme in 1655, called
the OLD LAMB ROW. While this house was in being it was the greatest
curiosity of its kind in the city; but in 1821, the decaying timbers
suddenly parted from their bearings, and the entire pile fell in with a
great crash, to the unspeakable relief of the pent-up thoroughfare, but
to the great chagrin and regret of the antiquary.
We are now descending LOWER BRIDGE STREET, which abounds, on either side,
with those queer-looking tenements, not to be met with in such numbers
and variety in any other city but Chester. Here is one with the date
1603, evidently the residence, in its earliest days, of some Cestrian
magnate long since “returned to his dust.”
But see! yonder rattles a bus, with a party from the station, down to
that first-class establishment, the ALBION HOTEL. This house has no
superior in the city; for while of handsome external proportions, its
interior arrangements have all been conceived with especial regard to the
comfort and convenience of visitors. The _Assembly Room_ is the largest
in the city; the other rooms are light and lofty; in short, under the
zealous superintendence of Mr. and Mrs. Chambers, none who once make
acquaintance with the ALBION will ever sigh for better or more
comfortable quarters. Behind the HOTEL are extensive pleasure-grounds,
as well as a verdant and spacious Bowling-green, to which there is a
carriage entrance from _Park Street_.
Only a step or two from the Albion, and on the same side, near the
residence of MR. SNAPE, the eminent dentist, is _St. Olave’s Lane_, so
named from the Lilliputian church, dedicated to that saint, at its
south-west corner. This Church dates back earlier than the Conquest.
The advowson in the eleventh century was vested in the Botelers or
Butlers; from whom it passed by gift of Richard Pincerna, in 1101, to the
Abbey of St. Werburgh. ST. OLAVE’S appears to have been always “in low
water,” a _starving_ rather than a _living_; for in 1393, on account of
its poverty, the parish was temporarily united with St. Mary’s. Down to
the seventeenth century, however, it eked out a precarious existence; but
after the close of the civil war, the ordinary services of the church
were discontinued for about a century; when they were again resumed,
until the final extinction of ST. OLAVE’S as a distinct parish, in 1841.
In that year the Church was finally closed, and the parish united to that
of St. Michael. The “powers that be” are fast allowing this ancient
structure to develop into a ruin.
[Picture: Lower Bridge Street, and Albion Hotel]
Opposite to St. Olave’s is CASTLE STREET; beyond which, up a flight of
steps, is a large tenement, of late years known as the _Boarding-School
Yard_. This was in the seventeenth century the mansion-house of the
Gamulls, a worthy Cheshire family; and here, on September 27, 1645, Sir
Francis Gamull (Mayor of Chester in 1634) lodged and entertained Charles
I. on his Majesty’s visit to Chester during the great Civil War. The
house is now divided into tenements; but several of the rooms still
retain evidence of their original splendour.
Still farther down, we have upon the left _Duke Street_, and on the right
_Shipgate Street_, through which, in old time, the citizens used to pass
by way of the Ship Gate, across the river, into Handbridge. It leads
also to St. Mary’s Hill; on the summit of which, half-embowered in trees,
we are introduced to the ancient Church of ST. MARY.
ST. MARY’S CHURCH is in all probability of Norman foundation; and is in
old writings termed indifferently _St. Mary’s of the Castle_, and _St.
Mary’s upon the Hill_, to distinguish it from the handsome Church of the
White Friars, which was also dedicated to that saint. Randle Gernons,
fourth earl of Chester, presented the advowson to the Monastery of St.
Werburgh; but shortly after the dissolution it was wrested from the dean
and chapter by that rapacious spoiler of churches and religious houses,
Sir R. Cotton, who afterwards sold it for 100_l._ to John Brereton of
Wettenhall. In this family it continued for about a century, when it
passed by purchase to the Wilbrahams of Dorfold. From them it came by
marriage to the Hills of Hough, whose representative sold it to the
father of the present Marquis of Westminster. Of no external beauty,
with a tower of miserably stunted proportions (so built in 1715, in order
that it might not overlook the Castle), ST. MARY’S CHURCH is nevertheless
well deserving a visit from all lovers of true ecclesiastical order.
Here is a Church which, when _we_ first remember it, was a disgrace alike
to the authorities and to the parish—choked up with galleries of hideous
shape and size—disfigured with pews of unsightly construction,—the walls
and ceilings buried in plaster, whitewash, and dust, and the monuments
and windows all alike in a state of ruin and decay. Let us step into the
Church, and survey the change which has been effected within a few short
years. We are no sooner inside, than we are at once convinced that this
is indeed the House of God, gradually, and, under the auspices of the
present worthy rector, _judiciously_ returning to its first estate, as a
seemly temple, worthy of the Most High. Here is none of that venerable
dust, that insidious mould, so painfully visible in other churches we
might mention; but everything we see, from the floor to the ceiling, from
the altar to the organ, is both correct in taste, scrupulously clean, and
in most beautiful, Church-like order. The Church consists of a nave,
with a clerestory of twelve lights, and a handsome panelled roof adorned
with Christian monograms and devices,—two side aisles,—two chancel
chapels, named respectively _Troutbeck’s_ and _St. Catherine’s_,—and a
spacious chancel, in which are some elaborately carved stalls and open
seats. So rapidly as stolid prejudice will admit, this uniform style of
seat will be adopted throughout the Church.
The monuments within the Church are of considerable interest. One there
is, in the north aisle, profuse in heraldic display, to the imperishable
memory of the four RANDAL HOLMES, local antiquaries and heralds of
considerable note, whose united Cheshire collections fill more than 250
MS. volumes in the British Museum. The third Randal was the author of
that extraordinary and scarce heraldic work,—the “Academy of Armory”
published in 1688. An elegant modern brass, and two altar-tombs of
curious workmanship, adorn St. Catherine’s Chapel, at the end of this
aisle. One of the latter remembers Thomas Gamull, Recorder of Chester in
1613, son of Edmund Gamull, aforetime Mayor of Chester, and father of the
celebrated royalist Sir Francis Gamull, who suffered sequestration of his
estates during the Usurpation. The recumbent figures of the Recorder and
his wife Alice appear upon the tomb; and at the feet of the lady kneels
their infant son, afterwards the loyal Sir Francis Gamull. Their three
infant daughters, holding skulls in their hands, and two elaborate
shields of arms, ornament the side of the tomb. A similar tomb near
bears the half-recumbent effigy of Philip Oldfield of Bradwall, dressed
in the costume of the period, with a long gown and ruff, and a roll in
his left hand. The figures of his four sons, each bearing a shield of
arms, support the slab on which he leans, and between them a painted
skeleton, in a similar attitude to the effigy, appears on the side of the
tomb. Two daughters kneel at his head, and these also bear shields, in
token of their marriage. Both these monuments are deserving the
attention of the curious.
One of the north windows, by the side of these relics, is filled with
stained glass. The east window also of this aisle, attracting the eye of
the visitor the moment he enters, has just been adorned with an obituary
memorial of intense national interest. Erected by public subscription,
this window commemorates the glorious deeds of the gallant 23rd Regiment
(Royal Welsh Fusileers) at the battles of Alma, Inkermann, and Sebastopol
in 1854–5. The 23rd is a regiment highly esteemed by the Cestrians, nay,
almost regarded by them as their own; and most of those brave spirits,
officers and men, who nobly fell “with their faces to the foe” on those
hard-won fields, had but a few months before regularly attended divine
service at ST. MARY’S CHURCH. The subject represented in the window is
Aaron and Hur holding up the hands of Moses, while the patriarch blesses
the warring hosts of Israel; for as we read, in Exodus xvii. ver. 11, 12,
“Moses’ hands were heavy, and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one
on the one side, and the other on the other; for it came to pass, that
when Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed, and when his hands fell
down, Amalek prevailed.” It is a pretty and appropriate subject for such
a memorial as this, implying the Christian Soldier’s dependence upon the
God of Battles!
The chancel, and Troutbeck chapel in the south aisle, also contain some
tasteful and appropriate painted windows, ancient and modern; and on the
south wall of the latter were discovered, a few years ago, some curious
remains of ancient mural painting, representing the _Crucifixion_ and
_Resurrection_ in curious juxtaposition with the figures of a _King_, a
_Bishop_, and the _red and white roses_ of York and Lancaster. The many
beautiful monuments once embellishing the Troutbeck aisle were destroyed
by the falling in of the roof in 1660. In bidding adieu to the church of
_St. Mary the Virgin_, we may confidently assert that “_ne vile fano_” is
the motto of Mr. Massie, the present rector, {77} for a neater and better
ordered church we have not yet met with in our tour through the city.
Once more returning to Lower Bridge Street, we have before us the
BRIDGEGATE, and two or three choice but eccentric-looking houses of the
wood and plaster type, as depicted in our engraving.
Passing under the BRIDGEGATE, by the DEE MILLS and OLD BRIDGE, we might,
if we chose, wander forth into HANDBRIDGE, were there anything in that
suburb deserving our especial notice. As it is, however, we will make
good our return to THE CROSS, and pursue, in the next chapter, our
peregrinations through the Streets of “rare old Chester!”
[Picture: The Bridge Gate]
The view here engraved affords a capital idea of the old timber houses
still glorifying the city; while we gain, at the same time, such a
prospect of the BRIDGE GATE as is not to be obtained from any other
point.