[1] In Pliny "Heraclea Chersonesus," probably owing to a confusion with
the name of the mother city.
CHERTSEY, a market town in the Chertsey parliamentary division of
Surrey, England, 22 m. W.S.W. from London by the London & South-Western
railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 12,762. It is pleasantly situated
on the right bank of the Thames, which is crossed by a bridge of seven
arches, built of Purbeck stone in 1785. The parish church, rebuilt in
1808, contains a tablet to Charles James Fox, who resided at St Anne's
Hill in the vicinity, and another to Lawrence Tomson, a translator of
the New Testament in the 17th century. Hardly any remains are left of a
great Benedictine abbey, whose buildings at one time included an area of
4 acres. They fell into almost complete decay in the 17th century, and a
"fair house" was erected out of the ruins by Sir Nicholas Carew of
Beddington. The ground-plan can be traced; the fish-ponds are complete;
and carved stones, coffins and encaustic tiles of a peculiar manufacture
are frequently exhumed. Among the abbots the most famous was John de
Rutherwyk, who was appointed in 1307, and continued, till his death in
1346, to carry on a great system of alteration and extension, which
almost made the abbey a new building. The house in which the poet Cowley
spent the last years of his life remains, and the chamber in which he
died is preserved unaltered. The town is the centre of a large
residential district. Its principal trade is in produce for the London
markets.
The first religious settlement in Surrey, a Benedictine abbey, was
founded in 666 at Chertsey (_Cerotesei, Certesey_), the manor of which
belonged to the abbot until 1539, since when it has been a possession of
the crown. In the reign of Edward the Confessor Chertsey was a large
village and was made the head of Godley hundred. The increase of
copyhold under Abbot John de Rutherwyk led to discontent, the tenants in
1381 rising and burning the rolls. Chertsey owed its importance
primarily to the abbey, but partly to its geographical position. Ferries
over the Redewynd were subjects of royal grant in 1340 and 1399; the
abbot built a new bridge over the Bourne in 1333, and wholly maintained
the bridge over the Thames when it replaced the 14th century ferry. In
1410 the king gave permission to build a bridge over the Redewynd. As
the centre of an agricultural district the markets of Chertsey were
important and are still held. Three days' fairs were granted to the
abbots in 1129 for the feast of St Peter ad Vincula by Henry III. for
Holy Rood day; in 1282 for Ascension day; and a market on Mondays was
obtained in 1282. In 1590 there were many poor, for whose relief
Elizabeth gave a fair for a day in Lent and a market on Thursdays. These
fairs still survive.
See Lucy Wheeler, _Chertsey Abbey_ (London, 1905); _Victoria County
History, Surrey_.
CHERUBIM, the Hebrew plural of "cherub" (_kerub_), imaginary
winged animal figures of a sacred character, referred to in the
description of Solomon's temple (1 Kings vi. 23-35, vii. 29, viii. 6,
7), and also in that of the ark of the tabernacle (Ex. xxv. 18-22, xxvi.
1, 31, xxxvii. 7-9). The cherub-images, where such occur, represent to
the imagination the supernatural bearers of Yahweh's throne or chariot,
or the guardians of His abode; the cherub-carvings at least symbolize
His presence, and communicate some degree of His sanctity. In Gen. iii.
24 the cherubim are the guards of Paradise; Ezek. xxviii. 14, 16 cannot
be mentioned here, the text being corrupt. We also find (1 Sam. iv. 4; 2
Sam. vi. 2) as a divine title "that sitteth upon the cherubim"; here it
is doubted whether the cherubim are the material ones in the temple, or
those which faith assumes and the artist tries to represent--the
supernatural steeds upon which Yahweh issues forth to interfere in human
affairs. In a poetic theophany (Ps. xviii. 10) we find "upon a cherub"
parallel to "upon the wings of the wind" (cp. Isa. xix. 1; Ps. civ. 3).
One naturally infers from this that the "cherub" was sometimes viewed as
a bird. For the clouds, mythologically, are birds. "The Algonkins say
that birds always make the winds, that they create the waterspouts, and
that the clouds are the spreading and agitation of their wings." "The
Sioux say that the thunder is the sound of the cloud-bird flapping his
wings." If so, Ps. xviii. 10 is a solitary trace of the archaic view of
the cherub. The bird, however, was probably a mythic, extra-natural
bird. At any rate the cherub was suggested by and represents the
storm-cloud, just as the sword in Gen. iii. 24 corresponds to the
lightning. In Ezek. i. the four visionary creatures are expressly
connected with a storm-wind, and a bright cloud (ver. 4). Elsewhere
(xli. 18) the cherub has two faces (a man's and a bird's), but in i. 10
and x. 14 each cherub has four faces, a view tastefully simplified in
the Johannine Apocalypse (Rev. iv. 7).
It is best, however, to separate Ezekiel from other writers, since he
belongs to what may be called a great mythological revival. Probably his
cherubim are a modification of older ones, which may well have been of a
more sober type. His own accounts, as we have seen, vary. Probably the
cherub has passed through several phases. There was a mythic
bird-cherub, and then perhaps a winged animal-form, analogous to the
winged figures of bulls and lions with human faces which guarded
Babylonian and Assyrian temples and palaces. Another analogy is
furnished by the winged genii represented as fertilizing the sacred
tree--the date-palm (Tylor); here the body is human, though the face is
sometimes that of an eagle. It is perhaps even more noteworthy that
figures thought to be cherubs have been found at Zenjirli, within the
ancient North Syrian kingdom of Ya'di (see Jeremias, _Das Alte Testament
im Lichte des Alten Orients_, pp. 350 f.); we may combine this with the
fact that one of the great gods of this kingdom was called Rakab'el or
Rekub'el (also perhaps Rakab or Rekub). A Sabaean (S. Arabian) name
Karab'el also exists. The kerubim might perhaps be symbolic
representatives of the god Rakab'el or Rekub'el, probably equivalent
to Hadad, whose sacred animal was the bull. That the figures symbolic of
Rakab or Hadad were compounded or amalgamated by the Israelites with
those symbolic of Nergal (the lion-god) and Ninib (the eagle-god), is
not surprising.
See further "Cherubim," in _Ency. Bib._ and _Hast. D.B._; Cheyne,
_Genesis_; Tylor, _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ xii. 383 ff.; Zimmern, _Die
Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_, pp. 529 f., 631 f.; Dibelius,
_Die Lade Jahves_ (1906), pp. 72-86. (T.K.C.)
CHERUBINI, MARIA LUIGI CARLO ZENOBIO SALVATORE (1760-1842), Italian
musical composer, was born at Florence on the 14th of September 1760,
and died on the 15th of March 1842 in Paris. His father was accompanist
(_Maestro al Cembalo_) at the Pergola theatre. Cherubini himself, in the
preface of his autograph catalogue of his own works, states, "I began to
learn music at six and composition at nine, the former from my father,
the latter from Bartolomeo and Alessandro Felici, and, after their
death, from Bizzarri and J Castrucci." By the time he was sixteen he had
composed a great deal of church music, and in 1777 he went to Bologna,
where for four years he studied under Sarti. This deservedly famous
master well earned the gratitude which afterwards impelled Cherubini to
place one of his double choruses by the side of his own _Et Vitam
Venturi_ as the crown of his _Treatise on Counterpoint and Fugue_,
though the juxtaposition is disastrous for Sarti. But besides grounding
Cherubini in the church music for which he had early shown so special a
bent, Sarti also trained him in dramatic composition; sometimes, like
the great masters of painting, entrusting his pupil with minor parts of
his own works. From 1780 onwards for the next fourteen years dramatic
music occupied Cherubini almost entirely. His first complete opera,
_Quinto Fabio_, was produced in 1780, and was followed in 1782 by
_Armida, Adriano in Siria_, and other works. Between 1782 and 1784 the
successful production of five operas in four different towns must have
secured Cherubini a dignified position amongst his Italian
contemporaries; and in 1784 he was invited to London to produce two
works for the Italian opera there, one of which, _La Finta Frincipessa_,
was favourably received, while the other, _Giulio Sabino_, was,
according to a contemporary witness, "murdered" by the critics.
In 1786 he left London for Paris, which became his home after a visit to
Turin in 1787-1788 on the occasion of the production there of his
_Ifigenia in Aulide_. With Cherubini, as with some other composers first
trained in a school where the singer reigned supreme, the influence of
the French dramatic sensibility prpved decisive, and his first French
opera, _Demophon_ (1788), though not a popular success, already marks a
departure from the Italian style, which Cherubini still cultivated in
the pieces he introduced into the works of Anfossi, Paisiello and
Cimarosa, produced by him as director of the Italian opera in Paris
(established in 1789). As in Paris Gluck realized his highest ambitions,
and even Rossini awoke to a final effort of something like dramatic life
in _Guillaume Tell_, so in Paris Cherubini became a great composer. If
his melodic invention had been as warm as Gluck's, his immensely
superior technique in every branch of the art would have made him one of
the greatest composers that ever lived. But his personal character shows
in quaint exaggeration the same asceticism that in less sour and more
negative form deprives even his finest music of the glow of that lofty
inspiration that fears nothing.
With _Lodoiska_ (1791) the series of Cherubim's masterpieces begins, and
by the production of _Medee_ (1797) his reputation was firmly
established. The success of this sombre classical tragedy, which shows
Cherubini's genius in its full power, is an honour to the Paris public.
If Cherubini had known how to combine his high ideals with an urbane
tolerance of the opinions of persons of inferior taste, the severity of
his music would not have prevented his attaining the height of
prosperity. But Napoleon Bonaparte irritated him by an enthusiasm for
the kind of Italian music against which his whole career, from the time
he became Sarti's pupil, was a protest. When Cherubini said to Napoleon,
"Citoyen General, I perceive that you love only that music which does
not prevent you thinking of your politics," he may perhaps have been as
firmly convinced of his own conciliatory manner as he was when many
years afterwards he "spared the feelings" of a musical candidate by
"delicately" telling him that he had "a beautiful voice and great
musical intelligence, but was too ugly for a public singer." Napoleon
seems to have disliked opposition in music as in other matters, and the
academic offices held by Cherubini under him were for many years far
below his deserts. But though Napoleon saw no reason to conceal his
dislike of Cherubini, his appointment of Lesueur in 1804 as his
chapelmaster must not be taken as an evidence of his hostility. Lesueur
was not a great genius, but, although recommended for the post by the
retiring chapelmaster, Paesiello (one of Napoleon's Italian favourites),
he was a very meritorious and earnest Frenchman whom the appointment
saved from starvation. Cherubini's creative genius was never more
brilliant than at this period, as the wonderful two-act ballet,
_Anacreon_, shows; but his temper and spirits were not improved by a
series of disappointments which culminated in the collapse of his
prospects of congenial success at Vienna, where he went in 1805 in
compliance with an invitation to compose an opera for the Imperial
theatre. Here he produced, under the title of _Der Wassertrager_, the
great work which, on its first production on the 7th of January 1801 (26
_Nivose, An_8) as _Les Deux Journees_, had thrilled Paris with the
accents of a humanity restored to health and peace. It was by this time
an established favourite in Austria. On the 25th of February Cherubini
produced _Faniska_, but the war between Austria and France had broken
out immediately after his arrival, and public interest in artistic
matters was checked by the bombardment and capitulation of Vienna.
Though the meeting between Cherubini and the victorious Napoleon was not
very friendly, he was called upon to direct the music at Napoleon's
soirees at Schonbrunn. But this had not been his object in coming to
Vienna, and he soon returned to a retired and gloomy life in Paris.
His stay at Vienna is memorable for his intercourse with Beethoven, who
had a profound admiration for him which he could neither realize nor
reciprocate. It is too much to expect that the mighty genius of
Beethoven, which broke through all rules in vindication of the
principles underlying them, would be comprehensible to a mind like
Cherubini's, in which, while the creative faculties were finely
developed, the critical faculty was atrophied and its place supplied by
a mere disciplinary code inadequate even as a basis for the analysis of
his own works. On the other hand, it would be impossible to exaggerate
the influence _Les Deux Journees_ had on the lighter parts of
Beethoven's _Fidelio_. Cherubini's librettist was also the author of the
libretto from which _Fidelio_ was adapted, and Cherubini's score was a
constant object of Beethoven's study, not only before the production of
the first version of _Fidelio_, as _Leonore_, but also throughout
Beethoven's life. Cherubini's record of his impressions of Beethoven as
a man is contained in the single phrase, "Il etait toujours brusque,"
which at least shows a fine freedom from self-consciousness on the part
of the man whose only remark on being told of the death of Brod, the
famous oboist, was, "Ah, he hadn't much tone" ("Ah, petit son"). Of the
overture to _Leonore_ Cherubini only remarked that he could not tell
what key it was in, and of Beethoven's later style he observed, "It
makes me sneeze." Beethoven's brusqueness, notorious as it was, did not
prevent him from assuring Cherubini that he considered him the greatest
composer of the age and that he loved him and honoured him. In 1806
Haydn had just sent out his pathetic "visiting card" announcing that he
was past work; Weber was still sowing wild oats, and Schubert was only
nine years old. We need not, then, be surprised at Beethoven's judgment.
And though we must regret that Cherubini's disposition prevented him
from understanding Beethoven, it would be by no means true to say that
he was uninfluenced at least by the sheer grandeur of the scale which
Beethoven had by that time established as the permanent standard for
musical art. Grandeur of proportion was, in fact, eminently
characteristic of both composers, and the colossal structure of such a
movement as the duet _Perfides ennemis_ in _Medee_ is almost
inconceivable without the example of Beethoven's C minor trio, op. 1,
No. 3, published two years before it; while the cavatina _Eterno iddio_
in _Faniska_ is not only worthy of Beethoven but surprisingly like him
in style.
After Cherubini's disappointing visit to Vienna he divided his time
between teaching at the conservatoire and cutting up playing-cards into
figures and landscapes, which he framed and placed round the walls of
his study. Not until 1809 was he aroused from this morbid indolence. He
was staying in retirement at the country seat of the prince de Chimay,
and his friends begged him to write some music for the consecration of a
church there. After persistent refusals he suddenly surprised them with
a mass in F for three-part chorus and orchestra. With this work the
period of his great church music may be said to begin; although it was
by no means the end of his career as an opera writer, which, in fact,
lasted as late as his seventy-third year. This third period is also
marked by some not unimportant instrumental compositions. An early event
in the annals of the Philharmonic Society was his invitation to London
in 1815 to produce a symphony, an overture and a vocal piece. The
symphony (in D) was afterwards arranged with a new slow movement as the
string quartet in C (1829), a fact which, taken in connexion with the
large scale of the work, illustrates Cherubini's deficient sense of
style in chamber music. Nevertheless all the six string quartets written
between 1814 and 1837 are interesting works performed with success at
the present day, though the last three, discovered in 1880, are less
satisfactory than the earlier ones. The requiem in C minor (1817) caused
Beethoven to declare that if he himself ever wrote a requiem Cherubini's
would be his model.
At the eleventh hour Cherubini received recognition from Napoleon, who,
during the Hundred Days, made him chevalier of the Legion of Honour.
Then, with the restoration of the Bourbons, the very fact that Cherubini
had not been _persona grata_ with Napoleon brought him honour and
emoluments. He was appointed, jointly with Lesueur, as composer and
conductor to the Chapel Royal, and in 1822 he obtained the permanent
directorship of the conservatoire. This brought him into contact, for
the most part unfriendly, with all the most talented musicians of the
younger generation. It is improbable that Berlioz would have been an
easy subject for the wisest and kindest of spiritual guides; but no
influence, repellent or attractive, could have been more disastrous for
that passionate, quick-witted and yet eminently puzzle-headed mixture of
Philistine and genius, than the crabbed old martinet whose regulations
forbade the students access to Gluck's scores in the library, and whose
only theory of art (as distinguished from his practice) is accurately
formulated in the following passage from Berlioz's _Grande Traite de
l'instrumentation et d'orchestration_: "It was no use for the modern
composer to say, 'But do just listen! See how smoothly this is
introduced, how well motived, how deftly connected with the context, and
how splendid it sounds!' He was answered, 'That is not the point. This
modulation is forbidden; therefore it must not be made.'" The lack of
really educative teaching, and the actual injustice for which
Cherubini's disciplinary methods were answerable, did much to weaken
Berlioz's at best ill-balanced artistic sense, and it is highly probable
that, but for the kindliness and comparative wisdom of his composition
master, Lesueur, he would have broken down from sheer lack of any
influence which could command the respect of an excitable youth starving
in the pursuit of a fine art against the violent opposition of his
family. Only when Mendelssohn, at the age of seventeen, visited Paris in
1825, did Cherubini startle every one by praising a young composer to
his face.
In 1833 Cherubini produced his last work for the stage, _Ali Baba_,
adapted (with new and noisy features which excited Mendelssohn's
astonished disgust) from a manuscript opera, _Koukourgi_, written forty
years earlier. It is thus, perhaps, not a fair illustration of the
vigour of his old age; but the requiem in D minor (for male voices),
written in 1836, is one of his greatest works, and, though not actually
his last composition, is a worthy close to the long career of an artist
of high ideals who, while neither by birth nor temperament a Frenchman,
must yet be counted with a still greater foreigner, Gluck, as the glory
of French classical music. In this he has no parallel except his friend
and contemporary, Mehul, to whom he dedicated _Medee_, and who dedicated
to him the beautiful Ossianic one-act opera _Uthal_. The direct results
of his teaching at the conservatoire were the steady, though not as yet
unhealthy, decline of French opera into a lighter style, under the
amiable and modest Boieldieu and the irresponsible and witty Auber; for,
as we have seen, Cherubini was quite incapable of making his ideals
intelligible by any means more personal than his music; and the crude
grammatical rules which he mistook for the eternal principles of his own
and of all music had not the smallest use as a safeguard against
vulgarity and pretentiousness.
Lest the passage above quoted from Berlioz should be suspected of bias
or irrelevance, we cite a few phrases from Cherubini's _Treatise on
Counterpoint and Fugue_, of which, though the letter-press is by his
favourite pupil, Halevy, the musical examples and doctrine are beyond
suspicion his own. Concerning the 16th-century idiom, incorrectly but
generally known as the "changing note" (an idiom which to any musical
scholar is as natural as "attraction of the relative" is to a Greek
scholar), Cherubini remarks, "No tradition gives us any reason why the
classics thus faultily deviated from the rule." Again, he discusses the
use of "suspensions" in a series of chords which without them would
contain consecutive fifths, and after making all the observations
necessary for the rational conclusion that the question whether the
fifths are successfully disguised or not depends upon the beauty and
force of the suspensions, he merely remarks that "The opinion of the
classics appears to me erroneous, notwithstanding that custom has
sanctioned it, for, on the principle that the discord is a mere
suspension of the chord, it should not affect the nature of the chord.
But since the classics have pronounced judgment we must of course
submit." In the whole treatise not one example is given from Palestrina
or any other master who handled as a living language what are now the
forms of contrapuntal discipline. As a dead language Cherubini brought
counterpoint up to date by abandoning the church modes; but in true
severity of principle, as in educational stimulus, his treatise shows a
deplorable falling off from the standard set a hundred years before in
Fux's _Gradus ad Panassum_ with its delightful dialogues between master
and pupil and its continual appeal to artistic experience. Whatever may
have been Cherubini's success in imparting facility and certainty to his
light-hearted pupils who established 19th-century French opera as a
refuge from the terrors of serious art, there can be no doubt that his
career as a teacher did more harm than good. In it the punishment drill
of an incompetent schoolmaster was invested with the authority of a
great composer, and by it the false antithesis between the "classical"
and the "romantic" was erected into a barrier which many critics still
find an insuperable obstacle to the understanding of the classical
spirit. And yet as a composer Cherubini was no pseudo-classic but a
really great artist, whose purity of style, except at rare moments, just
failed to express the ideals he never lost sight of, because in his love
of those ideals there was top much fear.
His principal works are summarized by Fetis as thirty-two operas,
twenty-nine church compositions, four cantatas and several
instrumental pieces, besides the treatise on counterpoint and fugue.
Good modern full scores of the two Requiems and of _Les Deux
Journees_(the latter unfortunately without the dialogue, which,
however, is accessible in its fairly good German translation in the
_Reclam Bibliolhek_), and also of ten opera overtures, are current in
the Peters edition. Vocal scores of some of the other operas are not
difficult to get. The great _Credo_ is in the Peters edition, but is
becoming scarce. The string quartets are in Payne's _Miniature
Scores._It is very desirable that the operas, from _Demophon_ onwards,
should be republished in full score.
See also E. Bellasis, _Cherubini_ (1874); and an article with personal
reminiscences by the composer Ferdinand Hiller, in _Macmillan's
Magazine_(1875). A complete catalogue of his compositions (1773-1841)
was edited by Bottee du Toulmon. (D. F. T.)
CHERUEL, PIERRE ADOLPHE (1800-1891), French historian, was born at Rouen
on the 17th of January 1809. He was educated at the Ecole Normale
Superieure, and became a fellow (_agrege_) in 1830. His early studies
were devoted to his native town. His _Histoire de Rouen sous la
domination anglaise au XVe siecle_(1840) and _Histoire de Rouen pendant
l'epoque comunale, 1150-1382_(Rouen, 1843-1844), are meritorious
productions for a time when the archives were neither inventoried nor
classified, and contain useful documents previously unpublished. His
theses for the degree of doctor, _De l'administration de Louis XIV
d'apres les Memoires inedits d'Olivier d'Ormesson_ and _De Maria Stuarta
et Henrico III_. (1849), led him to the study of general history. The
former was expanded afterwards under the title _Histoire de
l'administration monarchique en France depuis l'avenement de
Philippe-Auguste jusqu'a la mort de Louis XIV_(1855), and in 1855 he
also published his _Dictionnaire historique des institutions, moeurs et
coutumes de la France_, of which many editions have appeared. These
works may still be consulted for the 17th century, the period upon which
Cheruel concentrated all his scientific activity. He edited successively
the _Journal d'Olivier Lefevre d'Ormesson_(1860-1862), interesting for
the history of the parlement of Paris during the minority of Louis XIV.;
_Lettres du cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministere_ (6 vols.,
1870-1891), continued by the vicomte G. d'Avenel; and _Memoires du duc
de Saint-Simon_, published for the first time according to the original
MSS. (2 editions, 1856-1858 and 1878-1881). To Saint-Simon also he
devoted two critical studies, which are acute but not definitive:
_Saint-Simon considere comme historien de Louis XIV_ (1865) and _Notice
sur la vie et sur les memoires du duc de Saint-Simon_(1876). The latter
may be considered as an introduction to the famous _Memoires_. Among his
later writings may be mentioned the _Histoire de la France pendant la
minorite de Louis XIV_ (4 vols., 1880) and _Histoire de la France sous
le ministere de Mazarin_ (3 vols., 1882-1883). These two works are
valuable for abundance of facts, precision of details, and clear and
intelligent arrangement, but are characterized by a slightly frigid
style. In their compilation Cheruel used a fair number of unpublished
documents. To the student of the second half of the 17th century in
France the works of Cheruel are a mine of information. He died in Paris
on the 1st of May 1891.
CHERUSCI, an ancient German tribe occupying the basin of the Weser to
the north of the Chatti. Together with the other tribes of western
Germany they submitted to the Romans in 11-9 B.C., but in A.D. 9
Arminius, one of their princes, rose in revolt, and defeated and slew
the Roman general Quintilius Varus with his whole army. Germanicus
Caesar made several unsuccessful attempts to bring them into subjection
again. By the end of the 1st century the prestige of the Cherusci had
declined through unsuccessful warfare with the Chatti. Their territory
was eventually occupied by the Saxons.
Tacitus, _Annals_, i.2, 11, 12, 13; _Germania_, 36; Strabo, p. 291 f.;
E. Devrient, in _Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Alter_. (1900), p. 517.
CHESELDEN, WILLIAM (1688-1752), English surgeon, was born at Somerby,
Leicestershire, on the 19th of October 1688. He studied anatomy in
London under William Cowper (1666-1709), and in 1713 published his
_Anatomy of the Human Body_, which achieved great popularity and went
through thirteen editions. In 1718 he was appointed an assistant surgeon
at St Thomas's hospital (London), becoming full surgeon in the following
year, and he was also chosen one of the surgeons to St George's hospital
on its foundation in 1733. He retired from St Thomas's in 1738, and died
at Bath on the 10th of April 1752. Cheselden is famous for his "lateral
operation for the stone," which he first performed in 1727. He also
effected a great advance in ophthalmic surgery by his operation of
iridectomy, described in 1728, for the treatment of certain forms of
blindness by the production of an "artificial pupil." He attended Sir
Isaac Newton in his last illness, and was an intimate friend of
Alexander Pope and of Sir Hans Sloane.
CHESHAM, a market town in the Aylesbury parliamentary division of
Buckinghamshire, England, 26 m. W.N.W. of London by the Metropolitan
railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7245. It is pleasantly situated
in the narrow valley of the river Chess, closely flanked by low wooded
hills. The church of St Mary is cruciform and mainly Perpendicular. Some
ancient frescoes and numerous monuments are preserved. All sorts of
small dairy utensils, chairs, malt-shovels, &c., are made of beech, the
growth of which forms a feature of the surrounding country. Shoemaking
is also carried on. In Waterside hamlet, adjoining the town, are
flour-mills, duck farms, and some of the extensive watercress beds for
which the Chess is noted, as it is also for its trout-fishing.
CHESHIRE, a north-western county of England, bounded N. by Lancashire,
N.E. by Yorkshire and Derbyshire, S.E. by Staffordshire, S. by
Shropshire, W. by Denbighshire and Flint, and N.W. by the Irish Sea. Its
area is 1027.8 sq. m. The coast-line is formed by the estuaries of the
Dee and the Mersey, which are separated by the low rectangular peninsula
of Wirral. The estuary of the Dee is dry at low tide on the Cheshire
shore, but that of the Mersey bears upon its banks the ports of
Liverpool (in Lancashire) and Birkenhead (on the Wirral shore). The Dee
forms a great part of the county boundary with Denbighshire and Flint,
and the Mersey the boundary along the whole of the northern side. The
principal river within the county is the Weaver, which crosses it with a
north-westerly course, and, being joined by the Dane at Northwich,
discharges into the estuary of the Mersey south of Runcorn. The surface
of Cheshire is mostly low and gently undulating or flat; but the broken
line of the Peckforton hills, seldom exceeding 600 ft. in height, runs
north and south flanking the valley of the Weaver on the west. A low
narrow gap in these hills is traversed by the small river Gowy, which
rises to the east but has the greater part of its course to the west of
them. Commanding this gap on the west, the Norman castle of Beeston
stands on an isolated eminence. The northern part of the hills coincides
approximately with the district still called Delamere Forest, formerly a
chase of the earls of Chester, and finally disforested in 1812. In
certain sequestered parts the forest has not wholly lost its ancient
character. On the east Cheshire includes the western face of the broad
belt of high land which embraces the Peak district of Derbyshire; these
hills rise sharply to the east of Congleton, Macclesfield and Hyde,
reaching a height of about 1800 ft. within Cheshire. Distributed over
the county, but principally in the eastern half, are many small lakes or
meres, such as Combermere, Tatton, Rostherne, Tabley, Doddington,
Marbury and Mere, and it was a common practice among the gentry of the
county to build their mansions on the banks of these waters. The meres
form one of the most picturesque features of the county.
_Geology._--With the exception of a small area of Carboniferous rocks
on the eastern border, and a small patch of Lower Lias near Audlem,
the whole country is occupied by Triassic strata. The great central
plain is covered by red and mottled Keuper Marls. From these marls
salt is obtained; there are many beds of rock-salt, mostly thin; two
are much thicker than the others, being from 75 ft. to over 100 ft.
thick. Thin beds and veins of gypsum are common in the marls. The
striking features of the Peckforton Hills are due to the repeated
faulting of the Lower Keuper Sandstone, which lies upon beds of Bunter
Sandstone. Besides forming this well-marked ridge, the Lower Keuper
Sandstones or "Waterstones" form several ridges north-west of
Macclesfield and appear along most of the northern borders of the
county and in the neighbourhood of New Brighton and Birkenhead. The
Lower Keuper Sandstone is quarried near the last-named place, also at
Storeton, Delamere and Manley. This is a good building stone and an
important water-bearing stratum; it is often ripple-marked, and bears
the footprints of the _Cheirotherium_. At Alderley Edge ores of
copper, lead and cobalt are found. West of the Peckforton ridge,
Bunter Sandstones and pebble beds extend to the border. They also form
low foothills between Cheadle and Macclesfield. They fringe the
northern boundary and appear on the south-eastern boundary as a narrow
strip of hilly ground near Woore. The oldest rock exposed in the
county is the small faulted anticline of Carboniferous limestone at
Astbury, followed in regular succession eastward by the shale, and
thin limestones and sandstones of the Pendleside series. These rocks
extend from Congleton Edge to near Macclesfield, where the outcrop
bends sharply eastward and runs up the Goyt valley. Some hard
quartzites in the Pendleside series, known locally as "Crowstones,"
have contributed to the formation of the high Bosley Min and
neighbouring hills. East of Bosley Min, on either side of the Goyt
valley, are the Millstone Grits and Shales, forming the elevated
moorland tracts. Cloud Hill, a striking feature near Congleton, is
capped by the "Third Grit," one of the Millstone Grit series. From
Macclesfield northward through Stockport is a narrow tongue of Lower
and Middle Coal-Measures--an extension of the Lancashire coalfield.
Coal is mined at Neston in the Wirral peninsula from beneath the
Trias; it is a connecting link between the Lancashire and Flintshire
coalfields. Glacial drift is thickly spread over all the lower ground;
laminated red clays, stiff clay with northern erratics and lenticular
sand masses with occasional gravels, are the common types. At Crewe
the drift is over 400 ft. thick. Patches of Drift sand, with marine
shells, occur on the high ground east of Macclesfield at an elevation
of 1250 ft.
_Agriculture and Industries._--The climate is temperate and rather damp;
the soil is varied and irregular, but a large proportion is a
thin-skinned clay. More than four-fifths of the total area is under
cultivation. The crop of wheat is comparatively insignificant; but a
large quantity of oats is grown, and a great proportion of the
cultivated land is in permanent pasture. The vicinity of such populous
centres as Liverpool and Manchester, as well as the several large towns
within the county, makes cattle and dairy-farming profitable. Cheese of
excellent quality is produced, the name of the county being given to a
particular brand (see DAIRY). Potatoes are by far the most important
green crop. Fruit-growing is carried on in some parts, especially the
cultivation of stone fruit and, among these, damsons; while the
strawberry beds near Farndon and Holt are celebrated. In the first half
of the 19th century the condition of agriculture in Cheshire was
notoriously backward; and in 1865-1866 the county suffered with especial
severity from a visitation of cattle plague. The total loss of stock
amounted to more than 66,000 head, and it was necessary to obtain from
the Treasury a loan of L270,000 on the security of the county rate, for
purposes of relief and compensation. The cheese-making industry
naturally received a severe blow, yet to agriculture at large an
ultimate good resulted as the possibility and even the necessity of new
methods were borne in upon the farmers.
The industries of the county are various and important. The manufacture
of cotton goods extends from its seat in Lancashire into Cheshire, at
the town of Stockport and elsewhere in the north-east. Macclesfield and
Congleton are centres of silk manufacture. At Crewe are situated the
great workshops of the London & North-Western railway company, the
institution of which actually brought the town in to being. Another
instance of the modern creation of a town by an individual industrial
corporation is seen in Port Sunlight on the Mersey, where the soap-works
of Messrs Lever are situated. On the Mersey there are shipbuilding
yards, and machinery and iron works. Other important manufactures are
those of tools, chemicals, clothing and hats, and there are printing,
bleaching and dye works, and metal foundries. Much sandstone is
quarried, but the mineral wealth of the county lies in coal and salt.
The second is a specially important product. Some rock-salt is obtained
at Northwich and Winsford, but most of the salt is extracted from brine
both here and at Lawton, Wheelock and Middlewich. At Northwich and other
places in the locality curious accidents frequently occur owing to the
sinking of the soil after the brine is pumped out; walls crack and
collapse, and houses are seen leaning far out of the perpendicular. A
little copper and lead are found.
_Communications._--The county is well served with railways. The main
line of the London & North-Western railway, passing north from Crewe to
Warrington in Lancashire, serves no large town, but from Crewe branches
diverge fanwise to Manchester, Chester, North Wales and Shrewsbury. The
Great Western railway, with a line coming northward from Wrexham,
obtains access through Cheshire to Liverpool and Manchester. These two
companies jointly work the Birkenhead railway from Chester to
Birkenhead. The heart of the county is traversed by the Cheshire Lines,
serving the salt district, and reaching Chester from Manchester by way
of Delamere Forest. In the east the Midland and Great Central systems
enter the county, and the North Staffordshire line serves Macclesfield.
The Manchester, South Junction & Altrincham and the Wirral railways are
small systems serving the localities indicated by their names. The river
Weaver is locked as far up as Winsford, and the transport of salt is
thus expedited. The profits of the navigation, which was originally
undertaken in 1720 by a few Cheshire squires, belong to the county, and
are paid annually to the relief of the county rates. In the salt
district through which the Weaver passes subsidence of the land has
resulted in the formation of lakes of considerable extent, which act as
reservoirs to supply the navigation. There are further means of inland
navigation by the Grand Trunk, Shropshire Union and other canals, and
many small steamers are in use. The Manchester Ship Canal passes through
a section of north Cheshire, being entered from the estuary of the
Mersey by locks near Eastham, and following its southern shore up to
Runcorn, after which it takes a more direct course than the river.
_Population and Administration._--The ancient county, which is a county
palatine, has an area of 657,783 acres, with a population in 1891 of
730,058 and in 1901 of 815,099. Cheshire has been described as a suburb
of Liverpool, Manchester and the Potteries of Staffordshire, and many of
those whose business lies in these centres have colonized such districts
as Bowdon, Alderley, Sale and Marple near Manchester, the Wirral, and
Alsager on the Staffordshire border, until these localities have come to
resemble the richer suburban districts of London. On the short seacoast
of the Wirral are found the popular resorts of New Brighton and Hoylake.
This movement and importance of its industries have given the county a
vast increase of population in modern times. In 1871 the population was
561,201; from 1801 until that year it had increased 191%. The area of
the administrative county is 654,825 acres. The county contains 7
hundreds. The municipal boroughs are Birkenhead (pop. 110,915), Chester
(38,309), Congleton (10,707), Crewe (42,074), Dukinfield (18,929), Hyde
(32,766), Macclesfield (34,624), Stalybridge (27,673), Stockport
(92,832). Chester, the county town, is a city, county of a city, and
county borough, and Birkenhead and Stockport are county boroughs. The
other urban districts with their populations are as follows:--
Alderley Edge (a) 2,856
Alsager 2,597
Altrincham (a) 16,831
Ashton-upon-Mersey (a) 5,563
Bollington (a) 5,245
Bowdon (a) 2,788
Bredbury and Romiley (a) 7,087
Bromborough (b) 1,891
Buglawton (Congleton) 1,452
Cheadle and Gatley (a) 7,916
Compstall (a) 875
Ellesmere Port and Whitby (b) 4,082
Hale (a) 4,562
Handforth (a) 911
Hazel Grove and Bramhall (a) 7,934
Higher Bebington (b) 1,540
Hollingworth (a) 2,447
Hoole (Chester) 5,341
Hoylake and West Kirkby (b) 10,911
Knutsford (a) 5,172
Lower Bebington (b) 8,398
Lymm (a) 4,707
Marple (a) 5,595
Middlewich 4,669
Mottram-in-Longdendale (a) 3,128
Nantwich 7,722
Neston and Parkgate (b) 4,154
Northwich 17,611
Runcorn 16,491
Sale (a) 12,088
Sandbach 5,558
Tarporley 2,644
Wallasey (b) 53,579
Wilmslow (a) 7,361
Winsford 10,382
Yeardsley-cum-Whaley (a) 1,487
Of the townships in this table, those marked (a) are within a radius
of about 15 m. from Manchester (Knutsford being taken as the limit),
while those marked (b) are in the Wirral. The localities of densest
population are thus clearly illustrated.
The county is in the North Wales and Chester circuit, and assizes are
held at Chester. It has one court of quarter sessions, and is divided
into fourteen petty sessional divisions. The boroughs already named,
excepting Dukinfield, have separate commissions of the peace, and
Birkenhead and Chester have separate courts of quarter sessions. There
are 464 civil parishes. Cheshire is almost wholly in the diocese of
Chester, but small parts are in those of Manchester, St Asaph or
Lichfield. There are 268 ecclesiastical parishes or districts wholly or
in part within the county. There are eight parliamentary divisions,
namely, Macclesfield, Crewe, Eddisbury, Wirral, Knutsford, Altrincham,
Hyde and Northwich, each returning one member; the county also includes
the parliamentary borough of Birkenhead returning one member, and parts
of the borough of Stockport, which returns two members, and of
Ashton-under-Lyne, Chester, Stalybridge, and Warrington, which return
one member each.
_History._--The earliest recorded historical fact relating to the
district which is now Cheshire is the capture of Chester and destruction
of the native Britons by the Northumbrian king Aethelfrith about 614.
After a period of incessant strife between the Britons and their Saxon
invaders the district was subjugated by Ecgbert in 830 and incorporated
in the kingdom of Mercia. During the 9th century. Aethelwulf held his
parliament at Chester, and received the homage of his tributary kings
from Berwick to Kent, and in the 10th century Aethelflaed rebuilt the
city, and erected fortresses at Eddisbury and Runcorn. Edward the Elder
garrisoned Thelwall and strengthened the passages of the Mersey and the
Irwell. On the splitting up of Mercia in the 10th century the dependent
districts along the Dee were made a shire for the fortress of Chester.
The shire is first mentioned in the Abingdon _Chronicle_, which relates
that in 980 Cheshire was plundered by a fleet of Northmen. At the time
of the Domesday Survey the county was divided into twelve hundreds,
exclusive of the six hundreds between the Ribble and the Mersey, now
included in Lancashire, but then a part of Cheshire. These divisions
have suffered great modification, both in extent and in name, and of the
seven modern hundreds Bucklow alone retains its Domesday appellation.
The hundreds of Atiscross and Exestan have been transferred to the
counties of Flint and Denbigh, with the exception of a few townships now
in the hundred of Broxton. The prolonged resistance of Cheshire to the
Conqueror was punished by ruthless harrying and sweeping confiscations
of property, and no Englishman retained estates of importance after the
Conquest. In order that the shire might be relieved of all obligations
beyond the ever-pressing necessity of defending its borders against the
inroads of hostile neighbours, it was constituted a county palatine
which the earl of Chester "held as freely by his sword as the king held
England by his crown." The County had its independent parliament
consisting of the barons and clergy, and courts, and all lands except
those of the bishop were held of the earl. The court of exchequer was
presided over by a chamberlain, a vice-chamberlain, and a baron of the
exchequer. It was principally a court of revenue, but probably a court
of justice also, before that of the justiciary was established, and had
besides the functions of a chancery court, with an exclusive
jurisdiction in equity. Other officers of the palatinate were the
constable, high-steward and the Serjeants of the peace and of the
forests. The abbots of St Werburgh and Combermere and all the eight
barons held courts, in any of which cases of capital felony might be
tried.
During the 12th and 13th centuries the county was impoverished by the
constant inroads of the Welsh. In 1264 the castle and city of Chester
were granted to Simon de Montfort, and in 1267 the treaty of Shrewsbury
procured a short interval of peace. Richard II., in return for the loyal
support furnished him by the county, made it a principality, but the act
was revoked in the next reign. In 1403 Cheshire was the headquarters of
Hotspur, who roused the people by telling them that Richard II. was
still living. At the beginning of the Wars of the Roses Margaret
collected a body of supporters from among the Cheshire gentry, and
Lancastrian risings occurred as late as 1464. At the time of the Civil
War feeling was so equally divided that an attempt was made to form an
association for preserving internal peace. In 1643, however, Chester was
made the headquarters of the royalist forces, while Nantwich was
garrisoned for the parliament, and the county became the scene of
constant skirmishes until the surrender of Chester in 1646 put an end to
the struggle.
From the number of great families with which it has been associated
Chester has been named "the mother and nurse of English gentility." Of
the eight baronies of the earldom none survives, but the title of that
of Kinderton was bestowed in 1762 on George Venables-Vernon, son of
Anne, sister of Peter Venables, last baron of Kinderton, from whom the
present Lord Vernon of Kinderton is descended. Other great Domesday
proprietors were William FitzNigel, baron of Halton, ancestor of the
Lacys; Hugh de Mara, baron of Montalt, ancestor of the Ardens; Ranulph,
ancestor of the Mainwarings; and Hamo de Massey. The Davenports, Leighs
and Warburtons trace their descent back to the 12th century, and the
Grosvenors are descended from a nephew of Hugh Lupus.
In the reign of Henry VIII. the distinctive privileges of Cheshire as a
county palatine were considerably abridged. The right of sanctuary
attached to the city of Chester was abolished; justices of the peace
were appointed as in other parts of the kingdom, and in 1542 it was
enacted that in future two knights for the shire and two burgesses for
the city of Chester should be returned to parliament. After the Reform
Act of 1832 the county returned four members from two divisions, and
Macclesfield and Stpckport returned two members each. Birkenhead secured
representation in 1859. From 1868 until the Redistribution Act of 1885
the county returned six members from three divisions.
From earliest times the staple products of Cheshire have been salt and
cheese. The salt-pits of Nantwich, Middlewich and Northwich were in
active operation at the time of Edward the Confessor, and at that date
the mills and fisheries on the Dee also furnished a valuable source of
revenue. Twelfth century writers refer to the excellence of Cheshire
cheese, and at the time of the Civil War three hundred tons at L33 per
ton were ordered in one year for the troops in Scotland. The trades of
tanners, skinners and glove-makers existed at the time of the Conquest,
and the export trade in wool in the 13th and 14th centuries was
considerable. The first bed of rock-salt was discovered in 1670. Weaving
and wool-combing were introduced in 1674.
_Antiquities._--The main interest in the architecture of the county
lies in the direction of domestic buildings rather than ecclesiastical.
Old half-timbered houses are common in almost every part of the county;
many of these add to the picturesqueness of the streets in the older
towns, as in the case of the famous Rows in Chester, while in the
country many ancient manor-houses remain as farm-houses. Among the
finest examples are Bramhall Hall, between Stockport and Macclesfield,
and Moreton Old Hall, near Congleton (see HOUSE, Plate IV., fig. 13).
The first, occupying three sides of a quadrangle (formerly completed by
a fourth side), dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, and contains a
splendid panelled hall and other rooms. Of Moreton Hall, which is
moated, only three sides similarly remain; its date is of the 16th
century. Other buildings of the Elizabethan period are not infrequent,
such as Brereton and Dorfold Halls, while more modern mansions, set in
fine estates, are numerous. Crewe Hall is a modern building on an
ancient site, and Vale Royal near Winsford incorporates fragments of a
Cistercian monastery founded in 1277. A noteworthy instance of the
half-timbered style applied to an ecclesiastical building is found in
the church of Lower Peover near Knutsford, of which only the tower is of
stone. The church dates from the 13th century, and was carefully
restored in 1852. Cheshire has no monastic remains of importance, save
those attached to the cathedral of Chester, nor are its village churches
as a rule of special interest. There is, however, a fine late
Perpendicular church (with earlier portions) at Astbury near Congleton,
and of this style and the Decorated the churches of Bunbury and Malpas
may be noticed as good illustrations. In Chester, besides the cathedral,
there is the massive Norman church of St John; and St Michael's church
and the Rivers chapel at Macclesfield are noteworthy. No more remarkable
religious monuments remain in the county than the two sculptured Saxon
crosses in the market-place at Sandbach. Ruins of two Norman castles
exist in Beeston and Halton.
AUTHORITIES.--Sir John Doddridge, _History of the Ancient and Modern
State of the Principality of Wales, Duchy of Cornwall, and Earldom of
Chester_ (London, 1630; 2nd ed., 1714); D. King, _The Vale-Royall of
England, or the County Palatine of Cheshire Illustrated_, 4 parts
(London, 1656); D. and S. Lysons, _Magna Britannia_, vol. ii. pt. ii.
(London, 1810); J. H. Hanshall, _History of the County Palatine of
Chester_ (Chester, 1817-1823); J.O. Halliwell, _Palatine Anthology_
(London, 1850); G. Ormerod, _History of the County Palatine and City
of Chester_ (London, 1819; new ed., London, 1875-1882); J.P. Earwaker,
_East Cheshire_ (2 vols., London, 1877); R. Wilbraham, _Glossary_
(London, 1820; 2nd ed., London, 1826); and _Glossary founded on
Wilbraham_ by E. Leigh (London, 1877); J. Croston, _Historic Sites of
Cheshire_ (Manchester, 1883); and _County Families of Cheshire_
(Manchester, 1887); W.E.A. Axon, _Cheshire Gleanings_ (Manchester,
1884); Holland, _Glossary of Words used in the County of Cheshire_
(London, 1884-1886); N.G. Philips, _Views of Old Halls in Cheshire_
(London, 1893); _Victoria County History, Cheshire_. See also various
volumes of the Chetham Society and of the Record Society of
Manchester, as well as the _Proceedings_ of the Cheshire Antiquarian
Society, and _Cheshire Notes and Queries_.
CHESHUNT, an urban district in the Hertford parliamentary division of
Hertfordshire, England, on the Lea, 14 m. N. of London by the Great
Eastern railway. Pop. (1891) 9620; (1901) 12,292. The church of St Mary
is Perpendicular and has been enlarged in modern times. A college was
founded, for the education of young men to the ministry of the
Connexion, by Selina countess of Huntingdon in 1768 at Trevecca-isaf
near Talgarth, Brecknockshire. In 1792 it was moved to Cheshunt, and
became known as Cheshunt College. In 1904, as it was felt that the
college was unable properly to carry on its work under existing
conditions, it was proposed to amalgamate it with Hackney College, but
the Board of Education refused to sanction any arrangement which would
set aside the requirements of the deed of foundation, namely that the
officers and students of Cheshunt College should subscribe the fifteen
articles appended to the deed, and should take certain other
obligations. In 1905 it was decided by the board to reorganize the
college and remove it to Cambridge.
Nursery and market gardening, largely under glass, brick-making and
saw-mills are the chief industries of Cheshunt. Roman coins and other
remains have been found at this place, and an urn appears built into the
wall of an inn. A Romano-British village or small town is indicated.
There was a Benedictine nunnery here in the 13th century. Of several
interesting mansions in the vicinity one, the Great House, belonged to
Cardinal Wolsey, and a former Pengelly House was the residence of
Richard Cromwell the Protector after his resignation. Theobalds Park was
built in the 18th century, but the original mansion was acquired by
William Cecil, Lord Burghley, in 1561; being taken in 1607 by James I.
from Robert Cecil, first earl of Salisbury, in exchange for Hatfield
House. James died here in 1625, and Charles I. set out from here for
Nottingham in 1642 at the outset of the Civil War. One of the entrances
to Theobalds Park is the old Temple Bar, removed from Fleet Street,
London, in 1878.
CHESIL BANK (A.S. _ceosol_, pebble bank), a remarkable beach of shingle
on the coast of Dorsetshire, England. It is separated from the mainland
for 8 m. by an inlet called the Fleet, famous for its swannery, and
continues in all for 18 m. south-eastward from Abbotsbury, terminating
at the so-called Isle of Portland. The height of the bank at the
Portland end is 35 ft. above spring-tide level, and its breadth 200 yds.
The greater height at this end accords with the general-movement of
shingle along this coast from west to east; and for the same reason the
pebbles of the bank decrease in size from 1 to 3 in. in diameter at
Portland to the size of peas at the western end, where the breadth is
only 170 yds.
CHESNELONG, PIERRE CHARLES (1820-1894), French politician, was born at
Orthez in the department of the Basses-Pyrenees, on the 14th of April
1820. In 1848 he proclaimed himself a Republican; but after the
establishment of the Second Empire he changed his views, and in 1865 was
returned to the chamber as the official candidate for his native place.
He at once became conspicuous, both for his eloquence and for his
uncompromising clericalism, especially in urging the necessity for
maintaining the temporal power of the papacy. In 1869 he was again
returned, and, devoting himself with exceptional ability to financial
questions, was in 1870 appointed to report the budget. During and after
the war, for which he voted, he retired for a while into private life;
but in 1872 he was again elected deputy, this time as a Legitimist, and
took his seat among the extreme Right. He was the soul of the
reactionary opposition that led to the fall of Thiers; and in 1873 it
was he who, with Lucien Brun, carried to the comte de Chambord the
proposals of the chambers. Through some misunderstanding, he reported on
his return that the count had accepted all the terms offered, including
the retention of the tricolour flag; and the count published a formal
denial. Chesnelong now devoted himself to the establishment of Catholic
universities and to the formation of Catholic working-men's clubs. In
1876 he was again returned for Orthez, but was unseated, and then beaten
by the republican candidate. On the 24th of November, however, he was
elected to a seat in the senate, where he continued his vigorous polemic
against the progressive attempts of the republican government to
secularize the educational system of France until his death in 1894.
CHESNEY, CHARLES CORNWALLIS (1826-1876), British soldier and military
writer, the third son of Charles Cornwallis Chesney, captain on the
retired list of the Bengal Artillery, and nephew of General F.R.
Chesney, was born in Co. Down, Ireland, on the 29th of September 1826.
Educated at Blundell's school, Tiverton, and afterwards at the Royal
Military Academy, Woolwich, he obtained his first commission as second
lieutenant of engineers in 1845, passing out of the academy at the head
of his term. His early service was spent in the ordinary course of
regimental duty at home and abroad, and he was stationed in New Zealand
during the Crimean War. Among the various reforms in the British
military system which followed from that war was the impetus given to
military education; and in 1858 Captain Chesney was appointed professor
of military history at Sandhurst. In 1864 he succeeded Colonel
(afterwards Sir Edward) Hamley in the corresponding chair at the Staff
College. The writings of these two brilliant officers had a great
influence not only at home, but on the continent and in America.
Chesney's first published work (1863) was an account of the Civil War
in Virginia, which went through several editions. But the work which
attained the greatest reputation was his _Waterloo Lectures_ (1868),
prepared from the notes of lectures orally delivered at the Staff
College. Up to that time the English literature on the Waterloo
campaign, although voluminous, was made up of personal reminiscences or
of formal records, useful materials for history rather than history
itself; and the French accounts had mainly taken the form of fiction. In
Chesney's lucid and vigorous account of the momentous struggle, while it
illustrates both the strategy and tactics which culminated in the final
catastrophe, the mistakes committed by Napoleon are laid bare, and for
the first time an English Writer is found to point out that the
dispositions of Wellington were far from faultless. And in the _Waterloo
Lectures_ the Prussians are for the first time credited by an English
pen with their proper share in the victory. The work attracted much
attention abroad as well as at home, and French and German translations
were published.
Chesney was for many years a constant contributor to the newspaper press
and to periodic literature, devoting himself for the most part to the
critical treatment of military operations, and professional subjects
generally. Some of his essays on military biography, contributed mainly
to the _Edinburgh Review_, were afterwards published separately (1874).
In 1868 he was appointed a member of the royal commission on military
education, under the presidency first of Earl De Grey and afterwards of
Lord Dufferin, to whose recommendations were due the improved
organization of the military colleges, and the development of military
education in the principal military stations of the British army. In
1871, on the conclusion of the Franco-German War, he was sent on a
special mission to France and Germany, and furnished to the government a
series of valuable reports on the different siege operations which had
been carried out during the war, especially the two sieges of Paris.
These reports were published in a large volume, which was issued
confidentially. Never seeking regimental or staff preferment, Colonel
Chesney never obtained any, but he held at the time of his death a
unique position in the army, altogether apart from and above his actual
place in it. He was consulted by officers of all grades on professional
matters, and few have done more to raise the intellectual standard of
the British officer. Constantly engaged in literary pursuits, he was
nevertheless laborious and exemplary in the discharge of his public
duties, while managing also to devote a large part of his time to
charitable and religious offices. He was abstemious to a fault; and,
overwork of mind and body telling at last on a frail constitution, he
died after a short illness on the 19th of March 1876. He had become
lieutenant-colonel in 1873, and at the time of his death he was
commanding Royal Engineer of the London district. He was buried at
Sandhurst.
CHESNEY, FRANCIS RAWDON (1789-1872), British general and explorer, was
the son of Captain Alexander Chesney, an Irishman of Scottish descent
who, having emigrated to South Carolina in 1772, did brilliant service
under Lord Rawdon (afterwards marquess of Hastings) in the War of
Independence, and subsequently received an appointment as coast officer
at Annalong, Co. Down, Ireland. There F.R. Chesney was born on the 16th
of March 1789. Lord Rawdon gave the boy a cadetship at Woolwich, and he
was gazetted to the Royal Artillery in 1805. But though he rose to be
lieutenant-general and colonel-commandant of the 14th brigade Royal
Artillery (1864), and general in 1868, Chesney's memory lives not for
his military record, but for his connexion with the Suez Canal, and with
the exploration of the Euphrates valley, which started with his being
sent out to Constantinople in the course of his military duties in 1829,
and his making a tour of inspection in Egypt and Syria. His report in
1830 on the feasibility of making the Suez Canal was the original basis
of Lesseps' great undertaking (in 1869 Lesseps greeted him in Paris as
the "father" of the canal); and in 1831 he introduced to the home
government the idea of opening a new overland route to India, by a
daring and adventurous journey (for the Arabs were hostile and he was
ignorant of the language) along the Euphrates valley from Anah to the
Persian Gulf. Returning home, Colonel Chesney (as he then was) busied
himself to get support for the latter project, to which the East India
Company's board was favourable; and in 1835 he was sent out in command
of a small expedition, for which parliament voted L20,000, in order to
test the navigability of the Euphrates. After encountering immense
difficulties, from the opposition of the Egyptian pasha, and from the
need of transporting two steamers (one of which was lost) in sections
from the Mediterranean over the hilly country to the river, they
successfully arrived by water at Bushire in the summer of 1836, and
proved Chesney's view to be a practicable one. In the middle of 1837 he
returned to England, and was given the Royal Geographical Society's gold
medal, having meanwhile been to India to consult the authorities there;
but the preparation of his two volumes on the expedition (published in
1850) was interrupted by his being ordered out in 1843 to command the
artillery at Hong Kong. In 1847 his period of service was completed, and
he went home to Ireland, to a life of retirement; but both in 1856 and
again in 1862 he went out to the East to take a part in further surveys
and negotiations for the Euphrates valley railway scheme, which,
however, the government would not take up, in spite of a favourable
report from the House of Commons committee in 1871. In 1868 he published
a further volume of narrative on his Euphrates expedition. He died on
the 30th of January 1872.
His _Life_, edited by Stanley Lane Poole, appeared in 1885.
CHESNEY, SIR GEORGE TOMKYNS (1830-1895), English general, brother of
Colonel C.C. Chesney, was born at Tiverton, Devonshire, on the 30th of
April 1830. Educated at Blundell's school, Tiverton, and at Addiscombe,
he entered the Bengal Engineers as second lieutenant in 1848. He was
employed for some years in the public works department and, on the
outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, joined the Ambala column, was
field engineer at the battle of Badli-ke-serai, brigade-major of
engineers throughout the siege of Delhi, and was severely wounded in the
assault (medal and clasp and a brevet majority). In 1860 he was
appointed head of a new department in connexion with the public works
accounts. His work on _Indian Polity_ (1868), dealing with the
administration of the several departments of the Indian government,
attracted wide attention and remains a permanent text-book. The
originator of the Royal Indian Civil Engineering College at Cooper's
Hill, Staines, he was also its first president (1871-1880). In 1871 he
contributed to _Blackwood's Magazine_, "The Battle of Dorking," a vivid
account of a supposed invasion of England by the Germans after their
victory over France. This was republished in many editions and
translations, and produced a profound impression. He was promoted
lieutenant-colonel, 1869; colonel, 1877; major-general, 1886;
lieutenant-general, 1887; colonel-commandant of Royal Engineers, 1890;
and general, 1892. From 1881 to 1886 he was secretary to the military
department of the government of India, and was made a C.S.I, and a
C.I.E. From 1886 to 1892, as military member of the governor-general's
council, he carried out many much-needed military reforms. He was made a
C.B. at the jubilee of 1887, and a K.C.B. on leaving India in 1892. In
that year he was returned to parliament, in the Conservative interest,
as member for Oxford, and was chairman of the committee of service
members of the House of Commons until his death on the 31st of March
1895. He wrote some novels, _The Dilemma_, _The Private Secretary_, _The
Lesters_, &c., and was a frequent contributor to periodical literature.
CHESS, once known as "checker," a game played with certain "pieces" on a
special "board" described below. It takes its name from the Persian word
_shah_, a king, the name of one of the pieces or men used in the game.
Chess is the most cosmopolitan of all games, invented in the East (see
_History_, below), introduced into the West and now domiciled in every
part of the world. As a mere pastime chess is easily learnt, and a very
moderate amount of study enables a man to become a fair player, but the
higher ranges of chess-skill are only attained by persistent labour. The
real proficient or "master" not merely must know the subtle variations
in which the game abounds, but must be able to apply his knowledge in
the face of the enemy and to call to his aid, as occasion demands, all
that he has of foresight, brilliancy and resource, both in attack and in
defence. Two chess players fighting over the board may fitly be compared
to two famous generals encountering each other on the battlefield, the
strategy and the tactics being not dissimilar in spirit.
_The Board, Pieces and Moves._--The chessboard is divided (see
accompanying diagrams) into sixty-four chequered squares. In diagram 1,
the pieces, or chess-men, are arranged for the beginning of a game,
while diagram 2 shows the denomination of the squares according to the
English and German systems of notation. Under diagram 1 are the names of
the various "pieces"--each side, White or Black, having a King, a Queen,
two Rooks (or Castles), two Knights, and two Bishops. The eight men in
front are called Pawns. At the beginning of the game the queen always
stands upon a square of her own colour. The board is so set that each
player has a white square at the right hand end of the row nearest to
him. The rook, knight and bishop on the right of the king are known as
King's rook, King's knight, and King's bishop; the other three as
Queen's rook, Queen's knight, and Queen's bishop.
BLACK
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| r | n | b | q | k | b | n | r |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| p | p | p | p | p | p | p | p |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| | | | | | | | |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| R | N | B | Q | K | B | N | R |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
Rk. Kt. Bp. Q. K. Bp. Kt. Rk.
WHITE
DIAGRAM 1.--Showing the arrangement of the pieces at the commencement
of a game.
Briefly described, the powers of the various pieces and of the pawns are
as follows.
The king may move in any direction, only one square at a time, except in
castling. Two kings can never be on adjacent squares.
The queen moves in any direction square or diagonal, whether forward or
backward. There is no limit to her range over vacant squares; an
opponent she may take; a piece of her own colour stops her. She is the
most powerful piece on the board, for her action is a union of those of
the rook and bishop. The rooks (from the Indian _rukh_ and Persian
_rokh_, meaning a soldier or warrior) move in straight lines--forward or
backward--but they cannot move, diagonally. Their range is like the
queen's, unlimited, with the same exceptions.
The bishops move diagonally in any direction whether backward or
forward. They have an unlimited range, with the same exceptions.
The knights' moves are of an absolutely different kind. They move from
one corner of any rectangle of three squares by two to the opposite
corner; thus, in diagram 3, the white knight can move to the square
occupied by the black one, and vice versa, or a knight could move from C
to D, or D to C. The move may be made in any direction. It is no
obstacle to the knight's move if squares A and B are occupied. It will
be perceived that the knight always moves to a square of a different
colour.
The king, queen, rooks and bishops may capture any foeman which stands
anywhere within their respective ranges; and the knights can capture the
adverse men which stand upon the squares to which they can leap. The
piece which takes occupies the square of the piece which is taken, the
latter being removed from the board. The king cannot capture any man
which is protected by another man.
The moves and capturing powers of the pawns are as follows:--Each pawn
for his first move may advance either one or two squares straight
forward, but afterwards one square only, and this whether upon starting
he exercised his privilege of moving two squares or not. A pawn can
never move backwards. He can capture only diagonally--one square to his
right or left front. A pawn moves like a rook, captures like a bishop,
but only one square at a time. When a pawn arrives at an eighth square,
viz. at the extreme limit of the board, he may, at the option of his
owner, be exchanged for any other piece, so that a player may, e.g.,
have two or more queens on the board at once.
BLACK
a b c d e f g h
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qrsq|qktsq| qbsq| qsq | ksq | kbsq|kktsq| krsq|
8| | | | | | | | |8
| QR8 | QKt8| QB8 | Q8 | K8 | KB8 | KKt8| KR8 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qr2 | qkt2| qb2 | q2 | k2 | kb2 | kkt2| kr2 |
7| | | | | | | | |7
| QR7 | QKt7| QB7 | Q7 | K7 | KB7 | KKt7| KR7 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qr3 | qkt3| qb3 | q3 | k3 | kb3 | kkt3| kr3 |
6| | | | | | | | |6
| QR6 | QKt6| QB6 | Q6 | K6 | KB6 | KKt6| KR6 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qr4 | qkt4| qb4 | q4 | k4 | kb4 | kkt4| kr4 |
5| | | | | | | | |5
| QR5 | QKt5| QB5 | Q5 | K5 | KB5 | KKt5| KR5 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qr5 | qkt5| qb5 | q5 | k5 | kb5 | kkt5| kr5 |
4| | | | | | | | |4
| QR4 | QKt4| QB4 | Q4 | K4 | KB4 | KKt4| KR4 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qr6 | qkt6| qb6 | q6 | k6 | kb6 | kkt6| kr6 |
3| | | | | | | | |3
| QR3 | QKt3| QB3 | Q3 | K3 | KB3 | KKt3| KR3 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qr7 | qkt7| qb7 | q7 | k7 | kb7 | kkt7| kr7 |
2| | | | | | | | |2
| QR2 | QKt2| QB2 | Q2 | K2 | KB2 | KKt2| KR2 |
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| qr8 | qkt8| qb8 | q8 | k8 | kb8 | kkt8| kr8 |
1| | | | | | | | |1
| QRsq|QKtsq| QBsq| Qsq | Ksq | KBsq|KKtsq| KRsq|
+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
a b c d e f g h
WHITE
DIAGRAM 2.--Showing English and German Methods of Notation.
"Check and Checkmate." The king can never be captured, but when any
piece or pawn attacks him, he is said to be "in check," and the fact of
his being so attacked should be announced by the adverse player saying
"check," whereupon the king must move from the square he occupies, or be
screened from check by the interposition of one of his own men, or the
attacking piece must be captured. If, however, when the king is in
check, none of these things can be done, it is "checkmate" (Persian,
_shah mat_, the king is dead), known generally as "mate," whereupon the
game terminates, the player whose king has been thus checkmated being
the loser. When the adversary has only his king left, it is very easy to
checkmate him with only a queen and king, or only a rook and king. The
problem is less easy with king and two bishops, and still less easy with
king, knight and bishop, in which case the opposing king has to be
driven into a corner square whose colour corresponds with the bishop's,
mate being given with the bishop. A king and two knights cannot mate. To
mate with king and rook the opposing king must be driven on to one of
the four side files and kept there with the rook on the next file, till
it is held by the other king, when the rook mates.
The pawn gives check in the same way as he captures, viz. diagonally.
One king cannot give check to another, nor may a king be moved into
check.
"Check by discovery" is given when a player, by moving one of his
pieces, checks with another of them. "Double check" means attacking the
king at once with two pieces--one of the pieces in this case giving
check by discovery.
"Perpetual check" occurs when one player, seeing that he cannot win the
game, finds the men so placed that he can give check _ad infinitum_,
while his adversary cannot possibly avoid it. The game is then drawn. A
game is also drawn "if, before touching a man, the player whose turn it
is to play, claims that the game be treated as drawn, and proves that
the existing position existed, in the game and at the commencement of
his turn of play, twice at least before the present turn."
+---+---+
| N | D |
+---+---+
| A | B |
+---+---+
| C | n |
+---+---+
Knight's move.
"Stalemate." When a king is not in check, but his owner has no move left
save such as would place the king in check, it is "stalemate," and the
game is drawn.
"Castling." This is a special move permitted to the king once only in
the game. It is performed in combination with either rook, the king
being moved two squares laterally, while the rook towards which he is
moved (which must not have previously moved from its square) is placed
next him on the other side; the king must be touched first. The king
cannot castle after having been once moved, nor when any piece stands
between him and the rook, nor if he is in check, nor when he has to
cross a square commanded by an adverse piece or pawn, nor into check. It
will be perceived that after castling with the king's rook the latter
will occupy the KB square, while the king stands on the KKt square, and
if with the queen's rook, the latter will occupy the queen's square
while the king stands on the QB square.
"Taking _en passant_." This is a privilege possessed by any of the pawns
under the following circumstances:--If a pawn, say of the white colour,
stands upon a fifth square, say upon K5 counting from the white side,
and a black pawn moves from Q2 or KB2 to Q4 or KB4 counting from the
black side, the white pawn can take the black pawn _en passant_. For the
purposes of such capture the latter is dealt with as though he had only
moved to Q3 or KB3, and the white pawn taking him diagonally then
occupies the square the captured pawn would have reached had he moved
but one square. The capture can be made only on the move immediately
succeeding that of the pawn to be captured.
"Drawn Game." This arises from a stalemate (noticed above), or from
either player not having sufficient force wherewith to effect checkmate,
as when there are only two kings left on the board, or king and bishop
against king, or king with one knight, or two knights against king, or
from perpetual check. One of the players can call upon the other to give
checkmate in fifty moves, the result of failure being that the game is
drawn. But, if a pawn is moved, or a piece is captured, the counting
must begin again.
A "minor piece" means either a knight or a bishop. "Winning the
exchange" signifies capturing a rook in exchange for a minor piece. A
"passed pawn" is one that has no adverse pawn either in front or on
either of the adjoining files. A "file" is simply a line of squares
extending vertically from one end of the board to the other. An "open
file" is one on which no piece or pawn of either colour is standing. A
pawn or piece is _en prise_ when one of the enemy's men can capture it.
"Gambit" is a word derived from the Ital. _gambetto_, a tripping up of
the heels; it is a term used to signify an opening in which a pawn or
piece is sacrificed at the opening of a game to obtain an attack. An
"opening," or _debut_, is a certain set method of commencing the game.
When a player can only make one legal move, that move is called a
"forced move."
_Value of the Pieces._--The relative worth of the chess-men cannot be
definitely stated on account of the increase or decrease of their powers
according to the position of the game and the pieces, but taking the
pawn as the unit the following will be an estimate near enough for
practical purposes:--pawn 1, bishop 3.25, knight 3.25, rook 5, queen
9.50. Three minor pieces may more often than not be advantageously
exchanged for the queen. The knight is generally stronger than the
bishop in the end game, but two bishops are usually stronger than two
knights, more especially in open positions.
_Laws._--The laws of chess differ, although not very materially, in
different countries. Various steps have been taken, but as yet without
success, to secure the adoption of a universal code. In competitions
among English players the particular laws to be observed are specially
agreed upon,--the regulations most generally adopted being those laid
down at length in Staunton's _Chess Praxis_, or the modification of the
_Praxis_ laws issued in the name of the British Chess Association in
1862.
_First Move and Odds._--To decide who moves first, one player conceals a
white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other, his adversary not
seeing in which hand the different pawns are put. The other holds out
his hands with the pawns concealed, and his adversary touches one. If
that contains the white pawn, he takes the white men and moves first. If
he draws the black pawn his adversary has the first move, since white,
by convention, always plays first. Subsequently the first move is taken
alternately. If one player, by way of odds, "gives" his adversary a pawn
or piece, that piece is removed before play begins. If the odds are
"pawn and move," or "pawn and two," a black pawn, namely, the king's
bishop's pawn, is removed and white plays one move, or any two moves in
succession. "Pawn and two" is generally considered to be slightly less
in point of odds than to give a knight or a bishop; to give a knight and
a bishop is to give rather more than a rook; a rook and bishop less than
a queen; two rooks rather more than a queen. The odds of "the marked
pawn" can only be given to a much weaker player. A pawn, generally KB's
pawn, is marked with a cap of paper. If the pawn is captured its owner
loses the game; he can also lose by being checkmated in the usual way,
but he cannot give mate to his adversary with any man except the marked
pawn, which may not be moved to an eighth square and exchanged for a
piece.
_Rules._--If a player touch one of his men he must move it, unless he
says _j'adoube_ (I adjust), or words of a similar meaning, to the effect
that he was only setting it straight on its square. If he cannot legally
move a touched piece, he must move his king, if he can, but may not
castle; if not, there is no penalty. He must say _j'adoube_ before
touching his piece. If a player touch an opponent's piece, he must take
it, if he can: if not, move his king. If he can do neither, no penalty.
A move is completed and cannot be taken back, as soon as a player,
having moved a piece, has taken his hand off it. If a player is called
upon to mate under the fifty-move rule, "fifty moves" means fifty moves
and the forty-nine replies to them. A pawn that reaches an eighth square
_must_ be exchanged for some other piece, the move not being complete
until this is done; a second king cannot be selected.
_Modes of Notation._--The English and German methods of describing the
moves made in a game are different. According to the English method each
player counts from his own side of the board, and the moves are denoted
by the names of the files and the numbers of the squares. Thus when a
player for his first move advances the king's pawn two squares, it is
described as follows:--"1. P-K4." The following moves, with the aid of
diagram 2, will enable the reader to understand the principles of the
British notation. The symbol x is used to express "takes"; a dash--to
express "to."
White. Black.
1. P-K4 1. P-K4
2. KKt-KB3 2. QKt-QB3
(i.e. King's Knight to the (i.e. Queen's Knight to the
third square of the King's third square of the Queen's
Bishop's file) Bishop's file)
3. KB-QB4 3. KB-QB4
(King's Bishop to the fourth
square of the Queen's
Bishop's file)
4. P-QB3 4. KKt-KB3
5. P-Q4 5. P takes P (or PxP)
(King's pawn takes White's
Queen's pawn)
6. P takes P (or PxP) 6. KB-QKt5 (ch., i.e. check)
(Queen's Bishop's pawn
takes pawn: no other pawn
has a pawn _en prise_)
It is now usual to express the notation as concisely as possible; thus,
the third moves of White and Black would be given as 3. B-B4, because it
is clear that only the fourth square of the queen's bishop's file is
intended.
The French names for the pieces are, King, _Roi_; Queen, _Dame_; Rook,
_Tour_; Knight, _Cavalier_; Pawn, _Pion_; for Bishop the French
substitute _Fou_, a jester. Chess is _Les Echecs_.
The German notation employs the alphabetical characters a, b, c, d, e,
f, g and h, proceeding from left to right, and the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7 and 8, running upwards, these being always calculated from the
white side of the board (see diagram 2). Thus the White Queen's Rook's
square is a1, the White Queen's square is d1; the Black Queen's square,
d8; the White King's square, e1; the Black King's square, e8, and so
with the other pieces and squares. The German names of the pieces are as
follows:--King, _Konig_; Queen, _Dame_; Rook, _Turm_; Bishop, _Laufer_;
Knight, _Springer_; Pawn, _Bauer_; Chess, _Schach_.
The initials only of the pieces are given, the pawns (_Bauern)_ being
understood. The Germans use the following signs in their notation,
viz.:--for "check" ([dagger]); "checkmate" ([double dagger]); "takes"
(:); "castles on king's side" (0-0); "castles on queen's side" (0-0-0);
for "best move" a note of admiration (!); for "weak move" a note of
interrogation (?). The opening moves just given in the English will now
be given in the German notation:--
White. Black.
1. e2-e4 1. e7-e5
2. S g1-f3 2. S b8-c6
3. L f1-c4 3. L f8-c5
4. c2-c3 4. S g8-f6!
5. d2-d4 5. e5-d4:
6. c3-d4: 6. L cs-b4[dagger]