Volume Ii Part 6 (2/2)
He next observed: ”Chester is a city and county of itself; the Dee river half encircles it by a winding curve, flowing from east to west, where, nearly at about twenty miles distance in its course, it empties itself into the Irish channel. Look down, my lady d.u.c.h.ess, from these walls, upon the objects below, and you will then appreciate their great height. Originally they were constructed for defence, but they are now converted into a promenade for the health and recreation of the inhabitants; and indeed I must do them the justice to say, that they keep them in excellent repair. The walls are so narrow in some particular places that only two persons, as you must observe, can walk abreast. The circ.u.mference of the walls extends to one mile three-quarters, and a hundred and one yards, ehem! _be the same more or less_, as the gentlemen of the long robe might express it.”
In their progress around the walls, the ladies all were highly pleased by the surrounding scenery, and none more so than the Lady Adelaide:--
”How beautiful are the views from several parts of these venerable walls! How luxuriantly green the pastures that margin these walls, and that beautiful spot, the race-course!”
”Which, my lady,” rejoined Sir Patricius, ”they now call popularly Roodee, but the orthography is Rood-eye.[27] This beautiful pasture ground belongs to the corporation, and comprises eighty-four acres.
Yonder are the mountains of Flints.h.i.+re and Derbys.h.i.+re; there the hills of Broxton; while the insulated rock of Beeston, crowned with its romantic castle, forms the back-ground of the picture upon which your Ladys.h.i.+p seems to gaze with such delight; while the landscape is still further enlivened by the devious winding of the Dee, in its majestic circling course to Boughton.”
[27] ”The piece of ground without the walls, on which the annual horse-races of Chester are run, cannot well be pa.s.sed over in silence. The Dee, after quitting the contracted pa.s.s at the bridge, flows beneath an incurvated clayey cliff, and washes on the right a fine and extensive meadow, long since protected against its ravages by a lofty dike: it is called Rood-eye.
”The name of this spot is taken from _Eye_, its watery situation, and _Rood_, the cross which stood there, whose base is still to be seen. On this place the l.u.s.ty youth of former days exercised themselves in the manly sports of the age, in archery, running, leaping, and wrestling; in mock fights, and gallant and romantic triumphs.
”A _standard_ was the prize of emulation in the sports celebrated on the _Rood-eye_. But in the year 1609 the amus.e.m.e.nts took a new form; and under the reign of the peaceful JAMES the youthful cavaliers laid aside their mimic war, and horse-racing commenced.
”The first prizes we hear of after the suppression of the triumph, were a bell and bowl to be run for on Saint George's day, which were provided in 1609 by Mr. Robert Amery, formerly Sheriff of the city, and were brought down to the _Rood-eye_ with great solemnity. This seems to have been the origin of the plate given by the city, and annually ran for on the same day to the present time. A bell was a common prize. A little golden bell was the reward of victory in 1607 at the races near York; whence came the proverb, for success of any kind, _to bear the bell_.”--_Pennant's Tour through Wales_, vol. I. pp. 253, 254, 255, 256, 257.
While walking around the walls of Chester, the d.u.c.h.ess and her party encountered a handsome young stranger, who was also promenading this frequented walk.--We have already premised the narrowness of the walls, that they in some parts only admitted two persons to walk abreast.--The stranger, to make way, retired to a small recess nigh one of the towers, and courteously bowed as the party pa.s.sed onward.
His eyes were deeply rivetted upon the Lady Adelaide, while her's seemed as intently fixed upon him. Thrice during their walk, in a similar manner, they encountered the stranger; at the last meeting it so happened that Adelaide (accidentally, no doubt,) dropped her glove just as the stranger met her; he raised it from the ground, and in the most courteous and graceful manner restored it. While in the act of returning the glove to its fair owner, it so happened that his hand touched her's; instantly the blood mounted to her cheek, and she deeply blushed; but sweetly smiling, she politely thanked him, made her obeisance, and pa.s.sed on.
”Who can this stranger be?” thought Adelaide to herself. ”He is surely no ordinary being--none of the common-place creatures of this earth. And oh, his fine manly beautiful countenance that seems born to command!”
Then, with a sigh, ”she thought too that he looked likewise as if born to love. Oh, what I would give (just from mere curiosity!) to know his name and rank;--there can be no doubt but that he must be a person of distinction.”
After this mental soliloquy she hastened to rejoin the d.u.c.h.ess and her aunts. They all now returned to ”the White Lion;” and the next day was to be devoted to their visit to the episcopal palace, to pay their respects to the Bishop of Chester and Mrs. Cartwright. The evening proving remarkably fine, Sir Patricius ventured to propose a walk to the ladies, to view the interior of the city, the shops, ”the rows,” &c. As they pa.s.sed along, they observed that many of the houses were of wood, and most of them built of brick, and wooden frame-work, alternately painted black and white, in certainly a most coffin-like fas.h.i.+on. The pinnacles and gables, they observed, were adorned with various curious and grotesque carvings. Sir Patricius seemed now very anxious to display all his gothic lore.
”This, my Lady d.u.c.h.ess,” he observed, ”is in verity a most ancient, venerable city; and perhaps the most striking of the many peculiarities in which it abounds are these remarkable covered galleries, or, as they are ycleped, 'Rows,' which extend the entire length on each side of many of the streets in front of the range of shops, which are covered over head, and you ascend them from the four princ.i.p.al streets by flights of stairs. The effect is as if the front room in every first floor was scooped out, and the upper stories of the premises supported on pillars, while the lower tier of rooms, thus purloined, are occupied as shops.
The s.p.a.ce thus scooped out forms a covered gallery on each side of the street, with a ball.u.s.trade or railing in front, over which various goods are flung for exposure to the public--namely, silks, stuffs, shawls, &c.
This ball.u.s.trade faces the street; the back parlours of each house thus circ.u.mstanced are converted into rows of shops, and are a great convenience to the public, from the facility of pa.s.sing from street to street, effectually secured from rain or heat, affording a sheltered walk in winter and a shady one in summer to both inhabitants and strangers. The streets had been excavated out of the earth, and are in many places several feet below the surface. The carriages drive far below the levels of the kitchens, on a line with the range of shops.
”There can be no question, my Lady, whatever,” added Sir Patricius, looking very knowingly, and taking with much gravity a pinch of snuff from his Carolus snuff-box, ”there can be no doubt,” said he, ”but that these 'rows' are precisely the same as the ancient _vestibules_, and appear evidently to have been a form of building preserved from the time that this city was possessed by the Romans. These _vestibules_ were built before the doors, midway between the streets and the houses, and were the places where dependants waited for the coming forth of their patrons, and under which they might walk, and pa.s.s away the tedious minutes of expectation. Plautus, in the third act of his _Mostellaria_, describes both their situation and their use,[28] namely, that the vestibule in front of the house answered the purpose of a piazza, or covered gallery. The shops beneath these 'rows' were certainly the _cryptae_ and _apothecae_, the magazines and repositories for the various necessaries of the owners of the houses.”
[28] 'Viden' vestibulum ante aedes, et ambulacrum ejusmodi?
The party had now descended from the rows, and pursued their route under one of the arched gateways ascending from the walls, when who should at this time be seen but the youthful stranger whom they had encountered in their morning walk. He took off his hat and lowly bowed. Adelaide, blus.h.i.+ng, returned the salute, being the only one of the party who had caught a glimpse of him--the d.u.c.h.ess and her sisters listening in wonderment at the learned lore which Sir Patricius had displayed and poured forth with such wondrous volubility; and he was himself, in sooth, too much occupied by his own eloquence, to see, to hear, to think of ought but old Plautus, the _Colonia Devana_, and the Roman centurions!
The d.u.c.h.ess and her party having returned to ”the White Lion,” tea was immediately ordered; and as Sir Patricius had most ably done his part at the morning collation as well as at dinner, he thought it only decorous to go supperless to bed, which deficit he was, however, resolved to make up from the supplies of the tea-table. They all shortly retired to rest, the ladies complaining that they had not as yet got the tossing of the vessel from their heads, nor the shaking of the Roman paved way from their shoulders.
”After all,” said Sir Patricius, ”however, commend me the Romans, whether for their armies, their victories, for making roads, or manufacturing cheese!”
The d.u.c.h.ess took this as the signal for departing, aware that if this topic were once begun, it would prove no easy matter to stop Sir Patricius in his eulogium on the Romans.
The next day, at meet season and time, the d.u.c.h.ess, attended by her party, drove to the episcopal palace, and found the bishop and his lady at home, expecting their arrival. But it is necessary that the reader should be previously introduced to the bishop and his lady.
The Right Reverend Doctor Cartwright, Lord Bishop of Chester, was in the sixty-first or second year of his age, and having pa.s.sed by the sunny side of his s.e.xagesimal year, was verging fast to his grand climacteric; he enjoyed a strong and healthy old age. Piety was stamped on his fine expanded brow, and benevolence and good-humour sparkled in his eyes, and played upon his lips; his eyes were hazel, large and intelligent, beaming beneath his deep black eye-brows; his nose was aquiline; his figure tall and graceful. He wore a black camlet riding-coat; his hat was of the episcopal fas.h.i.+on; his peruke was bushy and well powdered; and in his right hand he carried an ivory-headed cane, not from necessity, but from choice.
Mrs. Cartwright was somewhat further advanced in years than her Right Reverend Lord. She had never, even in youth, been accounted handsome; however, the expression of her countenance was pleasing, and accompanied withal by a liveliness and good-humour, approaching somewhat the _vis comica_, but in no way allied to the satirical. Mrs. Cartwright was a plain, honest, excellent woman, possessed of a good understanding, and considered in those times as being well informed. No heart was ever found more fond of doing a kind, generous, and benevolent act, many of which are on record; but this was none of her seeking, as no one disliked ostentation more than what she did; her desire was to do good without its being promulgated. The bishop and his lady never had any children, but they were too wise and grateful to make themselves miserable upon this account, and lived contented and happy upon those blessings which providence had bounteously bestowed, without vainly and impiously repining for what they never had possessed. Loving and beloved, this couple lived mated and matched, regarded and respected by all ranks and conditions in society. They were never weary of well-doing; daily acts of charity, hospitality, generosity, and kindness, emanated from the kind and excellent feelings congenial to them both; indeed they fully verified the words of the inspired Psalmist: ”The voice of joy and health is in the dwellings of the righteous.”
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