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DIRECTORY.] CHESHIRE. CHESTER. 213C H E STE i.^CHESTER is a city and county of itself, and the capitalof the county of that name, a municipal, parUamentaryand county borough, sea port, head of a union, countycourt districS and petty sessional (Uvision, in the Eddisburydivision of the county, and is pleasantly seated on, the north bank of the river Dee, a bend of which encirclesnearly one half of the city; it is distant from Bangor59J miles, Birmingham 74, Birkenhead 15, Bolton 36^,Cheadle 37, Crewe zii, Conway a,i\, FUnt 12J, Frodsham9, Glossop 65, Holyhead 84J, Holywell i6|, Hull150, Liverpool 17, London lygj, Manchester 40, MoldJ3J, Nantwich 17!, Oswestry 26J, Oxford 150, Ruabon 17,Sandbach 26i, Shrewsbury 38f, Shifnal 59J, Stafford46J, Stockport 39i, Stoke 364, Sheffield 80, Warrington18, Wrexham 12, 'Wellington 4^ and Wolverhampton 61J.The city stands at the extremi^ of Broxton hundred andat the east end of the peninsula of Wirral, and adjoiningFlintdiire, and is in the rural deanery, archdeaconry anddiocese of Chester. Few places in the kingdom presentto the antiquary attractions of more varied characterthan this ancient city: it is rich in memorable incidentsand assodations, and has a history chronicled not onlyin books, but in its walls, ecclesiastical and other buildings,its unique " rows " and other venerable remains.Chester may not improbably have been a very earlyIberian or British town, and it most certainly was an importantBoman station: the general plan of the cityand the arrangement of the prindpal streets—answeringin some measure to a Roman camp—bear witness to itsRoman origin: to the Roman geographers it was knownas " Deva," or the station on the Dee, where, according tothe Antonine Itinerary, was the station from A.D- 61 ofthe 20th Legion (Valeria Victrix), and this seems to beconfirmed by the name " Caer Leon Gawr,"' or the " cityof the great legion," assigned to it by the British; thisview is further strengthened by the discovery here ofvotive altars and sculptured tonibstones, the inscriptionson which show that they were erected by officers andother's belonging to Roman legions, besides which manyand various other Roman remains have been met with atdifferent periods. The 20th Legion quitted Deva aboutA.D. 406; and it then reverted to the Britons, f 1 om whomit was taken in 607 by Ethelfrith the Fierce, King ofNorthumbria; the Britons, however, regained possession,and continued to hold the place till they were dispossessedin 828-30 by Egbert, who, as sole monarch, added Legancester,as it was caUed by the Saxons, to his otherdominions; in 894 it was taken and ravaged by the Danes,and on their retreat, the city walls were rebuilt, aboutgo8, by Ethelfleda, Countess of Mercia; but after herdeath, the Britons once more became its masters, onlyto be again expeUed by Edward the Elder : in the summerof 973, Edgar received on the Dee the homage of variousinferior Saxon sovereigns, and according to some writers,was rowed from his palace on the south bank of rhe riverto the conventual church of St. John by eight tributarykings: on the division of the country in 1016 betweenEdmund Ironside and Canute, Chester, as part of Mercia,was retained by the latter. Under the Normans Chesterincreased considerably in importance, and after the Conquest,the Earldom of Chester (county) was conferred onGeorbodus, a nobleman of Flanders, who, however, nevertook possession of his territory, and, returning to theContinent, died soon after, upon which the dignity wasbestowed by the Conqueror, in 1070, upon his haUsister'sson, Hugh de Abrincis (or Avranches), surnamed"Lupus," who had his residence and held his courts andparliaments here, to which he summoned the barons andlandowners of the shire; this powerful and wealthy nobleeventually died as a monk in the abbey of St. Werburgh,at Chester, 27 July, iioiiand on the death in Dec, iiigof his son Richard, 2nd earl, the male Une then becomingextinct, the earldom passed to his ist cousin, Ranulphde Meschines, son of Balph de Meschines, who hadmarried Maud de Abiincis, sister of Earl Hugh Lupus:Ritoulph or Ralph de Mesdiines, 4th Earl of Chester of this ,family, and sumamed "BlundevU," died at WaUingford, '26 Oct. 1232, and the earldom then devolved upon his jnephew, John le Scot, as "Earl Palatine," at whosedecease, by poison, in 1244, the male Une again failed, |and in 1246, the Earldom of Chester was for ever annexed |to the Cirown by Henry IH. and the title has since that jtime "excepting the short period 1264-5, when possession ,thereof was obtained by the rebellious Simon de Montfort," jbeen bome only by the heir apparent of the sovereign:by the Act 21 Rich, II. c, 9 (1398) the earldom of Chesterwag erected into a PrincipaUty, and although this Actwas annulled by the Act i Hen. IV. c. 3, the earldomof Chester has ever since been granted in conjunction |with the Principality of Wales, and H.M. King GeorgeV. thus received both titles gth Nov. 1901. The cjtysuffered severely during the sanguinary period of theWars of the Roses, and was on one occasion (in 1455)visited by Margaret of Anjou, the warlike queen ofHenry VI. King James I. on his journey into Scotlandin 1617 passed through Chester, and received from themayor the city sword, which, being re-delivered to him,was borne by the mayor on horseback before the king. Onthe breaking out of the Civil War, the city was in 1642the head quarters of the RoyaUsts in this locality ; and in1645, under the governorship of John, ist Lord Byron, anda distinguished cavalier, withstood, under great privations,the attacks of Sir William Brereton; tbe king thereuponcame to its relief (22 Sep. 1645), ^°* *^® royal forcesbeing defeated on Rowton Heath, 2 miles from the city,on the 24th, the king, after remaining one night, retiredto Denbigh, and the place was eventuaUy surrendered 3Feb. 1646. In Aug. 1659, Sir George Booth and SirThomas Middleton surprised and took it, but were defeatednear Nantwich by General Lambert, who then advancedupon and recaptured Chester; tihe city was visitedby James II. in 1687, and on the rebellion of 1688, wasseized by Lords Molyneux and Aston in the royal interest,but the speedy abdication of James rendered their effortsuseless: under WiUiam III. Chester was appointed oneof six places for the assay of gold and silver, and thisprivilege is still retained; in the Jacobite rising in 174=:,it was fortified and garrisoned against the Pretender, thisbeing the last important military event in its history,but it is still a ohief miUtary centre. On the n and 12Feb. 1867, the castle was threatened by attack by theFenians, whose intentions, however, were rendered futileby the activity of the authorities. The Exchange andTown Hall, burnt down 30 Dec. 1862, were reopened byHis late Majesty King Edward VII. then Earl ofChester, 15 Oct. 1869.Chester is entirely surrounded by waUs, which areamong the most perfect examples of such fortificationsto be found in the kingdom: they are built ot soft freestoneand are nearly two mUes in circumference, varyingfrom about 12 to 40 feet in height, with a paved walkon the top, of sufficient width in the narrowest part toadmit of two persons walking abreast, thus affording abeautiful promenade, in the circuit of which a varietyof pleasing prospects are presented to the eye, includingthe Roodee, or race-course, the river Dee and Peckfortonand Beeston Castles and the mountains of Flintshireand Denbighshire: the waUs are said to havebeen rebuUt and their circuit enlarged by Ethelredand Ethelfieda, Earl and Countess of Mercia, aboutthe year 908, and they still have, besides posterns,.four principal gates, viz. East gate, North gate. Bridgegate and Water gate. East gate consists of a singlelofty arch for the passage of carriages, and two posternsfor foot passengers : it was built in 1769, on thesite of the ancient gate, at the expense of Richard,ist Baron Grosvenor, whose arms, with those of thecity, occupy the centre of the archway. North gate,a similar structure, formerly served as the city prison,and was in the charge and keeping of the sheriffs.Bridge gate, which has also a central arch and twoposterns, was erected in 1782, at the expense ot theCorporation and had formerly an octagonal tower,V\^ater gate, built of local red sandstone, painted toimitate freestone, was built in 1788, on the site of theancient Water gate, the expenses being defrayed out ofthe Murage duties, and it acquired its name from thefact that the tide once flowed up to this spot. Theprincipal postern gates were Kail yard. New gate (formerlycalled Wolf gate) and Ship gate.The walls were formerly defended by various towers;the New Tower, sometimes called the Water Tower,projecting from the waUs towards the Dee and twentyfourfeet in height, was buUt in 13^2, at the expense ofthe citizens; large iron rings were attached to thistower, to which vessels were fastened which came upto this point before the harbour became choked withsand: a thoroughfare tower, leading to the WaterTower, was anciently called Bonewaldesthome Tower.The Phoenix Tower,' from which Charles I. witnessedthe defeat of his army, commanded by Sir MarmadukeLangdale, at Eowton Moor (24 Sept. 1645), by the Parliamentaryforces, under Sir WiUiam Brereton and Col,Poyntz, takes its name from the crest of the Paintersand Stainers, who, with other companies, held theirmeetings in this tower: it was formerly caUed NewtonTower; there were, besides these. Goblin's Tower, nowknown by the name of Pemberton's Parlor, of which