1762. For a bassoon £5 5 0 1787. John Richardson, for instructing the singers 8 17 0 1801. For a hautboy 0 14 0 1811. For a base violin 6 16 7 1820. Paid Mr. Cotgreave, for leading the singers, 62 nights at 5s. 15 10 0 1821. Do. do. 77 nights at 5s. 19 5 0 In 1785, at Farndon, we find-- To a vestry meeting about a bassoon £0 2 6 To a bassoon 6 0 8 Two new “cleronets” and reeds cost £5 12s. 9d., and a new hautboy £1. 8s. At the same vestry the churchwarden was empowered to pay £1. 1s. yearly to the singers “so long as they continue to sing such tunes as the inhabitants of the parish shall approve of”; and William Snelson was paid two guineas per annum “to teach the children to sing psalms in church.”... The abolition of the old church band has _not_ been of benefit to many churches and villages. Passing mention must be made of Handel’s visit to Chester, in 1741, when he tried over the music of the “Messiah” before its first performance in Dublin, and of the great Chester Musical Festivals held at various intervals from 1772 to 1829, and of the celebrated political song called the “Glorious Sixth of May,” which stirred Chester like a second “Lillibulero,” just one hundred years ago. WELLS A wishing well, called “Billy Hobby’s Well,” was in the field which is now the Grosvenor Park, Chester, and a local poet sang thus in 1823-- I lov’d the tales that idle maids would tell, Of wonders wrought at Billy Hobby’s well; Where love-sick girls with leg immured would stand, The right leg ’twas--the other on dry land, With face so simple--stocking in the hand-- Wishing for husbands half a winter’s day, With ninety times the zeal they used to pray. Other wells round Chester were “St. Giles’ Well” at Spital Boughton, “Jacob’s Well” near St. John’s Church, “Aganippe’s Well” at Newton, and the “Abbot’s Well” at Christleton, which supplied the monastery at Chester with water. It still exists, but the others are extinct. Another wishing well was at Gayton, and a holy well at Alderley Edge. St. Plegmund’s Well is in the parish of Plemstall (three miles from Chester). It has been customary for many years to take the water used for christenings in the church from this well. A chalybeate spring existed in Delamere Forest, and was resorted to by invalids in the eighteenth century. The largest well now existing is the “Synagogue Well” at Frodsham, which is close to the site of the ancient castle there, and may have been connected with it. It still has a copious supply of water, and has been cleansed and repaired, much to the detriment of its former picturesque appearance.