Henry of Lancaster (afterwards Henry IV.), having taken up arms against Richard II. in 1399, mustered his army upon the bank of the Dee, under the walls of Chester, and Sir Piers Legh of Lyme, an adherent of Richard, was beheaded, and his head set upon the top of the highest tower in the Castle. Shortly afterwards, the unfortunate Richard and the Earl of Salisbury were brought prisoners to Chester, mounted (says Hall) “upon two little nagges, not worth forty franks,” when the King was delivered “to the Duke of Gloucester’s sonne and the Earl of Arundell’s sonne, that loved him but a little, for he had put their fathers to death, who led him strait to the castell.” In 1403 Henry Percy, surnamed Hotspur, visited Chester on his way to the fatal field of Shrewsbury, and caused proclamation to be made, that King Richard was yet alive, and a prisoner in Chester Castle, where he might be seen. Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, wife of the _Good Duke Humphrey_, was confined for several months in Chester Castle, in 1447, previous to her removal to the Isle of Man, under a sentence of perpetual imprisonment, on a charge of “practising the King’s death.” Here, in 1651, the Puritans, in their peculiar phraseology, “_sought the Lord_,” by trying and condemning to death the gallant and patriotic Earl of Derby, Sir Timothy Featherstonehaugh, and Captain Benbow. According to Whitlocke, the Earl “attempted to escape, and was let down by a rope from the leads of his chamber; but some hearing a noise, made after him, and he was retaken upon Dee bank.” The ancient structure was taken down at the close of the last century, and the present edifice erected on its site. The principal entrance is through a handsome portico of Grecian Doric architecture. It is 103 feet by 35, and consists of a centre and two wings connected by covered passages. The ten fluted columns, which compose the peristyle in the centre, are each cut out of a single block of stone. It is situated in the centre of a semicircular sunk fence or foss, 13 feet deep, and 390 feet in diameter, cased with hewn stone, surmounted with stone pedestals at equal distances, and the spaces filled with handsome iron rails, forming the north-west boundary of the esplanade. On the western side of the esplanade is the Armoury, capable of containing between 30,000 and 40,000 stand of arms. This is well worthy the inspection of strangers, who cannot fail to be struck with the excellent state in which the military stores are kept, and the tasteful arrangement of the arms.