ERECTED AT THE EXPENSE OF
RICHARD LORD GROSVENOR,
MDCCLXIX.
And on the west side, under the city arms,
BEGUN A.D. MDCCLXVIII, JOHN KELSALL,
ESQ., MAYOR. FINISHED A.D. MDCCLXIX,
CHAS. BOSWELL, ESQ., MAYOR.
From the summit of the gate there is a fine view of Eastgate-street,
within the walls, and Foregate, or Forest-street on the outside. On a
market day it is truly spirit-stirring to observe the multitude beneath,
and listen to the “busy hum of men,” citizens and country folks, engaged
in buying and selling,—bringing in and carrying out,—the various
commodities which furnish forth the provision market of a county town.
On the same spot formerly stood
THE OLD EASTGATE,
removed in 1768, as too narrow and inconvenient for one of the principal
entrances to the city. It consisted of a beautifully formed Gothic
archway, flanked by two massive octagonal embattled towers, connected by
a substantial building, two stories in height, over the gateway, the roof
of which was raised to a level with and embattled in the same manner as
the flanking towers to which it formed the centre. From the bearings on
four shields which ornamented the front of this gate, it is conjectured
to have been erected during the reign of Edward III.
A Roman gateway appears to have occupied the same spot at a still earlier
period; for in pulling down the Old Eastgate in 1768, two wide circular
arches of Roman architecture were discovered within its workmanship.
With all due admiration for the spirit of useful improvement which
dictated the erection of the present Eastgate, we cannot avoid expressing
our regret that the old one no longer remains to gratify the eye of the
antiquary and the man of taste. Although the present gate is undoubtedly
much better adapted for the entrance of carriages of all kinds, yet the
Cestrians of the last century, who remembered the glories of the old
structure, must have been but ill reconciled to its substitute.
Having thus completed the circuit of the Walls of Chester, as they at
present stand, it only remains to notice that there was formerly an outer
gate in Foregate-street, about half a mile from the Eastgate, called
THE BARS GATE,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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