We will now return to the WALLS, noticing as we pass through the Water Gate, to the right, the remains of the wall of the _Black Friars’ Monastery_. Proceeding southward a short distance, we arrive at a field, on the left hand, in which formerly stood the Benedictine _Nunnery of St. Mary_. Within living memory, portions of this conventual establishment were visible from the Walls, but all traces thereof are now unfortunately obliterated. We have here a pretty close view of the CASTLE, SAVINGS BANK, and ST. BRIDGET’S CHURCH; but as we have now arrived at the New, or Grosvenor Road, we will approach still nearer, and while surveying and admiring the Castle of the present, ruminate a little on the Castle of past days. When Chester Castle was first erected, whether during the British, Roman or Saxon occupation, is a problem likely never to be determined. There can be no question, however, that it existed some time previous to the Norman Conquest; for it was the chosen court and camp of Hugh Lupus the Norman, nephew of the Conqueror, and is stated by Camden to have been merely _repaired_ by that powerful baron. On the death of the last Norman Earl, the Castle passed into the hands of the king (Henry III.). “Henry of Lancaster, (afterwards Henry IV.) having taken up arms against Richard II., in 1399, mustered his army upon the banks 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. A few days afterwards, the unfortunate Richard and the Earl of Salisbury were brought prisoners to Chester, mounted (says Hall) ‘upon two little nagges, not worth forty francs,’ when the King was delivered ‘to the Duke of Gloucester’s sonne and the Earle 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, the renowned 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 ‘_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 re-taken upon Dee bank.’ He was afterwards beheaded at Bolton, while Featherstonehaugh was shot in the market-place of Chester.”