School.—Boughton, and St. Paul’s Church.—The ’Spital, and George Marsh.—Roman Altar.—John Street, and Mechanics’ Institution.—Roman Catholic Convent.—St. John’s Church, and its Ruins.—Jacob’s Well, and the Anchorite’s Cell.—The Groves, and the Dee CHAPTER XI. The River Dee.—Chester Rowing Club.—The Earl’s Eye.—Villas 119 on Dee Banks.—The Water Works.—Eccleston.—Eaton Lodge, and Iron Bridge.—Eaton Hall.—The Grosvenor Family.—Belgrave Lodge.—The Interior of the Hall.—Eaton Gardens.—Grosvenor Lodge CHAPTER I. Introduction.—The City of Chester under the Britons.—Chester a Roman Colony.—The City a prey to the Danes and Saxons.—Ethelfleda the Amazon.—Chester under the Romans.—The Palatinate Earldom.—Royal Visits to Chester.—The Plague.—The Siege of Chester. “RARE old city of CHESTER!” writes Albert Smith in his “Struggles and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole,”—“Rare old city of Chester! Even in these days of rocket-like travelling, a man might fly all over Great Britain and Ireland, with an extra ‘day ticket’ for Berwick-upon-Tweed, before he saw anything half so fine as the mouldering old walls and towers of that venerable city, or looked upon anything half so fair as the prospect of vale and mountain, wooded headland, and spire-pointed plain, that surrounds it.” Well said, friend Albert;—echoed, too, far and wide, by the thousands of visitors who are annually led to seek entertainment within its Walls! Situate on the northern banks of the River Dee, the deified stream of the Ancient Britons,—built upon, or, as we ought rather to say, built _into_ the solid rock, for the principal streets within the Walls are almost wholly excavations of several feet in depth—the city of Chester stands forth before the world certainly the most curious city in the British Isles, second to none of its fellows in martial strength or historic importance, and as a faithful and enduring relic of the past, “peerless and alone!” First a settlement of the Ancient Britons—then a colony of imperial Rome—afterwards a favourite city and frequent resort of the Anglo-Saxon monarchs—now the camp and court of Hugh Lupus the Norman, nephew of the Conqueror—then the key to the subjugation of Wales, and to its union with the English crown—ever a city of loyalty and renown,—no admirer of the curious and remarkable, none who seek after the ancient and honourable, should fail to visit and explore the beauties of “rare old Chester.” The eye of the stranger, be he Englishman or foreigner, European or American, will here find an ample and luxuriant field for admiration: the man of taste, who may linger within its Walls, will not depart ungratified; nor will the antiquary search here in vain for some rich and profitable treasures of investigation: in short, such is the antiquity, the peculiarity of Chester, that the stranger who can pass through without bestowing on it some little share of attention, must have a dull and incurious eye indeed.