You will perceive that there is a covered Row also on the other side of this street, similar in character, though not in adornment, to the one we have just been noticing. This is popularly known as the _Pepper Alley Row_, a quaint but gloomy looking region, rendered still more so by the projecting block of buildings displayed in our engraving. Here are the well known drapery establishments of Messrs. Oakes, and Ambrose Williams, and that curious old zigzag erection, occupied by Mr. Hill, Chester’s enterprising boot-maker: behind which premises _Pepper Alley Row_ “worms its darksome way” into Northgate Street. In this Row are the rooms of the _Church of England Educational Institute_, and the Chester EXCISE OFFICE. On the ground floor of Messrs. Prichard and Dodd’s carpet warehouse in Eastgate Street, there is a curious and interesting old crypt, erected, it is supposed, in the eighth century, an illustration of which will be found in our advertising sheet. We are now fairly arrived at the HIGH CROSS, and close to the spot where that sacred emblem of the faith in old time stood. This ancient landmark, which was of stone, and elaborately carved, had for centuries ornamented this part of the city, and was a relic much and deservedly prized by the citizens. The Puritans, however, on obtaining possession of the city in 1646, with their characteristic abhorrence of the beautiful, and in direct breach of the articles of surrender, demolished this “fayre crosse.” “No cross, no crown” was, in a perverted sense, the motto of these fanatics, whose “organs of destructiveness” must, beyond doubt, have been largely developed. Some fragments of the Cross were picked up at the time, and hidden within the porch of St. Peter’s Church hard by, where a century or so afterwards they were discovered, and now ornament the grounds of Netherlegh House, near this city. Near the Cross was the CONDUIT, to which water was of old brought in pipes to this city from St. Giles’ Well in Boughton, and this conduit it was that, according to ancient records, was made to “run with wine” on all public and festive occasions. Here also, upon the south side of St. Peter’s Church, was the Penthouse or _Pentice_ of the city, where the mayor and magistrates of the old regime sat to administer justice with the one hand, and feed on turtle with the other. A _lean_ alderman was as great a curiosity in those days, as a _fat_ parish pauper would be deemed in the present. The Pentice, which, with its accessories the Stocks and the Pillory, had too long obstructed this quarter of the city, was pulled down in 1803, and its jurisdiction removed to a more commodious room in the north end of the Exchange.