Nearly opposite to this Place, up a narrow, inconvenient passage, is a house which invites and eminently deserves our notice and admiration. This house is styled indifferently the OLD PALACE, and STANLEY HOUSE, from its having been originally the city palace or residence of the Stanleys of Alderley, a family of note in the county, and now ennobled. This is an elaborately carved, three-gabled house, and is perhaps the oldest unmutilated specimen of a timber house remaining in the city, the date of its erection being carved on the front,—1591. The sombre dignity of its exterior pervades also the internal construction of this house,—the large rooms, the panelled walls, the oaken floors, the massive staircase, all pointing it out as the abode of aristocracy in the olden time. [Picture: The Old Palace, or Stanley House] From hence to the WATERGATE is little more than a stone’s throw; but on the left is the handsome city residence of H. Potts, Esq., representative of a family long and honourably connected with the county. This house and the locality round occupy the site of the ancient _Monastery of the Black Friars_, where the black-cowled faithful ‘fasted and prayed’ down to the period of the Dissolution, but of which scarcely any traces, save the fragment of a wall, are now discernible. The passage to the right leads to STANLEY PLACE, near which, in 1779, a Roman Hypocaust, and the remains of a house, also of the same remote period, were discovered. Such portions of these remains as escaped the ruthless pickaxes of the workmen, were removed to Oulton Park, and now ornament the museum of its present worthy owner, Sir P. Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P. for the county. Beyond the Watergate are PARADISE ROW, overlooking the ROODEYE,—and the two CRANE STREETS; beyond which we are introduced to that fabulous existence of modern days,—the PORT of Chester. Time was when we might have tuned our harps to a different key, but now, alas! we can only lament the fallen condition of our ancient port, and the wretched indifference of those ‘high in authority,’ who by their senseless apathy in past days have brought the maritime trade of Chester to its present lifeless and ignominious state. This is a sore subject; so we will at once retrace our steps to the Cross, and in the next chapter continue our perambulations through the city. CHAPTER VII. Bridge Street.—Ancient Crypt.—The Blue Posts and the Knave of Clubs.—Roman Bath.—Grosvenor Street.—New Savings Bank.—The Cemetery.—Curzon Park and Hough Green.—The Port of Saltney.—St. Michael’s Church.—St. Olave’s Church.—The Gamull House.—St. Mary’s Church. HEIGHO! After our bootless lamentation over the deceased Port of Chester, it is refreshing to return once more to an atmosphere of life and activity.