The COLLEGE has a resident principal and vice-principal, the former, Mr. Rigg, having held his appointment since the first starting of the project. In its infancy, and while the present handsome edifice was in building, the COLLEGE for awhile “hid its light under a bushel” in some dreary-looking premises in Nicholas Street, but was removed hither in the autumn of 1842. In addition to the ordinary details of scholastic training, the students are instructed in various branches of manual labour; they are taught how “to handle the chisel and the saw, the mattock and the spade.” They have on the premises a blacksmith’s forge,—at which they manufacture all their own implements and tools;—turners’ lathes, steam-engines, lithographic presses, power looms, and a host of other appliances, are at the mercy of the “happy family;” and it is wonderful to see to what proficiency these amateur craftsmen attain,—and all, be it remembered, during their intervals of leisure from more important duties. Subordinate in some measure to this “school for school-masters,” there is also a Lower School, upon the ground floor, for the children of the poor. Here the incipient masters in turn officiate, and gradually learn, under the superintendence of their worthy chief, the practical duties of their responsible profession. Under the same paternal roof exists another school, more private and commercial in its character and aims, under the special eye and control of the principal, for the sons of the higher and middle classes of society. Of this latter arm it is sufficient to say— And higher praise ’twere hard to give, Unjust to offer less,— that it is conducted on the same scale of intelligence and liberality which distinguish the other main branches of the institution. Some years after the building of the COLLEGE, a Chapel was erected at the south-east corner, for the use of the students; and a chaste little edifice it is, inside as well as out; worthy—if aught here below, indeed, _can_ be worthy—of the holy purpose for which it was designed,—the glorious worship of the triune God. The internal fittings and decorations, which are many and beautiful, are almost wholly the work of the industrious students; and, while honourable to their taste in design, reflect the highest credit as well upon their hearts as on their hands. Beyond, and to the right of the COLLEGE, stands the Cheshire COUNTY LUNATIC ASYLUM; but, this being without the confines of the City, is, by the same token, beyond our pale. We have now reached the extent of our wanderings northward, for a narrow brook, a short distance away, determines the limits of the city jurisdiction; so, bidding “a long, a last farewell” to the Chester COLLEGE, and to the enchanting prospect its site commands, we will return, nothing loth, to the heart of the city, and to those ravishing chops so anxiously awaiting us at our own hotel. CHAPTER X.