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The Stranger's Handbook to Chester and Its Environs: Containing a short sketch of its history and antiquities, a descriptive walk round the walls, and a visit to the cathedral, castle, and Eaton Hall.Hughes, Thomas

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The Stranger's Handbook to Chester and Its Environs: Containing a short sketch of its history and antiquities, a descriptive walk round the walls, and a visit to the cathedral, castle, and Eaton Hall.

Name: The Stranger's Handbook to Chester and Its Environs: Containing a short sketch of its history and antiquities, a descriptive walk round the walls, and a visit to the cathedral, castle, and Eaton Hall.
Author: Hughes, Thomas

Hughes, Thomas

Chester (England) -- Guidebooks

But what is there to see within those large folding-doors at the bottom
of St. John Street?  Are any _Roman remains_ to be met with in there?
Yes, indeed; but far different, in every point of view, from those we
have hitherto been exploring.  This is a _noli me tangere_ domain; for
the elegant mansion and grounds of DEE HOUSE have recently developed,
’neath the double enchantment of money and zeal, into a CONVENT of Nuns.
Of the constitution and management of this veiled religious order we are
not competent to speak, our sympathies being allied unto quite another
creed: but from the specimens we have seen flitting noiselessly about the
streets, we may but little expect to hear any of them singing—

    Oh, what a pity such a pretty girl as I
    Should be pent in a Nunnery to weep and to cry.

Let us leave then these recluses to the quiet enjoyment of their
lot,—whether it be the nursing of the sick, the feeding of the hungry, or
the schooling of the ignorant children of their communion,—and, “pursuing
the even tenour of our way,” move quickly forward along LITTLE ST. JOHN
STREET.  The little row of Almshouses erected by Mrs. Salmon in 1738—the
premises of Messrs. Royle and Son, builders—and the resuscitated fabric
of ST. JOHN’S HOUSE, almost destroyed by fire in the summer of 1855, will
each in their turn salute us on our progress, until the eye rests subdued
before the silent grandeur of the CHURCH OF ST. JOHN.

ST. JOHN’S is the only Church with any pretensions to antiquity now left
to the city outside the Walls,—the minor fanes of St. Thomas, St. John
the Less, and St. Giles, having each disappeared ’neath the hand of the
destroyer during the great Civil War.  In Roman and early Saxon times the
land to the southeast of the city, on both sides the Dee, was most
probably a forest—the home of the wild deer, the fox, and the wolf—the
genius of civilisation finding ample field for employment within the
Walls.  In those latter days, Ethelred, son of Penda, being king over
Mercia, and withal an amiable and pious prince,

    Myndynge moost the blysse of Heuen,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Stranger's Handbook to Chester and Its Environs: Containing a short sketch of its history and antiquities, a descriptive walk round the walls, and a visit to the cathedral, castle, and Eaton Hall.

Hughes, Thomas

Chester (England) -- Guidebooks

But what is there to see within those large folding-doors at the bottom
of St. John Street?  Are any _Roman remains_ to be met with in there?
Yes, indeed; but far different, in every point of view, from those we
have hitherto been exploring.  This is a _noli me tangere_ domain; for
the elegant mansion and grounds of DEE HOUSE have recently developed,
’neath the double enchantment of money and zeal, into a CONVENT of Nuns.
Of the constitution and management of this veiled religious order we are
not competent to speak, our sympathies being allied unto quite another
creed: but from the specimens we have seen flitting noiselessly about the
streets, we may but little expect to hear any of them singing—

    Oh, what a pity such a pretty girl as I
    Should be pent in a Nunnery to weep and to cry.

Let us leave then these recluses to the quiet enjoyment of their
lot,—whether it be the nursing of the sick, the feeding of the hungry, or
the schooling of the ignorant children of their communion,—and, “pursuing
the even tenour of our way,” move quickly forward along LITTLE ST. JOHN
STREET.  The little row of Almshouses erected by Mrs. Salmon in 1738—the
premises of Messrs. Royle and Son, builders—and the resuscitated fabric
of ST. JOHN’S HOUSE, almost destroyed by fire in the summer of 1855, will
each in their turn salute us on our progress, until the eye rests subdued
before the silent grandeur of the CHURCH OF ST. JOHN.

ST. JOHN’S is the only Church with any pretensions to antiquity now left
to the city outside the Walls,—the minor fanes of St. Thomas, St. John
the Less, and St. Giles, having each disappeared ’neath the hand of the
destroyer during the great Civil War.  In Roman and early Saxon times the
land to the southeast of the city, on both sides the Dee, was most
probably a forest—the home of the wild deer, the fox, and the wolf—the
genius of civilisation finding ample field for employment within the
Walls.  In those latter days, Ethelred, son of Penda, being king over
Mercia, and withal an amiable and pious prince,

    Myndynge moost the blysse of Heuen,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Stranger's Handbook to Chester and Its Environs: Containing a short sketch of its history and antiquities, a descriptive walk round the walls, and a visit to the cathedral, castle, and Eaton Hall.

The Stranger's Handbook to Chester and Its Environs: Containing a short sketch of its history and antiquities, a descriptive walk round the walls, and a visit to the cathedral, castle, and Eaton Hall.

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