( IlKSHI NT 



CHESS 



161 



(-.unity, iiinl runs 40 miles west-north-west to 

 tin- Mersey. In addition to it* river navigation, 

 tin- county has an almost unrivalled system of 

 canaN, ami contain* the greater Part of the 

 Manchester Slii|) Canal. It is well intersected 

 by railways. The chief mineral products arc rock- 

 salt and coal. The rock-salt, discovered in 1670, 

 ami miiiril l>y gunpowder, is found near tin- Weaver 

 and its branches, especially near Noitliwich (q.v.), 

 ami at Middlewich, Winsford, and Sandbach. 

 Much salt in also mailc from luine -prints '20 to 40 

 \.-inls deep. Coal is worked near Chester and on 

 the eastern borders of the county. Lead and copper 

 mining is now almost extinct. In almost every 

 part of the county freestone, limestone, millstone, 

 and marl are found. The climate is moist. The 

 soil is mostly a clayey or sandy loam, with marl 

 and peat, and very fertile. The soil and climate 

 are well fitted for pasturing, and dairy-farming is 

 largely carried on, the county being noted for its 

 cheese (see CHEESE). About 90,000 OOWI an- kept 

 in Cheshire, capable of producing about 15,000 

 tons of cheese. In the cattle-plague of 1865-66 

 upwards of 70,000 cattle perished, 36,000 of these 

 being slaughtered as a preventive measure. Pop. 

 (1801) 194,305; (1841) 395,660; (1891) 730,052. 

 There are extensive manufactures in the principal 

 towns, especially Birkenhead, Congleton, Chester 

 (the county town), Crewe, Macclesfield, Staly- 

 bridge, and Stockport. The county is formed into 

 eight parliamentary divisions, each returning one 

 member, and includes the parliamentary boroughs 

 of Birkenhead and Chester, with portions of the 

 boroughs of Ashton-under-Lyne, Staly bridge, Stock- 

 port, and Warrington. It contains 503 civil parishes, 

 and is mostly in the diocese of Chester. Cheshire 

 has some Roman roads, tumuli, barrows, remains 

 of religious houses, and many old castles and halls. 

 Egbert, in 828, added Cheshire to the Anglo-Saxon 

 kingdom of Mercia. William the Conqueror erected 

 Cheshire into a county palatine, under Hugh Lupus, 

 with an independent parliament and eight barons. 

 Henry VIII. subordinated it to the English crown ; 

 but Cheshire did not send representatives to the 

 English parliament till 1549. See Ormerod's History 

 -of Cheshire (3 vols. 1819; new ed. 1875), and 

 Earwaker's East Cheshire (1877). 



Cheshnnt. a large village of Hertfordshire, 14 

 miles N. of London. It is famous for its rose- 

 gardens, and is the seat of a college, founded in 

 1768 by the Countess of Huntingdon (<j.v.) at 

 Trevecca in Brecknockshire, and removed hither in 

 1792. The buildings were much enlarged in 1868. 

 Pop. of parish ( 1881 ) 7735 ; ( 1891 ) 9620. 



Chesil Bank or BEACH, a bank of gravel 

 and shingle extending 16 miles from Bndport 

 harbour and Burton Bradstock to Portland. It 

 varies in height from 20 to 43 feet, and in width 

 from 170 to 200 yards. For some part of its course 

 it hugs the shore, but the Fleet comes between it 

 and the land for nearly 10 miles from Abbotsbury, 

 famous for its swannery. Towards its west end the 

 bank is composed of sand, grit, and fine gravel, 

 but the materials get gradually larger and larger 

 as it is followed eastward. Good authorities 

 believe this bank was formed by the sea as a 

 shingle beach in the ordinary way, that it formerly 

 touched the land throughout its entire course, and 

 that it has since been separated from the shore, 

 and converted into a bar, by the denudation of the 

 land behind it. (See map at BREAKWATER.) 



Chesney, FRANCIS RAWDON, the explorer of the 

 Euphrates, was born in 1789 at Annalong in County 

 Down. He was gazetted to the Royal Artil- 

 lery in 1805. In 1829 he inspected the route for 

 -a Suez canal, which he proved to be practicable. 

 115 



His lii ~i exploration of the route to India, by 

 way of Syria and the Euphrates, wan made in 

 1881, and In- made three oilier \ovageH with the 

 same object. The idea was taken up by govern- 

 ment, who made a grant of 20,000 after bin 

 first expedition, but owing tx the opposition of 

 Russia it was never brought to a practical issue. 

 He commanded the artillery at Hong-kong from 

 1843 to 1847. In 1850 he published hi* Expedition 

 for the Survey of the Rivera Euphrates ana Tigris, 

 and in 1808 a Narrutiw of tin; Euphrates Expedi- 

 tion. He died at Mourne, 30th January 1872. 

 General Chesney 'B Life by his wife and daughter, 

 edited by Stanley Lane-Poole, was published in 



1885. His nephew, Colonel Charles Corn wall is 

 Chesney (1826-76), was the author of the well- 

 known Waterloo Lectures (1861), which were 

 delivered by him as professor at Sandhurst. 

 A younger brother of the latter, General Sir George 

 Tomkyns Chesney, K.C.B. ( 1830-95), was appointed 

 member of the Council of the Viceroy of India in 



1886, and became M.P. for Oxford in 1892. He was 

 the author of the clever jeu d'esprit, The Battle of 

 Dorking (1871), and of a remarkable novel, The 

 Private Secretary ( 1881 ). 



Chesnut. See CHESTNUT. 



( Fr. tehees ; Ital. scacchi ; Ger. schach ; 

 Dutch schaak; Low Lat. Indus scaccorum. Origin- 

 ally from Persian shah, ' a king,' thus literally ' the 

 game of kings'), a game of skill for two players or 

 parties, played with figures or 'pieces,' which are 

 moved on a chequered board. The game has ac- 

 quired a great and unique importance throughout 

 the world ; mainly, no doubt, in consequence of its 

 extreme difficulty. It is the subject of a most ex- 

 tensive literature, and its study has become rather 

 that of a science than a recreation. The laws 

 governing itsplay are identical in all countries. 



History. Tne origin of chess is the subject of an 

 almost hopeless controversy. It has been claimed, 

 by writers and by legends, for China, India, Persia, 

 and recently with some show of reason, by a Spanish 

 archaeologist, for Egypt. As a matter of fact, traces 

 of the game extend beyond history, and are found 

 among races so widely different that any scientific 

 investigation of the matter may now be considered 

 impossible. The game was probably introduced 

 into \Vestern Europe by the Arabs, or about the 

 time of the Arab invasion ( 8th century ) ; at all 

 events it was known among the cultured classes 

 before the Crusades (1095). As then played, it 

 differed somewhat from modern chess and from the 

 game as played in the East. One of the earliest 

 references to it in literature is in a work, written 

 about 1300, by Jacobus de Cessolis, a preaching 

 friar, and entitled Liber de moribus hominum et 

 ojficiis nobilium super ludo Scaccorum. This work 

 seems to have found its way into several Euroj>ean 

 countries, MS. copies of it existing in various lan- 

 guages. An English translation from the French 

 was printed by \V ill iam Caxton in 1474-75 under the 

 title of The (rame and Playe of the Chesse, and was 

 the first book printed with metal types in England. 

 Modern chess i.e. the game as now played, dates 

 from about the middle of the loth century. A MS. 

 discovered in the university library of Gottingen and 

 dated 1490 is the earliest treatise extant, although 

 frequent mention of chess is made by earlier poets 

 and writers. The game found its first home in 

 Spain, where Vicent ( 1495) and Lucena ( 1497) pub- 

 lished two volumes, now of little value, of games. 

 They were succeeded in 1510 by Damiano, a 

 Portuguese, whose work, though restricted to a 

 few openings, evinces considerable genius. It was 

 plagiarised most unscrupulously by several later 

 writers. Damiano was followed by Ruv Lopez, a 

 cleric of Sat'ra in Estremadura, who is perhaps 



