168 



CHESTER 



CHESTNUT 



castle in 1867 proved abortive. Among the bishops 

 of Chester have been Pearson, Porteus, and Stubbs. 

 Trinity Church contains the graves of Matthew 

 Henry, the commentator, and the poet Parnell. 



See CHESHIRE; and books by Rupert Morris (1895) 

 and G. L. Fen wick (1897). 



Chester, a city of Delaware county, Pennsyl- 

 vania, on the Delaware, 15 miles SW. of Philadel- 

 phia by rail, with a military academy, shipbuilding 

 yards, and many manufactures. Originally called 

 Upland, it was founded by the Swedes in 1643, and 

 is the oldest town in the state. Pop. ( 1860) 4631 ; 

 (1890) 20,226. SOUTH CHESTER, a manufacturing 

 suburb, had a pop. of 7076 in 1890. 



Chester, JOSEPH LEMUEL, genealogist, born 

 in Norwich, Connecticut, 30th April 1821, was a 

 newspaper editor in Philadelphia, and in 1858 came 

 to England, where he edited the Registers of West- 

 minster ( 1876 ) and other registers ; part of his 

 copy of the Oxford matriculation register has been 

 printed ( 1887 ), and his extracts from the Bishop 

 of London's register were published under the 

 title London Marriage Licenses (1887). Chester 

 was an LL.D. of Columbia College, and D.C.L. of 

 Oxford, but always retained the title of Colonel, a 

 reminiscence of the honorary post of aide-de-camp 

 to a Pennsylvania governor which he had once 

 held. He died in London, 26th May 1882. See 

 Dean's Memoir (1884). 



Chesterfield, a municipal borough in Derby- 

 shire, on the Rother rivulet, 12 miles SSE. of 

 Sheffield by rail. All-Saints' Church (circa 1350) 

 has a curious crooked spire, 228 feet high, and 6 feet 

 off the perpendicular; in Trinity Church (1838) is 

 buiied George Stephenson. Other buildings are 

 the town-hall (1857), the Stephenson memorial 

 hall, and the grammar-school ( 1574 ; rebuilt 1846). 

 There are manufactures of silk, lace, earthenware, 

 and machinery ; and the neighbourhood is rich in 

 coal, iron, and other minerals. Brindley's Chester- 

 field Canal (1776) extends 46 miles to the Trent. 

 Pop. (1851) 7101 ; (1881 ) 12,221 ; (1891) 13,242. See 

 books by Yeatman (1885) and A. J. Foster (1896). 



Chesterfield, PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, 

 EARL OF, was the eldest son of the third Earl of 

 Chesterfield, and was born in London, September 

 22, 1694. He studied at Cambridge, made the 

 grand tour, and sat in the House of Commons as 

 member for St Germains in Cornwall from 1716 to 

 1726, when he became Earl of Chesterfield. In 

 1730 he was made Lord Steward of the Household. 

 Until then Chesterfield, who was a Whig, had 

 supported Walpole ; but being ousted from his 

 office because he had objected to an excise bill 

 introduced by that minister, he went over to the 

 opposition, and proved himself one of Walpole's 

 bitterest antagonists. He joined the ministry 

 formed by the Pelhams in 1744, and was in 1746 

 one of the principal secretaries of state. In 1748 he 

 was compelled by ill-health and deafness to retire 

 from public life. He was at one time on terms of 

 intimacy with Swift, Pope, and Bolingbroke. Later 

 in life, by obtruding on Samuel Johnson the patron- 

 age which he had withheld till the publication of 

 the Dictionary, he drew from the lexicographer 

 the indignant letter which will keep his name in 

 remembrance while English literature is read. 

 Besides writing the well-known Letters to his Son, 

 Chesterfield contributed several papers on subjects 

 of the hour to The Craftsman and The World. He 

 died on March 24, 1773. The object of the Letters 

 was to form his natural son, Philip, into an 

 accomplished man of the world. They contain a 

 good deal of shrewd and solid observation, but 

 their teaching is not of an elevating nature. To 

 shine in the world, to conform to the minute code 

 of etiquette which then ruled society, are the ends 



on which the writer sets most store. The 

 expression is occasionally coarse, but the worst 

 feature of the book is the manner in which Chester- 

 field handles the topic of gallantry. 



His letters were edited by Lord Mahon (1845-53), Lord 

 Carnarvon (1890), and J. Bradshaw (1892). See his Wit 

 and Wisdom by W. B. Browning and the Memoirs of him 

 by "W. Ernst ( 1893 ), the Essay by Sainte-Beuve ( trans. 

 1870 ), and Churton Collins's Essays and Studies ( 1895 ). 



Chesterfield Inlet, a narrow gulf penetrating 

 to the westward from the NW. of Hudson Bay, 

 its extreme dimensions being 250 and 25 miles. 



Chester-le-Street, a market-town in the 

 county of Durham, near the left bank of the Wear, 

 6 miles N. of Durham city. The seat of the Bishop 

 of Bernicia from 883 to 995, it has an old collegi- 

 ate church (restored 1862), with a spire 156 feet 

 high ; whilst in the neighbourhood are Lambton, 

 Lurnley, and Ravensworth Castles, the seats of the 

 Earls of Durham, Scarborough, and Ravensworth. 

 Coal-mines and ironworks are numerous. Pop. of 

 township (1851) 2580 ; (1891) 8623. 



Chestnut, or CHESNUT (Castanea), which 

 must be clearly distinguished from the Horse Chest- 

 nut described below, a genus of Cupuliferre, closely 

 allied to the Beech ( Fagus ), and distinguished from 

 it by long male catkins, longitudinally set with 

 groups of flowers, a 5-8-celled ovary, and com- 

 pressed rounded nuts. The name is derived from 

 the town of Castanum, in Thessaly. The Common,. 



Branchlet, with Catkins, of Common Chestnut 



( Castanea vulgaris ) : 

 a, fruit; b, seed. 



Spanish, or Sweet Chestnut (C. vulgaris), is said to> 

 have been first brought from Asia Minor, but has 

 long extended over the south of Europe, where 

 it has become completely naturalised, and forms 

 extensive woods. It is an ornamental and stately, 

 or, in exposed situations, a very spreading tree, of 

 great size and longevity : the famous chestnut of 

 Tortworth in England was known as a boundary- 

 mark in the reign of King John ; while a yet more 

 celebrated tree on Mount Etna is said to have 

 measured 204 feet in circumference. The timber is 

 durable and hard, and is used in house-building, 

 for making furniture, and for many other purposes. 

 The timber described as chestnut in ancient build- 

 ings is usually, however, really oak. The bark is 



