448 



CHESHIRE. 



CHESTER. 



450 



wich, on the 16th of August, and soon defeated them. Booth him- 

 self was taken at Newport Pagnell, and sent to the Tower ; and 

 Chester, which had been held by Colonel Croxton, surrendered 

 immediately on the approach of the victorious army. 



The Roman roads in the county are found in detached parts : one 

 road, called the Watling-street, was probably more ancient than the 

 Roman times. This road enters Cheshire from the north by the ford 

 over the Mersey at Stratford : in this part the marks of the elevated 

 crest, peculiar to the military roads of the Romans, are still visible. 

 A little south-west of Bucklow Hill the roads seem to have divided, 

 the Roman road continuing towards Kinderton, and the British road 

 pursuing its old direction by Northwich over Delamere Forest, and 

 by Chester to the coast of Caernarvonshire. The Roman road from 

 Manchester to Kinderton crosses the ford of the Mersey, and proceeds 

 to the village of Cross-street. In crossing the adjoining moss it is 

 known by the name of Upcast, whence it runs by Dunham Park to a 

 field called the Harbour-field, in the parish of Kinderton, which is the 

 supposed station of Condate. Part of the Via Devana crossed the 

 county from the south-east to Chester. 



The castle at Chester was built by William the Conqueror. Beeston 

 Castle, built in 1220, by Handle Blundeville, earl of Chester, is upon 

 the slope and summit of a sandstone rock, which forms on one side 

 an almost perpendicular precipice of great height. The outer court 

 is irregular in form, inclosing an area of about five acres. The walls 

 are prodigiously thick, and have several round towers. A deep ditch, 

 sunk in the solid rock, surrounds the keep, which was entered by a 

 drawbridge, opposite two circular watch-towers, still remaining. The 

 approach within the great gateway between these towers is by rugged 

 steps cut in the natural rock. This castle has been in ruins since the 

 civil war of Charles I., when it was dismantled. Of Halton Castle 

 few traces now remain ; of Aldford Castle the foundations only are 

 traceable; Shocklach Castle has left only some earthworks and a 

 high mount now visible ; Shotwick Castle appears from the sketch of 

 it in the British Museum to have had a pentagonal wall, with several 

 circular towers inclosing a lofty square tower. There are numerous 

 ancient mansions. Smith, in his ' Treatise on Cheshire,' calls this 

 county "the mother and the nurse of the gentility of England." 

 Little Morton Hall, in the parish of Astbury, is the most remarkable 

 ancient mansion in the county. It has large and handsome bay win- 

 dows. The materials of the house are timber and plaster. Bramhall 

 Hall, the ancient seat of the Davenports, about 2 miles south-west 

 from Stockport, resembles Little Morton. Saighton Grange, near 

 Chester, was one of the castellated residences of the Abbot of St. 

 \Verburg. Doddington Hall, the ancient seat of the Delves family, is 

 near the road from Nantwich to London. The modern, large, and 

 sumptuous fabric was erected in 1780 by Samuel Wyatt. It stands 

 in a spacious park, and overlooks a fine sheet of water. Poole Hall, 

 in the parish of Eastham, was built in the middle of the 16th century, 

 and is one of the most venerable specimens of domestic architecture 

 in this county. The style of the architecture is similar to that of all 

 the ancient Cheshire mansions, rising into pointed gables, with 

 numerous large bay windows, and having the approach through a 

 line of stables and cow-houses. Breretou Hall, which is in the style 

 of Esher Place in Surrey, was built by Sir William Brereton, and the 

 foundation stone is said to have been laid by Queen Elizabeth herself. 

 The site is on a rising ground near the river Croke. Among the rich 

 decorations of the interior is a curious painting of Queen Elizabeth in 

 full costume, with chains of jewels hanging down to her waist, and 

 with hair extremely red. Dutton Hall stands on the ridge of a steep 

 declivity overlooking the Weaver. It is surrounded by a broad and 

 deep moat. The great hall is 40 feet by 20 feet, and the whole edifice 

 is a very sumptuous specimen of the domestic architecture of the 

 16th century. Crewe Hall, the seat of Lord Crewe, is an equally fine 

 specimen of the 17th century, having been completed in 1636. It is 

 a quadrangular building of red brick, with battlements and large pro- 

 jecting bay windows. The sculptured oak ornaments of the interior 

 are curious, as well as the painted glass window of the chapel. There 

 are many portraits by Lely and others of that time. The seat of 

 Lord Combermere was an ancient Cistercian abbey ; it is beautifully 

 situated on the margin of the large mere so called. The original 

 edifice has been almost wholly renewed in the pointed gothic style. 

 Dunham Massey, the seat of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington, 

 wag rebuilt in 1 730. It is a very spacious quadrangular building of 

 brick, surrounded with a fine park of lofty old oaks, and is interesting 

 for a curious gallery of paintings by Holbein, Vandyke, Lely, and 

 other old masters. Cholmondeley Castle, the seat of the Marquis of 

 Cholmondeley, is in the township of Cholmondeley, in Broxton hun- 

 dred. The present magnificent edifice was built in 1804, on the site 

 of the ancient castle. The architecture is gothic ; and in approach- 

 ing the eminence on which it stands, it has the appearance of a 

 Norman fortress. The apartments are adorned with some rare and 

 beautiful paintings. Eaton Hall, the seat of the Marquis of West- 

 minster, possesses great architectural grandeur, and resembles Chol- 

 mondeley Castle, being in the pointed gothic style. The surrounding 

 park and pleasure-grounds are laid out with much picturesque effect. 

 Ancient crosses occur at the boundary of Lyme Park, at Saudbach, at 

 Oulton, and at Lymm. The crosses at Sandbach are referred by 

 Lysons to a period not long subsequent to the introduction of Chris- 



OZOO. DIV. VOL. 11. 



tianity into England. The sword of Hugh Lupus, the first Norman 

 earl of Chester, is preserved in the British Museum. 



Cheshire is both a manufacturing and an agricultural county. But 

 it has for many years been steadily becoming more strictly a manufac- 

 turing county. In 1851 the county possessed 12 savings banks, .it 

 Bowdon and Altringham, Chester, Cougleton, Frodsham, Knutsford, 

 Macclesfield, Nantwich, Northwich, Runcorn, Saudbach, Stockport, 

 and Wallasey. The total amount owing to depositors on the 20th of 

 November 1851 was 683,1202. 8s. 



CHESHUNT. [HERTFORDSHIRE.] 



CHESTER, the capital of Cheshire, an episcopal city, municipal 

 and parliamentary borough and port, and the seat of a Poor-Law 

 Union, is situated on the river Dee, in 53 11' N. lat., 2 54' W. long. ; 

 distant 183 miles N.W. from London by road, and 178J miles by the 

 North Western railway vid Trent Valley. The population of the 

 city of Chester was 27,756 in 1851. The city is governed by 10 alder- 

 men, and 30 councillors, of whom one is mayor ; and returns two 

 members to the Imperial Parliament. The livings are in the arch- 

 deaconry and diocese of Chester. Chester Poor-Law Union, which is 

 co-extensive with the city, contains an area of 3010 acres. 



Chester was unquestionably an important Roman station. It 

 appears to have been the Deva of the 'Itinerary' of Antoninus. The 

 plan of the city and the arrangement gf the streets, as well as its 

 name, bear testimony to its Homan origin. The fortifications of the 

 city appear to be on a Roman basis. A hypocaust which was found 

 in a tolerably perfect state, is still preserved in the city. Remains of 

 Roman masonry have been discovered : and Chester has produced 

 innumerable coins, fibula;, inscribed tiles, inscribed stones, and altars, 

 the usual vestiges of the Romans. In 1653 a votive altar to Jupiter 

 Tanarus was dug up, which had been raised by an officer of the 20th 

 Legion called the Victorious. According to the ' Itinerary' of Anto- 

 ninus, the 20th Legion, the ' Legio vicesima valens victrix,' had its 

 station somewhere on the Deva or Dee, and there can be little doubt 

 that Chester was the place. The Welsh name of Chester, Caer Leon 

 Gawr, signifies the city of the ' Great Legion." Chester was evidently 

 the most considerable place in a large tract of country in the Roman 

 times, and so continued when the Romans had withdrawn their 

 forces. The possession of it was an object of importance to the 

 Saxons and to the remains of the Britons. The two nations seem to 

 have possessed it by turns, and it was certainly one of the last places 

 which yielded to the Saxon power. It was taken by Egbert in 830. 

 From that period to the Conquest, 1066, Chester is often mentioned in 

 the annals of the Saxon sovereignty. Edgar the Saxon monarch is 

 related by the Chroniclers to have received the homage of six kings 

 at Chester in 972 : William of Malmesbury says that sitting at the 

 prow of a boat in triumph he was rowed by them on the Dee. They 

 were no doubt the petty kings or chiefs which were so numerous in 

 Saxon times. The situation of Chester as a frontier fortress against 

 Wales necessarily gave it importance ; but it was also of consequence 

 as a place of security when the coast was menaced with invasion by 

 the Danes and Northmen. In 875 when a descent by the Danes was 

 apprehended, the body of St. Werburgh, a Saxon saint, daughter of 

 Wulphere king of Mercia, which had been preserved as a sacred relic, 

 was removed for security to Chester. From this time St. Werburgh 

 became the tutelar saint of Chester; a religious community was 

 founded, in whose church her relics were sumptuously enshrined. 

 For six centuries and a half the house was one of the wealthiest of 

 the monastic establishments of England. At the dissolution its 

 annual revenues exceeded lOOOi. 



Chester had in the Saxon times a peculiar local government, and 

 peculiar municipal customs. It had its trade by sea and its home 

 trade, it had also associations of members of particular trades, wbloh 

 trade associations have flourished longer at Chester than in most 

 other places. The Bishop of Lichfield was in remote times sometimes 

 called Bishop of Chester. 



William created his nephew, Hugh surnamed Lupus, Earl of Ches- 

 ter, granting him at the same time sovereign jurisdiction over the 

 county. Cheshire thus became what is called a county Palatine, 

 having courts peculiar to itself and the custody of its own records. 

 The earls of Chester resided in the castle at Chester, and held therein 

 their courts and parliaments, in which sat the superiors of the religious 

 houses of the county, together with the eight great subinfeudatories, 

 among whom Earl Hugh had distributed the greater portion of his terri- 

 tory. The succeeding earls of his family, of whom there were six, main- 

 tained the same state. The series terminated in the reign of Henry 

 III., and from that time the earldom of Chester has been in the 

 crown, or in the bands of members of the royal house. The title is 

 now possessed by the eldest son of the sovereign. Most of the large 

 tenures created by the Conqueror reverted sooner or later to the 

 crown by forfeiture or marriage. Chester has often received visits 

 from the sovereign, and has been occasionally the scene of interesting 

 public events. It has had a series of charters, by which valuable 

 privileges were granted or confirmed, from the earls of Chester, and 

 from the kings Edward I. and III., Richard II., and Henry VII. As 

 early as 1242 there was a mayor, who presided over a guild merchant 

 or mercatorial. Chester was in those times a place of considerable 

 trade. 



Besides the monastery of St. Werburgh, there was here a religious 



2 a 



