APPROACH TO CHESTER. 109 



The country hence to Chester was more elevated and 

 broken, and the walk delightful. We saw many beautiful 

 things, but have seen so many more interesting ones since, 

 that I can hardly remember them. The road, too, was more 

 travelled. We met a stage-coach, with no inside passengers, 

 and the top overloaded, and a handsome carriage and four, 

 the near wheeler and leader ridden by postilions in bright 

 livery, and within, an old gentleman under a velvet cap, and 

 young lady under a blue silken calash. The fields, too, were 

 more tilled ; and one of fifty acres, which was ridged for 

 some root crop, was the most thoroughly cultivated piece of 

 merely farming ground I ever saw. There were several wom 

 en at work in the back part of it. I could not make out 

 what they were doing. 



About the middle of the forenoon, we came to the top of 

 a higher hill than we had before crossed, from which we 

 looked down upon a beautiful rich valley, bounded on the 

 side opposite us by blue billowy hills. In the midst of it 

 was the smoke and chimneys and steeples of a town. One 

 square, heavy brown tower was conspicuous over the rest, 

 and we recognised by it the first cathedral we had seen. 



As we approached the town, the road became a crooked 

 paved street, lined with curious small antique houses, between 

 which we passed, stopping often to admire some singular 

 gable, or porch, or grotesque carving, until it was spanned by 

 a handsome brown stone arch, not the viaduct of a railroad, 

 as at first seemed likely, nor an arch of triumph, of the pic 

 tures of which it reminded us, but one of the four gateways 

 of the city. Passing under it, we found on the inner side a 

 flight of broad stone stairs leading on to the wall, which we 

 ascended. At the top, on the inside of the wall, was a printer s 

 shop, in which guide-books were offered for sale. Entering this 

 we were received by an intelligent and obliging young man 



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