92 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER XTTT. 



Chester without A Walk on the Walls Antiquities Striking Contrasts. 



Chester, June 2d. 



Y journal is behindhand several days. Meantime, I have 

 seen so much, that if I had a week of leisure I should 

 despair of giving you a good idea of this strange place. But that 

 you may understand a little how greatly we are interested, I will 

 mention some of the objects that we have seen, and are seeing. 

 Use your imagination well to fill up the hints, rather than descrip- 

 tions, of these that I shall give you. You need not fear that, 

 when you come here, the reality will disappoint you. 



We are on the top of the wall, a few feet from the archway 

 through which we entered the town. Look down now on the 

 outside. The road, just before it enters the gate, crosses, by a 

 bridge, a deep ravine. In it, some seventy feet below us, you see 

 the dark water, perhaps of old the fosse, but now a modern com- 

 mercial canal. A long, narrow boat, much narrower than our 

 canal-boats, laden with coals, is coming from under the bridge ; a 

 woman is steering it; and on the cabin, in large red letters, you 

 see her name, " Margaret Francis," and the name of the boat 

 " Telegraph." The arch was turned by a man now living, but 



