A WALK ABOUT CHESTER. 93 



that course of stones the dark ones between the ivy and the 

 abutment was laid by a Roman mason, when Rome was mistress 

 of the world. 



Walk on. The wall is five feet wide on the top, with a para- 

 pet of stone on the outside, and an iron rail within. Don't fear, 

 though it is so far and deep to the canal, and the stone looks so 

 time-worn and crumbling ; it is firm with true Roman cement, the 

 blood of brave men. Here it is strengthened by a heavy tower, 

 now somewhat dilapidated. Look up, and you see upon it the 

 rude carving of a Phrenix; under it, on an old tablet, these 

 words : 



" ON THIS TOWER STOOD CHARLES THE FIRST, AND SAW HIS ARMY DEFEATED." 



Within the tower is the stall of a newsman. Buy the Times, 

 which has come some hundred miles since morning, with the in- 

 formation that yesterday the president of a French Peace Society 

 was shot in a duel. (A fact.) 



Pass on. On one side of us are tall chimneys, built last year, 

 through which, from fierce forge-fires, ascend black smoke and 

 incense of bitumen to the glory of mammon. Close on the other 

 side stands a venerable cathedral, built by pious labor of devout 

 men, centuries dead, to the laud and service of their God. We 

 look into the burying-ground, and on the old gravestones observe 

 many familiar New England names. 



Again, narrow brick houses are built close up to the wall, and, 

 now, on both sides ; the wall, which you can stride across, being 

 their only street or way of access. Here, again, it crosses another 

 broad road, and we are over another entrance to the city the 

 " New Gate ;" it is not quite a century old. We look from it into 

 a market-place. Narrow, steep-gabled houses, with their second 

 story threatening the sidewalks, surround it. But the market- 

 building is modern. See ! the sparrow lighting on the iron roof 



