ANTIQUITIES. 95 



cranny big enough wherein to build her nest, that Father Time 

 has been chiseling at eight hundred years. Eight hundred? 

 Yes ; for it was rebuilt then. You can see some of the real old 

 wall at the other end X 9, not that round Saxon arch, but beyond 

 the trees a low wall with a heavy clothing of ivy. The steam- 

 boat is just coming out from behind it now. In the year 973, 

 King Edgar landed at this church from a boat, in which he had 

 been rowed by eight conquered kings. A smoky old tub is that 

 steamboat, but doubtless a faster and more commodious craft than 

 Edgar's eight king-power packet. 



We cross another gateway, and pass a big mill. The dam was 

 built I don't know when. But they say it had a bad name with 

 the Puritans, who undertook to expunge it, but failed, because, 

 like a duck, it kept under a high flood of water until the Cava- 

 liers, making a dash to save it, spiked their guns. 



Our path turns suddenly, and runs along the face of a stone 

 wall, supported by brackets high above the water of the river, 

 but some distance below the parapets parapets of a Castle. 

 Soon we pass a red-coated sentry, and now you see a tower 

 that looks older than the rest. The battle-axes of William 

 the Conqueror once clanged where that fellow now lounges 

 with a cigar. Beyond, on the esplanade, were wont to assemble 

 the feudal armies of the Earls of Chester, whose title is now 

 borne by the German Prince's eldest son. Quite a different ap- 

 pearance they must have made from this regiment of Irishmen 

 in cloth jackets and leather helmets. 



Stop one moment to look at the bridge ; step back to the angle 

 there you see it half-a-dozen arches of different forms and 

 shades of color, not particularly handsome, but worth noticing. 

 The blackest of the arches was turned half a century before 

 Jamestown was founded that is, it was then rebuilt. The orig- 

 inal bridge, from which the stones for it were taken, was built by 



