CHE 
CHE 
144 
More built a fpacious manfion of brick, the greater part 
of which trill remains; but it has undergone many al¬ 
terations, and has loft much of its Gothic and venerable 
appearance. 
In this town, (for it well deferves to be fo called,) 
Hands that grand national afylum, for decayed and 
maimed loldiers, known by the name of Chelfea Hofpi- 
tal, being the nobieft building, and one of the beft foun¬ 
dations, of its kind, in the world. It was begun by 
Charles II. carried on by James II. and completed by 
William III. The firft projector of this magnificent 
ftrubture was fir Stephen Fox, grandfather to the right 
honourable Charles James Fox. He could not bear, he 
laid, to fee the common foldiers, who had fpent their 
ftrength in our fervice, reduced to beg; and to this hu¬ 
mane inftitution he contributed 13,0001. It was built 
by fir Chriftopher Wren, on the fcite of an old college, 
founded by Dr. Sutcliff, dean of Exeter, in the reign of 
James I. for the ftudy of polemical divinity; but, the fum 
left for its endowment being inadequate to the expen¬ 
diture, the buildings fell to ruin, and finally became ef- 
cheated to the crown. The north front opens into a 
piece of ground laid out in walks; and that facing the 
fiouth into a garden extending to the Thames. In the 
centre cf this edifice is a pediment, fupported by four 
Tufcan columns, over which is a turret. On one fide 
the entrance is the chapel, and on the other the hall 
where the penfioners dine. The altar-piece in the cha¬ 
pel is adorned with the Relurreffion, painted by the ce¬ 
lebrated Ricci. The wings join the chapel and hall to 
the north, and are open on the Thames to the foutli: 
they are three hundred and fixty feet in length, eighty 
in breadth, and three ftories high. A colonade extends 
along the fide of the hall and chapel; and, in the midft 
of the quadrangle, is the ftatue of Charles II. Two 
other large l'quares adjoining contain apartments for the 
fervants of the houfe, for old maimed officers, and the 
infirmary. The penfioners confilt of veterans, who have 
been at leaft twenty years in the army ; or are difabled 
foldiers. They wear red coats lined with blue, and are 
provided with all other clothes, diet, waffling, and lodg¬ 
ing. The out-penfioners amount to upwards of eight 
thoufand, and have each 7I. 12s. 6d. a year. Thefe great 
expences are fupported by a poundage dedudted out of 
the pay of the army, with one day’s pay once a-year 
from each officer and common foldier; and, when there 
is any deficiency, by a fum voted by parliament. This 
liofpital coft 150,000b in building; and is unqueftion- 
ably a noble monument of national gratitude and hu¬ 
manity. Chelfea has alfo a good charity-fchool for the 
education of poor girls, founded in 1729. 
CHEL'SEA, a town of United America, in Suffolk 
county, Maflachufetts, containing 472 inhabitants. Be¬ 
fore its incorporation, in 1738, it was a ward of the town 
of Bofton. It is only feparated from it by the ferry 
acrofs the harbour, called Winnifimet, by the native 
Indians. 
CHEL'SEA, a town of the United States of America, 
in Orange county, Vermont, having two hundred and 
thirty-nine inhabitants. 
CHEL'SEA, a town of the American ftates, in Nor¬ 
wich county, called the Landing, fituated at the head of 
the river Thames, fourteen miles north of New London, 
on a point of land formed by the jun&ion of Shetucket 
and Norwich, or Little rivers, whole united waters con- 
ftitute the American Thames. It is a bufy, commercial, 
thriving, romantic, place, of about 150 houfes, afcend- 
ing one above another in tiers, on artificial foundations, 
•on the fouth point of a high rocky hill. 
CHEL'TENHAM, a confiderable town in Gloucefter, 
celebrated for its mineral waters, and pleafantly fituated 
in a fine fertile vale, near the foot of the Cotiwold Hills. 
The town is lately much improved, and well paved and 
lighted ; but the great beauty of the place is exhibited 
s 
in the gardens behind each houfe, which being of great- 
length, are formed into an infinite variety of pleafant 
walks. The lodgings for valetudinarians are neat and 
commodious, and many of them truly elegant. The 
church is a venerable Gothic ftrudture, with ailes on 
each fide, and a fpire rifing to a confiderable height. 
Here is a grammar-fchool in high reputation. The af- 
fembly rooms are elegantly difpofed; and the theatre- 
royal, erefted for the amulement of their prefent majef- 
ties, is a neat and well-conftrufted building. The walks 
and rides in the neighbourhood are equal to any in the 
kingdom, for variety, beauty, and riclinefs of profpedh 
Cheltenham has a good and plentiful market on Thurf- 
days, and three annual fairs, viz. on the fecond Thurs¬ 
day in April, Holy Thurfday, and 5th of Auguft. 
Nothing can be more convenient than the watering- 
place is to the town ; the nobility and gentry pafs through 
a fine alcove of lime-trees, into a ferpentine walk with 
orchards on each fide; this leads to a beautiful meadow 
at the bottom, erodes a rivulet, and then enters the 
grand walk, which, by a gentle acclivity, leads to the 
buildings. This walk has a very ftriking effeft; it is 
twenty feet wide, and the elm-trees on each fide are at 
leaft fixty feet high. The pump appears under a dome, 
through an airy and neat archway, with two pofterns; 
it is fupported by pillars. On the right is the libra¬ 
ry and offices; on the left the breakfaft-room. The 
latter is occafionally converted into a ball-room, where 
the band plays in wet weather. Round the buildings is 
a fhrubbery, upon a gentle afcent, from which there is a 
very magnificent view. The grand walk below forms a 
vifta, through which the fteeple of the church appears 
in ail the fublimity of Gothic grandeur. The medicinal 
fpring was firft noticed in 1716; in 1721, it was leafed 
out for fixty-one pounds per annum. In 1738, Henry 
Skillicorne, the proprietor, firft began the prefent build¬ 
ings at the wells, and made them as commodious as moll: 
reiorts of the kind. In 1788, at the depth of about fifty 
feet, another fpring was dilcovered, which was found to 
poifefs all the fpecific medicinal qualities of the other, 
and much more copious. Cheltenham is diftant from 
London ninety-four miles, Gloucefter ten, .Tewkefbury 
ten, and Northleach eleven. This place was honoured 
with the refidence of the royal family during the autumn 
of the year 1788. About two miles eaft of the town is 
another mineral fpring, at a place called Hyde; two 
miles beyond which Cleve-hill raifes its venerable brow. 
At the top of this hill there Hill remains the veftiges' of 
a Roman camp. 
CHELVA, or Xei.va, a town of Spain, in the pro¬ 
vince of Valencia : fix leagues fouth-weft of Segorba. 
CHE'LUM, a river of India. See Teh at. 
CHE'LY, f. [chela, Lat.] The claw of a fhell-fifli.—It 
happeneth often that a lobfter hath the chely, or great 
claw, of one fide longer than the other. Brown. 
CHELY'SCION f. [^eAvcxiov, from the bread.] A 
dry fhort cough, in which the mufcles of the bread are 
very fore, 
CHE'MA, oi-Cheme,/ Gr.J Ameafure among 
the ancients, containing two fmall fpoonfuls. 
CHE'MACH, or Kemach, a town of Afiatic Turkey, 
in the fouthern part of Caramania. 
CHE'MAL, a town of Perfia, in the province of Chu- 
fiftan : no miles fouth of Suiter. 
CHE'MAZE, a town of France, in the department of 
Mayenne, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Chateau Gontier: one league and a half fouth-weft of 
Chateau Gontier. 
CHEMERE', a town of France, in the department of 
the Mayenne, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridfc 
of Evron : four leagues and a half fouth-ealt of Laval. 
CHE'MERY, a town of France, in the department of 
the Ardennes, and chief place of a canton in the diftrift 
of Sedan i feyeu miles fouth of Sedan. 
CHE'MIC, 
