CHE 
appearances in the ftate of our affairs, the habit of hop¬ 
ing for a favourable change, and that of perfevering in 
the fearch of refources. The game is fo full of events, 
there is fuch a variety of turns in it, the fortune of it 
is fo fubjefl to fudden viciffitudes, and fo frequently, after 
long contemplation, one difcovers the means of extricat¬ 
ing onefelf from a fuppofed infurmountable difficulty, 
that we are encouraged to continue the conteft to the 
laft, in hopes of victory by our own fkill, or at leaft of 
giving a ftale-mate by the negligence of our adverfary. 
And whoever confiders, what in chefs lie often fees in- 
flances of, that particular pieces of fuccefs are apt to pro¬ 
duce prefumption, and its confequent inattention, by 
which the lofs may be recovered, will learn not to be too 
much difcouraged by theprefent fuccefs of his adverfary, 
nor to defpair of final good fortune, upon every little 
check he receives in the purfuit of it. 
CHESS-BOARD, f The board or table on which 
the game of chefs is played: 
And cards are dealt, and chefs-boards brought 
To eafe the pain of coward thought. Prior. 
CHESS-MAN, f. A puppet for chefs.—A company 
of cbefs-men Handing on the fame fquares of the chefs- 
board where we left them, we fay they are all in the fame 
place, or unmoved. Locke. 
CHESS-PLAYER, f. A gamefter at chefs.—Thus, 
like a fkilful chefs-player, he draw's out his men, and makes 
liis pawns of ule to his greater perl’ons. Dryden. 
CHESS-PLAYER artificial j fee Automaton, vol. 
ii. p. 579. 
CHESS-TREES, in ffiip-building. See Naval Ar¬ 
chitecture.- 
CHES'SOM, f. Mellow earth.—The tender cbejfom 
and mellow earth is the bell, being mere mould, between 
the two extremes of clay and fand ; efpecially if it be not 
loomy and binding. Bacon. 
CHES'SY, a town of France, in the department of 
the Rhone and Loire: four leagues north-weft of Lyons. 
CHEST, f. [cyyt, Sax. cijia, Lat.] A box of wood, 
or other materials, in which things are laid up : 
But more have been by avarice oppreft, 
And heaps of money crouded in the chejl. Dryden. 
A cheft of drawers, a cafe with moveable boxes or 
drawers. The trunk of the body, or cavity from the 
flioulders to the belly.—Such as have round faces, or 
broad chejfs , or fhoulders, have leldom or never long- 
necks. Brown. 
To CHEST, <v. a. To repofite in a cheft; to hoard. 
CHEST-FOUN'DERING, f. A difeafe in horfes. It 
comes near to a pleurify, or peripneumony, in a human 
body. See Farriery. 
CHF.ST'ED, adj. Having a cheft; as, broad-chefted, 
narrow-chefted, &c. 
CHES'TER, a very ancient city, the capital of Chefhire, 
fituated on the river Dee, about twenty miles from the Irifh 
fea, a confiderabie time the ftation of the twentieth Roman 
legion, the command of which was given to Julius Agri¬ 
cola, by the emperor Vefpafian, and of courle muft have 
been builtbefore his time, but probably not many years, 
though fanciful writers have dated its antiquity to a remote 
period indeed. It is feated on the vveltern fide of the coun¬ 
ty, diftant about twenty miles eaft from Denbigh ; forty 
north from Shre wfbury; forty-fix north-weft from Stafford; 
feventy-fix north-welt from Derby ; andleventy-five fouth 
from Lancafter. Lat. 53 0 15'N. Ion. 3 0 2/ W. from Lon¬ 
don ; its diftance from the latter city being 182 miles. Mr. 
Pennant very concifely defcribes it in the following words: 
“ The city is of a fquare form; which evinces the origin 
to have been Roman, being in the figure of their camps, 
with four gates facing the four cardinal points, four 
principal ftreets, and a variety of Idler, crofting the others 
at right angles, dividing the whole into Idler fquares. 
The walls are built on a foft free-ftone rook, high above 
Vol. IV. No. 207. 
the circumjacent country and are faid to have been 
built by the Mercian lady Ethelfleda. “ The ftru6ture 
of the tour principal ftreets is without a parallel; th6y 
run dire6t from eaft to weft, and north to fouth, and were 
excavated out of the earth, and funk many feet beneath 
the furface. The carriages are driven far below the le¬ 
vel of the kitchens, on a line with ranges of {hops, over 
which paffengers walk in galleries, which the inhabitants 
call the row's, fecure from wet or heat. In the rows are 
ranges of fhops,” and fteps to defcend into the ftreet. 
Such is the antiquity of Chefter, that the Arranger, who 
can pafs through without bellowing on it fome little 
ffiare of attention, muft have an incurious eye indeed.—> 
The exploring hand of time has, at different periods, pre- 
fented to the antiquarian fome valuable treafures : among 
thefe, is a Roman altar, erefted by Flavius Longus, tri¬ 
bune of the victorious 20th legion, and his fon Longinus, 
in honour of the emperors Dioclefian apd Maximinian j 
another, difcovered in 1653, (now at Oxford,) infcribed 
to Jupiter; alfo, a ftatue of Mithras, and a beautiful al¬ 
tar, with other Roman antiquities, found in the yacht 
field in 1779; the coins of Vefpafian, Conftantius, Tra¬ 
jan, Adrian, See. have at different times been found; and 
there is little doubt but Chefter is flill rich in records of 
antiquity, which the refearclies of pofterity may pofftbly 
difeover. 
The city contains nine parifli churches, a Roman Ca¬ 
tholic chapel, and fix places of worfhip for Diffenters of 
different perfuafions. It is faid to have been firlt erected 
into a corporation in 1242, and is now governed by a 
mayor, recorder, aldermen, fheriffs, common council- 
men, &c. The city walls are kept in repair by an officer, 
called a Murenger, and a rate called murage, on all im¬ 
ports by perfons not free of the city. The cultody of the 
gates of Chefter was committed to very confiderabie no¬ 
blemen : Eaft-gate, to the earl of Oxford ; Bridge-gate, 
to the earl of Shrewfbury ; Water-gate, to the earl of 
Derby; and North-gate, to the mayor. The principal 
manufafture is gloves : and its fairs are reforted to three 
times a year by a great concourle of the Irifli linen mer¬ 
chants. The caftle is a noble ftru 61 ure, having a tower 
aferibed to Julius Caefar, and bearing his name, which* 
as well as its workmanfhip, prove it to have been origi¬ 
nally built by the Romans, though the prefent w-alls are 
evidently Norman. The number of inhabitants, includ¬ 
ing the fuburbs, is eftimated at 15,000. Here Henry II. 
and Malcolm IV. of Scotland, had an interview in 1259, 
and the latter ceded the three counties of Northumber¬ 
land, Cumberland, and Weftfnoreland, formerly wrefted 
from the Englifti crown. Richard II. in his 12th year, 
converted Chefter into a principality, annexing it to the 
caftle of Holt, the lordffiip of Bromtield and Yale, Chirk- 
land, and feveral other places in Wales and on the bor¬ 
ders, ena6fing that it fliould be given only to the king’s 
eldeft foil. But Henry IV. relcinded an a6i that en¬ 
croached fo much on the dignity of his fon as prince of 
Wales. The king’s eldeft is, however, created earl of 
Chefter. The fweating ficknefs deftroyed here, in 1506, 
ninety-one houfeholders in three days, and only four 
women ; and was followed, in 1517, by a dreadful pefti- 
lence. A more grievous one viiited it in 1647, after it 
w'as taken by the parliament forces, under fu - Wiiliam 
Brereton, having held out a twenty weeks liege, and fur- 
rendered February 3d, 1645-6, on terms that did honour 
to the fpirit of the befieged. The markets are xept on 
Wedneldays and Saturdays. The fairs on the laft 
Thurfday in February for cattle; July 5, and Oflober 
10, for cattle, cloth, hardware, hops, and Manchefter 
goods. 
The Exchange is a large handfome pile, fupported by 
five columns in the centre. It is 126 feet long, and for¬ 
ty-fix broad; and has a row of fhops on the weft, fide. 
The year 1698 was the time of its ere6tion, in the mayor¬ 
alty of colonel Robert Whitley. The quarter feffions, 
and the annual ^eftion of city officers, are held here in ». 
jj 0 Large 
