IN CLOISTERED CHESTER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 21 November 1927, Page 8

IN CLOISTERED CHESTER

Afrenwm Ta in a Crypt That Dates from 1230

by

B. E. HOLDSWORTH.

EVENING fell and the sunlight filtered softly into the long dim

passages and warmed the walls and' massive tower, I stood in the quiet ot the Cloister garden ot Chester Cathedral. A deep-set fountain played unceasingly, its water falling, falling upon the passive stone and splashing momentary bubbles that changed to nothingness. Gnats whirled aimlessly in the still air and pigeons turned silver against the white-flecked blue of the sky. It was quiet as when, in the lays of long ago, monks passed silently from Cathedral to Cloistered study, from the vaulted store cellar to the great refectory and their frugal meal of bread and beer.

Nearly 2000 years ago when the inhabitants of Chester were using hair pins with carved beads, bronze spoons, and quaint little tear bottles, a soldier of the Roman Legion carelessly placed his foot upon a still damp tile and left an imprint to tell those who came after that the shoes worn in that far- i of! time were thickly studded with ■ hob nails. I feel there must have been - something very human and appealing i about people who had a use for both : tear bottles and for hob nailed boots' I These were the people who built the first City Walls. The present day ! Walls are not of course the old Roman ■ ones, but, just as the main gates ot, the modern town occupy the sites of i the ancient Roman porta, so do these j Walls follow fairly accurately the line I ot those earlier fortifications. The j care of the Walls was formerly en- i trusted to a number of men called ; “Murengers”; and the custody ot the j Gabes, a great privilege, was passed i on from father to son through hun-1 dreds ot years. At the present day| the Sergeantships are in the families jof Lord Crewe and the Earls ot Derby | and Shrewsbury. The southern portion of the Walls leads past the River Dee, spanned just here by an arched j bridge that Edward I. ordered to be ■ erected in 1280. In the stretch of water below the bridge the famed Dee salmon are caught, and other fish as well, one presumes, for there, wero men and boys watching their lines with that air of placid patience that characterises the English fishermen. “What do you catch?” I asked "s’ boy. . “Perch—roach,” he answered with-

out turning his head; but his float never bobbed and there was never anything except the bait on the end of his line when he swung it hopefully upstream again. It was from one of the Watch Towers on the wide Walls that the 111-fated Charles saw his army defeated on Rowton Moor: “Just over there, beyond those two tall chimneys —it was all open country then,” said the custodian, a confirmed Roundhead.

“All open country then”; and what is it now? From the canal beneath the Walls a barge chug-chugged to its moorings, frothing the tawny water. Beyond' lay a crowded expanse of grey slate roofs and smoking chimneys—the close-herded homes of close-herded

humanity. Have we advanced much in the centuries between? Are people any happier, I wonder, than they were in the days when it was “all open country?”

Part of the famous Watling Street of the Romans runs through Chester and is known as Foregate Street. At a snot where it meets the three other

principal streets that lead from the city gates there formerly stood an ancient stone cross and tho Pent-house-or Pentice. The latter, erected close to the site of the Roman Praetorium, was a kind of courthouse in which the mayor and.aidermen met and, with the aid ot the stocks, the whipping post, and the pillory dispensed stronghanded justice. From . • Pentice window, these guardians .. m-. law could witness the yearly event of bull-baiting with dogs which

took place at the Cross. . . . Chester is noted for its Rows, that quaint style of architecture for which no one seems to have a satisfactory explanation. The lower shop windows come right to the pavement in tbe usual way, hut above, and as it were on the roof and reached by narrow flights of steps that lead up at frequent intervals from tbe pavement, one finds a wide passage with another row of shop windows at the back. The Rows in Bridge and Foregate Streets have been repaired and modern fashionable shops open on them. For interest it is better to stray down Watergate Row, where less reno vating has been done and where children play unchecked on the uneven stone floars. There amongst the dusty

antique qhops one finds ancient houses, narrow alleys, and quaint carW Ings, black with age. Here two grotesque figures leer at each other across a narrow arch; and there a

fox, a lamb, or an owl, large-eyed and serious, peers from out the dimneee, all unchanged through the changing rears.

Chester is full of odd corners and unexpected places; I had my tea one day in a crypt that dates from IMO. There were tables set out and wait resses hurried hither and thither and the electric lights were dimmed by Im Ration medieval lanterns. The stone floor, the groined roof, and the little diamond-paned windows all contrived to make me feel as if I were eating in a chapel. Close to the West, or Water Gate, sc called because In former times th< River Dee flowed right to the City Walls, stands one of the most inter -sting houses in Chester, the Stanle; Palace. The gabled Elizabethan front Aces what was formerly a large court yard but is now a narrow passage rowded- with discarded grinning gar troyles. A thin little person, overflow mg with enthusiasm tor tbe old house showed me the kitchen with the wide ■leep fireplace and cavernous chimney up which the Earl of Derby escaped when sought by Cromwell’s men. 1 peered up into the sooty darknest . , . . Poor Earl! After six weeks he was betrayed by his butler. At the top of the irregular winding steps that were once considered a grand stair- K case a door revealed a secret chamber 5 well worthy ot its name for it re- j mained undiscovered until nine years ago. My guide led me through the old rooms and pointed out the littlepowdering closet, and explained that the ladies did not enter it but put their heads through a hole in the door for their hair to receive the necessary powdering. But the crowning inter est of the Palace was the Haunted Chamber. The light came rather dimly through the green-tinted old glass and left many shadows in the little room with its panelled walls. Nc less than seven secret hiding places are concealed- behind those panels; the last was discovered only three years ago, and time may reveal even more. In all seriousness I was told of the restless lady and ot the man in clanking armour who haunt the place. “Have you seen them?” I asked eager ly. “No,” the woman replied, “I can't see them because we are not all made the same; but I can feel when they arc there, and I can hear the knock—like that.” And she rapped loudly and then softly on the hollrrv-seundlng weeden wall.

When the old with its bulging walls and bellow secret places tumbles to ruin, as it «oon must surely do, what. I wonder, will become of these wandering dissatisfied spirits that through the passing ot all the relentless centuries have not yet found rest? London.