We commence our perambulation at a flight of steps on the North side of the Eastgate. Proceeding to the right a short distance, the venerable Cathedral arrests our attention.
At the end of Abbey-street is a small archway or passage through the Walls, leading to the Kale-yards, or cabbage gardens, which formerly belonged to the Abbot and Convent of St. Werburgh. This opening was permitted to be made for their convenience, in the reign of Edward I., to prevent the necessity of bringing their vegetables by a circuitous road through the Eastgate.
A few paces farther on was a quadrangular abutment, on which formerly stood a tower called The Sadlers’ Tower, from the Company of Sadlers holding their meetings there. The tower was taken down in 1780; and the abutment, which marked the place where it stood, was taken down, in 1828.
The elevated tower on the Canal bank belongs to the extensive Shot and White Lead Manufactory of Messrs. Walker, Parker, and Co., and forms a prominent object in the different approaches to the City.
The lofty tower which stands at the angle is called
The Phœnix Tower,
which was formerly used by some of the companies of the city, whose arms were placed upon it, as a chamber for business. Of these the Phœnix, the crest of the Painters’ and Stationers’ Company, which was put up in 1613, now only remains.
From the summit of this tower, King Charles I. had the mortification to see his army, under the generalship of Sir Marmaduke Langdale, defeated by the Parliamentary forces, which were led by General Pointz, at the battle of Rowton Moor, on the 27th September, 1645. From its elevation and command of view over the township of Newton, it was formerly called Newton’s Tower. Linked as it is with that eventful battle during one of the most significant epochs of our national history, it is not surprising that it is always regarded with intense curiosity, as a suggestive memorial of most interesting occurrences. The mind is involuntarily carried back to the period when our country was involved in the discord, strife, and bloodshed of civil war; and, perhaps, as involuntarily reflects on the genial and happy change which the progress of knowledge, freedom, and religion has accomplished in the minds and institutions of the people. We can now occupy the very spot on which the hapless monarch beheld the discomfiture of his hopes and power; but can gaze upon a prospect very different from that which greeted his vision, and with emotions more grateful than those which then distracted the monarch’s breast. His Majesty remained that night in Chester, and on the following day marched with 500 horse into Wales.
Beneath the walls here, deeply cut in the solid rock, is the Ellesmere and Chester Canal.
Between the Eastgate and Phœnix Tower the remains of the Roman Walls are conspicuous in the lower courses. At the distance of about seven feet from the top of the parapet, the Roman portion is terminated by a cornice, which extends in broken lengths for at least 100 yards.