“In perusing the foregoing sketch of our Walls, with the incidental notices of contiguous objects, it is presumed, that individuals most conversant with the localities of the city, will meet with several particulars, either to gratify their curiosity or add to their information. And it may also be hoped, that should the account be read by those who are strangers to our ancient fortifications, and the peculiar attractions of Chester, it may excite a commendable inquisitiveness for a personal survey, at the same time that it may assist as a directory to their inquiries. In whatever point of view these old ramparts are considered, they possess an imposing interest, and confer incalculable benefits. To the invalid, the sedentary student, or the man of business, occupied during the day in his shop or counting-house; to the habitually indolent, who require excitement to necessary exercise—to all these, the promenade on Chester Walls has most inviting attractions, where they may breathe all the salubrious winds of heaven in a morning or an evening walk. Here the enthusiastic antiquarian, who would climb mountains, ford rivers, explore the bowels of the earth, and, regardless of toil and the claims of nature, exhaust his strength in search of a piece of rusty cankered brass, or a scrap of Roman earthenware, can scarcely advance a dozen paces but the pavement on which he treads, or some contiguous object, forces upon his observation the relics of times of earliest date. Nor can the philosophic moralist encompass our venerable walls without having his mind, comparing the splendid and gigantic works of antiquity with their present condition, strongly impressed with the mutations produced by the lapse of ages, and the perishing nature of all mundane greatness.
“I shall conclude this branch of our history by citing the sentiments of a man well known to the republic of letters, regarding our ancient city, not indeed particularly as to her walls, but as to her general attractions. His information, as a traveller, was varied and extensive, and his discernment and intellect strong and acute. This gentleman, who was no other than Mr. Boswell, in a letter to Dr. Johnson, dated October 22, 1779, says, ‘Chester pleases me more than any town I ever saw. I told a very pleasing young lady, niece to one of the prebendaries (Miss Letitia Barnston), at whose house I saw her, ‘I have come to Chester, Madam, I cannot tell how; and far less can I tell how to get away from it.’ Dr. Johnson in reply says, ‘In the place where you are there is much to be observed, and you will easily procure yourself skilful directors.’ In another letter, dated November 7, in the same year, Boswell remarks, ‘I was quite enchanted at Chester, so that I could with difficulty quit it.’” [48]
CHAPTER IV.
A WALK THROUGH THE CITY.
It is our purpose now to conduct the tourist through the city, that we may point out, in detail, the various objects of interest which claim his attentive inspection. But before commencing our perambulations through the principal streets, we will here introduce a few remarks on that unique feature which constitutes the distinguishing attraction of Chester, and has given it universal celebrity.
The Rows.
Very curious are these old arcades, which are as interesting to the antiquarian as they are convenient for a quiet lounge to ladies and others engaged in shopping. They occupy the greatest part of both sides of Eastgate-street, and the upper parts of both sides of Watergate-street and Bridge-street. Those in Northgate-street are more irregular, only one side, commonly called Shoemakers’-row, being used as a regular thoroughfare. Their appearance, both interior and exterior, is extremely singular. They form a gallery, occupying the front floor of each house, parallel with the streets below, and are approached by flights of steps, placed at convenient distances, in addition to those by which they are entered and quitted at each end. The passenger walks over the shops on a level with the street, and under the first floor of the dwelling-houses; and thus two lines of shops are erected in one front. The rows are kept in excellent repair, and form the chief promenade of the citizens. To strangers they cannot fail to prove an object of curiosity. The shops in the rows are generally considered the best situations for retail traders; but those on the southern side of Eastgate-street and the eastern side of Bridge-street have a decided preference. Shops let here at high rents, and are in never-failing request; and there are no parts of the city which have undergone such rapid or extensive improvements.
In the sixteenth century the rows appear not to have exceeded 6 feet in height and 10 in width, with clumsy wooden rails towards the street, and large oaken pillars, supporting transverse beams and brackets, on which rested the houses over head, formed of wood and plaster, so far overhanging the street, that in some places the upper floors of opposite houses nearly met. Nearly the whole of the buildings of this description are now taken down; and in rebuilding care has been taken to raise and widen the rows, and to place iron railings towards the street in place of the wooden posts formerly used. The shops in the rows present a very different appearance to that of about sixty years ago; then, as Hemingway says, “the fronts were all open to the row in two or three compartments, according to their size; and at night were closed by large hanging shutters fixed on hinges, and fastened in the daytime by hooks to the ceiling of the row.” At present these rows are “capable of supplying all the real demands of convenience and the artificial calls of luxury, mental and corporeal, presenting a cluster of drapers, clothiers, jewellers, booksellers, &c., as respectable as the kingdom can produce.” [50] The origin and cause of the rows has furnished matter for much curious investigation; and many conflicting conjectures have been propounded respecting them. The subject is involved in much obscurity; and, in the absence of any positive data, we are not able to take higher ground than the probabilities of the case. It has been alleged that they were originally used as places of defence, from whence to annoy and repulse the assaults of the enemy, who might gain entrance into the streets beneath by surprising the gates, during those remote ages when Chester was subject to the sudden incursions of the Welsh. But against this opinion it may be urged, that in no one of their attacks upon this city did the Welsh ever force their way within the gates or walls; so that these latter, being proved by experience to be a sufficient bulwark against our foes, there existed no necessity for the erection of any further defences. There is irrefragable evidence that the form of the city is Roman, and that the walls were the work of that people; and the same reasons which justify these conclusions are not less cogent for presuming that the construction of the streets are Roman also. Pennant appears to have arrived at this conclusion:—he says, “These rows appear to me to have been the same with the ancient vestibules, and to have been a form of building preserved from the time that the city was possessed by the Romans. They were built before the doors, midway between the streets and the houses, and were the places where dependants waited for the coming out of their patrons, and under which they might walk away the tedious minutes of expectation. Plautus, in the 3rd act of his Mostella, describes both their station and use. The shops beneath the rows were the Cryptæ and Apothecæ, magazines for the various necessaries of the owners of the houses.”
Ormerod says that some of these crypts exhibit specimens of vaulting equal to the cloisters of our Cathedral.
Camden, in describing Chester, says, “The houses are very fair built, and along the chief streets are galleries or walking places they call rows, having shops on both sides, through which a man may walk dry from one end to the other.” And Shukeley, in his ‘Itinerary,’ in 1724, says, “The rows or piazzas are singular through the whole town, giving shelter to foot people. I fancied it a remain of the Roman porticoes.”
In the oldest histories, descriptive of the city in some form or other, the elevated rows and the shops beneath are recognized.