The Eve of All-Hallows; Or, Adelaide of Tyrconnel, v. 2 of 3

by Matthew Weld Hartstonge

"Which, my lady," rejoined Sir Patricius, "they now call popularly Roodee, but the orthography is Rood-eye.[27] This beautiful pasture ground belongs to the corporation, and comprises eighty-four acres. Yonder are the mountains of Flintshire and Derbyshire; there the hills of Broxton; while the insulated rock of Beeston, crowned with its romantic castle, forms the background of the picture upon which your Ladyship seems to gaze with such delight; while the landscape is still further enlivened by the devious winding of the Dee, in its majestic circling course to Boughton."

While walking around the walls of Chester, the duchess and her party encountered a handsome young stranger, who was also promenading this frequented walk.—We have already premised the narrowness of the walls, that they in some parts only admitted two persons to walk abreast.—The stranger, to make way, retired to a small recess nigh one of the towers, and courteously bowed as the party passed onward.

His eyes were deeply rivetted upon the Lady Adelaide, while her's seemed as intently fixed upon him. Thrice during their walk, in a similar manner, they encountered the stranger; at the last meeting it so happened that Adelaide (accidentally, no doubt,) dropped her glove just as the stranger met her; he raised it from the ground, and in the most courteous and graceful manner restored it. While in the act of returning the glove to its fair owner, it so happened that his hand touched her's; instantly the blood mounted to her cheek, and she deeply blushed; but sweetly smiling, she politely thanked him, made her obeisance, and passed on.

"Who can this stranger be?" thought Adelaide to herself. "He is surely no ordinary being—none of the common-place creatures of this earth. And oh, his fine manly beautiful countenance that seems born to command!"

Then, with a sigh, "she thought too that he looked likewise as if born to love. Oh, what I would give (just from mere curiosity!) to know his name and rank;—there can be no doubt but that he must be a person of distinction."

After this mental soliloquy she hastened to rejoin the duchess and her aunts. They all now returned to "the White Lion;" and the next day was to be devoted to their visit to the episcopal palace, to pay their respects to the Bishop of Chester and Mrs. Cartwright. The evening proving remarkably fine, Sir Patricius ventured to propose a walk to the ladies, to view the interior of the city, the shops, "the rows," &c. As they passed along, they observed that many of the houses were of wood, and most of them built of brick, and wooden frame-work, alternately painted black and white, in certainly a most coffin-like fashion. The pinnacles and gables, they observed, were adorned with various curious and grotesque carvings. Sir Patricius seemed now very anxious to display all his gothic lore.

"This, my Lady Duchess," he observed, "is in verity a most ancient, venerable city; and perhaps the most striking of the many peculiarities in which it abounds are these remarkable covered galleries, or, as they are ycleped, 'Rows,' which extend the entire length on each side of many of the streets in front of the range of shops, which are covered over head, and you ascend them from the four principal streets by flights of stairs. The effect is as if the front room in every first floor was scooped out, and the upper stories of the premises supported on pillars, while the lower tier of rooms, thus purloined, are occupied as shops. The space thus scooped out forms a covered gallery on each side of the street, with a ballustrade or railing in front, over which various goods are flung for exposure to the public—namely, silks, stuffs, shawls, &c. This ballustrade faces the street; the back parlours of each house thus circumstanced are converted into rows of shops, and are a great convenience to the public, from the facility of passing from street to street, effectually secured from rain or heat, affording a sheltered walk in winter and a shady one in summer to both inhabitants and strangers. The streets had been excavated out of the earth, and are in many places several feet below the surface. The carriages drive far below the levels of the kitchens, on a line with the range of shops.

"There can be no question, my Lady, whatever," added Sir Patricius, looking very knowingly, and taking with much gravity a pinch of snuff from his Carolus snuff-box, "there can be no doubt," said he, "but that these 'rows' are precisely the same as the ancient vestibules, and appear evidently to have been a form of building preserved from the time that this city was possessed by the Romans. These vestibules were built before the doors, midway between the streets and the houses, and were the places where dependants waited for the coming forth of their patrons, and under which they might walk, and pass away the tedious minutes of expectation. Plautus, in the third act of his Mostellaria, describes both their situation and their use,[28] namely, that the vestibule in front of the house answered the purpose of a piazza, or covered gallery. The shops beneath these 'rows' were certainly the cryptæ and apothecæ, the magazines and repositories for the various necessaries of the owners of the houses."

The party had now descended from the rows, and pursued their route under one of the arched gateways ascending from the walls, when who should at this time be seen but the youthful stranger whom they had encountered in their morning walk. He took off his hat and lowly bowed. Adelaide, blushing, returned the salute, being the only one of the party who had caught a glimpse of him—the duchess and her sisters listening in wonderment at the learned lore which Sir Patricius had displayed and poured forth with such wondrous volubility; and he was himself, in sooth, too much occupied by his own eloquence, to see, to hear, to think of ought but old Plautus, the Colonia Devana, and the Roman centurions!