To our left are some handsome houses, overlooking the river; and behind them, the lofty steeple of St. John’s Church attracts our especial notice and admiration. This Church is one of our many Chester lions; but, as we shall have to deal with it more at large by and bye, we will pass on now, between some obtrusive houses blocking up the view on one side, and most prolific gardens and orchards on the other, until we reach some modern steps on our left, leading down to the Newgate.
This Gate, or its predecessor, was called Wolfeld or Wolfgate, as also Pepper Gate, from its standing at the bottom of the Pepper Street. Tradition informs us that this Gate was “of old time closed up and shut, because a young man stole away a Mayor of Chester’s daughter through the same Gate, as she was playing at ball with other maidens in the Pepper Street.” Albert Smith, in his “Struggles and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole,” perpetuates this tradition, in his own happy and humorous style. There ‘all who run may read’ of the sinful conduct of that wicked young man, and of that almost as froward and faulty young maiden, whose mutual frailties gave birth to the Cheshire proverb, “When the daughter is stolen, shut the Pepper Gate,”—another version of “When the steed is stolen, lock the stable door.”
Two or three paces onwards bring us to some pretty little gardens on one side, and on the other to the remains of an old turret, formerly known as Thimbleby’s Tower, though why or wherefore so designated is, ‘in these latter days,’ a mystery. Beyond this is a flight of steps, leading down to the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, a commodious structure erected in 1811, the principal front of which is towards St. John’s Street; to the left of it is the School-room of the same religious community. Within a short distance from this, we mount some half dozen steps, and find ourselves on the top of the East Gate, and enjoying a view of the principal Street of the city, at an altitude of some forty feet. At our back is Foregate Street, the old-fashioned mail-coach road to Birmingham and London; while in front we have Eastgate Street, the Cross, and St. Peter’s Church, which will receive more particular attention in our next chapter.
Stepping down from the Eastgate on its opposite side, we have now completed our circuit of the Walls; and our appetite being somewhat sharpened by our long walk, we will turn into the “Blossoms,” and discuss the merits of such “savoury meats” as “mine host of that ilk” is enabled to lay before us.
CHAPTER V.
The Streets of Chester.—Eastgate Street and Royal Hotel.—The Ancient Rows of Chester.—An American’s “notion” of them.—The Architecture of the Rows and Streets.—The High Cross.—The Pentice and Conduit.—The City Bullbait.—St. Peter’s Church.
Let us move slowly through the street,
Filled with an ever shifting train,
Amid the sound of steps that beat
The murmuring walks like autumn rain.—Bryant.
Having adequately “refreshed the inner man,” we will now, like Don Quixote, sally forth into the Street “in search of the picturesque,” and doubtless we shall there find much of a nature to interest and delight us.
The Eastgate, under which we are now passing, marks the termination of the old Watling Street,—the line of which is here taken up by the chief of the four great Streets of the city, as planned and excavated by the soldier colonists of once mighty Rome. We have passed from Foregate into Eastgate Street, ever the via principalis of Chester, and still maintaining that ancient prerogative despite the revolutionary inroads of steam. It is the one great highway for all passengers and conveyances to and from the Station, and as a necessary consequence holds the proud distinction of being, for all business purposes, the main Street of the city.