Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/68

 CASTLE AND CATHEDRAL. 43

furni-lies the only specimen of ancient fortification, ex tant in England, with the exception of Carlisle. The towers by which they were defended, were anciently placed at bow-shot distance, that they might afford aid to each other, as well as annoy the besieging enemy. 1 1- walls are nearly two miles in circumference, and afford an agreeable promenade, varied by the windings of the River Dee.

Chester Castle, where a garrison is stationed, was to me a structure of absorbing interest, from having often heard it minutely described by my husband, who had spent some time there in his boyhood, with a relative who had married an English officer, Capt. Edward Barren, at that time the commander of the fortress. Methought his voice, delineating the scenes and cus toms which had the most strongly impressed his young fancy, still mingled with the breeze that sighed around its dark time-worn battlements.

Chester was the first to introduce our party to what we had long desired to see, the Cathedrals of the Mother-Land. Her own was less distinguished by splendor than most of those grand specimens of eccle siastical architecture. Its length is stated at 350 feet, its breadth 76, and the altitude of its tower 127. It was erected in the fifteenth century, though its most ancient portion, originally an abbey, was founded 11 CO years since, by AVulpherius, king of Herein. The Danes destroyed it when they took possession of Chester, in 895 ; but it was afterwards restored, and placed under the government of Ethelfieda, daughter of Alfred the

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