Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/69

 44 EATON HALL.

Great. Beneath its low-browed arches we were shown the tomb of Henry IV., of Germany, and some Roman relics. Among the latter was a stone, with an obscure Latin inscription, purporting that one thousand paces of the wall were built by the cohort, under Ocratius Maximinius. It is well known that the head-quarters of the twentieth Roman legion were at Chester, and that it is supposed to derive its name from Castram, a camp or military station. Many circumstances led me to explore, with peculiar interest, this antique and for tified town.

A ride of four miles beyond it brings you to Eaton Hall, the seat of the Marquis of Westminster. Its principal gate of entrance is said to have been erected at the expense of 10,000 ; and the grounds, which are seven miles in extent, are laid out in parks, interspersed with shrubbery, beautiful flowers, and tasteful por- ers lodges. The mansion, a specimen of the modern Gothic, is seven hundred feet in length, and exhibits an imposing range of towers, pinnacles, and turrets. The interior has a costly display of paintings, statuary, sculpture, and gilding. The superb library, one hun dred and thirty feet in length, divided into three com partments, was shown us, as were also the dining-room, state-chamber, and other richly furnished apartments. As it was the first baronial establishment our republi can eyes had ever beheld, we regarded it with atten tion. There was much to admire, especially in the high state of cultivation that marked its environs ; yet the mind reverted with deeper sympathy to the time-

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