ered, "Nay, sir, if those men that would have my
head will not find one to cut it off, let it stand where it is."

[Illustration: THE STANLEY HOUSE, FRONT.]

[Illustration: THE STANLEY HOUSE, REAR.]

It is easy in this strange old city to carry back the imagination for
centuries, for it preserves its connection with the past better perhaps
than any other English town. The city holds the keys of the outlet of
the Dee, which winds around it on two sides, and is practically one of
the gates into Wales. Naturally, the Romans established a fortress here
more than a thousand years ago, and made it the head-quarters of their
twentieth legion, who impressed upon the town the formation of a Roman
camp, which it bears to this day. The very name of Chester is derived
from the Latin word for a camp. Many Roman fragments still remain, the
most notable being the Hyptocaust. This was found in Watergate street
about a century ago, together with a tessellated pavement. There have
also been exhumed Roman altars, tombs, mosaics, pottery and other
similar relics. The city is built upon a sandstone rock, and this
furnishes much of the building material, so that most of the edifices
have their exteriors disintegrated by the elements, particularly the
churches--a peculiarity that may have probably partly justified Dean
Swift's epigram, written when his bile was stirred because a rainstorm
had prevented some of the Chester clergy from dining with him:

"Churches and clergy of this city
Are very much akin:
They're weather-beaten all without,
And empty all within."

[Illustration: THE PHOENIX TOWER.]

[Illustration: THE WATER TOWER.]

The modernized suburbs of Chester, filled with busy factories, are
extending beyond the walls over a larger surface than the ancient town
itself. At the angles of the old walls stand the famous towers--the
Phoenix Tower, Bonwaldesthorne's Tower, Morgan's Mount, the Goblin
Tower, and the Water Tower, while the gates in the walls are almost
equally famous--the Eastgate, Northgate, Watergate, Bridgegate, Newgate,
and Peppergate. The ancient Abbey of St. Mary had its site near the
castle, and not far away are the picturesque ruins of St. John's Chapel,
outside the walls. According to a local legend, its neighborhood had the
honor of sheltering an illustrious fugitive. Harold, the Saxon king, we
are told, did not fall at Hastings, but, escaping, spent the remainder
of his life as a hermit, dwelling