Bishop Percy, 1452-62; the stalls are of the period of Edward III. The cinque-cento screen, north of the choir, was built by Leonard Salkeld, prior, in 1542-47: in it portions of Gondiber's screen are inserted. The Scots, under General Leslie, destroyed the greater portion of the nave, dormitory, chapter-house, and cloisters, to erect guardhouses and batteries in June 1645.

The TOWER is not in the centre of the transept; it contains a peal of six bells (one the gift of Bishop Strickland), and is divided into two stories; the first has two windows, each of two lights; the second has one of three lights Decorated on each face; at the north-east angle is an engaged turret.

The east front of the CHOIR contains a Decorated window of nine lights, 48 ft. high by 30 ft. in breadth, with rich tracery in the top, the most superb in England; the arch probably the work of Bishop Welton. The lower part is of the time of Edward II.; the stained glass, representing the general resurrection, is of the time of Richard II. Artistic, easy in design, admirably adapted to its constructive position, and harmoniously balaneed, it takes the highest rank as a master-piece for dexterity of handling and perfection in execution. Above it is a triangular window with foliated tracery. The gable is surmounted with a cross. Gigantic buttresses, with statues, SS. Mary, Peter and Paul, James and John, in niches, and lofty crocketed pinnacles, flank it. The aisles are lighted by triplets; but some of the windows are large, and have tracery Decorated or Perpendicular. The parapet is plain. The buttresses are shallow. The clerestory has none. The windows are in combination of threes, and filled with Decorated tracery.

The Norman NAVE, of which two out of eight bays remain, since 1813 has been used as the parish church of St. Mary. The arches of the nave, built c. 1100, are cylindrical, 14 ft. 2 in. high, but 17 ft. 6 in. in circumference. The windows are round-headed in the nave. The clerestory and triforium were built 1140-50.

The TRANSEPT is of two bays; the north wing had an

apse. The south wing has an eastern chapel. The north wing was rebuilt, after a fire, by Bishop Strickland, in 1401. It is narrow, small, and plain. The ceiling is of wood, in square compartments once richly painted. The north window of the transept is of six lights, Perpendicular. Two wells are in the transepts-one in the wall of the south transept is 25 ft. deep, the other near the northeast tower-pier is oval, 3 ft. 7 in. by 3 ft. 2 in., built of ashlar, and 45 ft. deep.. They were made to drain a spring which runs through the transept, and had caused a settlement of the Norman work. The south transept was built c. 1100; the clerestory added 1140-50. Fragments of the square Norman font are built into the walls. There is no crypt.

The CHOIR, Early English, composed of eight bays, divided by clustered columns, with sculptured capitals of leaves and flowers, and ball-flowers in the mouldings, has a triforium of three pointed arches, trefoiled and of two lights in each bay with a string-course above and below. Over the triforium rises a lofty clerestory, likewise of three pointed arches, and beneath the windows is a gallery, pierced with quatrefoils: both are of the latter part of the 14th century. The easternmost bay is of the period of Edward II. The curious fact that old arches rest upon later pillars is accounted for by the re-use of old materials in the reconstruction of the latter in the 14th century. They were enriched with red roses and gold monograms by Prior Gondiber. The vaulting of the aisles and arcades is of the 13th century.

Great restorations were commenced by Mr. Christian, under the decanate of Dr. Tait, now Bishop of London, at a cost of 15,000l. He discovered in 1855 a cross of the 7th century built into the south transept in 1300, and a curious fresco on the north-east pier of the tower. The unique hammer-beam roof completed by Bishop Appleby, which had been plastered over in 1764, when the ancient bishop's throne was destroyed, was opened and coloured by T. Pyffers, under the direction of Owen Jones; the transept roof was raised, and in the north wing a Deco

E

rated window inserted. Repairs are being conducted by Mr. Purday.

The organ, by Avery of London, was set up in 1806. Water power was in 1858 applied to the bellows. The engine is under the immediate control of the organist by suitable gearing which leads to the valves of the cistern. The font is hexagonal.

From the south aisle a chapel projects; St. Katherine's Chapel (now the choristers' vestry) has a screen with the initials of T. Gondiber, prior, c. 1484, and adjoins the east wall of the south transept. In this chapel are preserved three almeries, a helmet of the 14th century, two ancient copes, and the well-known ivory horn given by Henry I. to the priory. The destruction of vestments at the Reformation is very remarkable; St. Paul's had 128, Lincoln 250, and York 320 suits, of which not one remains. Such was the beauty of English embroidery-work, that in the reign of Henry III., Pope Innocent IV. sent bulls to the bishops to send a considerable quantity to Rome. In the choir aisles are curious legendary paintings of SS. Cuthbert, Anthony, and Augustine, of the time of Prior Gondiber. On the tower-piers legendary stories were painted.

Prince Charles Edward, in 1745, during his occupation of the city, installed Thomas Coppock, a clergyman of Lancashire, openly in the cathedral, which subsequently was made the prison of the garrison by the butcher Duke of Cumberland.

The principal monuments are—

Bishop Law.

Choir.-Richard Bell, bishop, d. 1496, a superb brass; Henry Robinson, d. 1616, brass.

N. Aisle.-Archdeacon Paley; Bishops Sylvester de Everdon, d. 1254, effigy; Appleby, d. 1365, stone coffin; Halton, d. 1524, effigy.

S. Aisle. Sir T. Skelton, temp. Henry V., arched recess.

St. Catharine's Chapel.-Bishop Welton, d. 1362, tomb and effigy. N. Transept.—Altar-tomb of Prior Senhouse, on which certain rents were paid; Chancellor Fletcher, memorial window.

The Chapter consists of a dean and four canons. There are two minor canons, eight lay vicars, and eight choristers. Choral service is sung twice daily, at 10 and 3, and the Holy Communion is administered monthly. The capitular income is 66987. a-year. The library contains 3174 volumes. The repairs have cost 15,0007.

Arms: Arg. on a cross sable, a mitre of the field. Carlisle, Oxford, and Bristol, were the only chapters of Austin Canons whose churches became cathedrals. Carlisle numbers among its bishops Sylvester de Everdon, Lord Chancellor; the brave John de Kirkby, the soldierbishop, who routed stout Earl Douglas in battle; Thomas Merks, whose fidelity to his fallen master, Richard II., is familiar to readers of Shakspeare; Oglethorpe, who in Bonner's borrowed mitre and robes had the courage to crown Queen Elizabeth; the learned Usher, who with his failing eyes followed the sunshine from room to room; and Nicholson. Among its dignitaries appear Dean Smalridge, who "carried a bucket here to quench the flames which Atterbury had kindled ;" the Erastian Paley; and Percy, Bishop of Dromore, who here caught his love for reliques of Border-minstrelsy.

The Abbey gateway was built by Christopher Slee, 1528. The tower of the deanery was restored, and the magnificent roof in it erected by Simon Senhouse, prior, 1507. It has a curious square-headed oriel of the 15th century. The refectory, which is 100 ft. long by 32 ft. broad, was built by Thomas Gondibour, prior 1484-1501; it is used as a library, chapter-house, and school. At the end is an ancient stone confessional. Beneath is a crypt. The entrance from the cloister into the church still exists.

The episcopal palace is at Rose Castle.

Chester.

Queer, quaint old Chester,

Grotesque and honest art thou sure,
And so behind this very changeful day,
So fond of antique fashions, it would seem
Thou must have slept an age or two away.
Thy very streets are galleries.

Old Rome was once thy guest, beyond a doubt,
And thou dost hoard her gifts with pride and care,
As erst the Grecian dame displayed her jewels rare.

CHESTER (Ceaster, "the Camp "), built, according to the enthusiastic Sir Thomas Eliot, by a great-grandson of Noah, was a Roman station of Agricola's XXth Legion, and is situated on the Dee. The ground-plan preserves the form of the camp-a parallelogram with four gates, the four streets crossing in the centre. It was the border-fortress of Edward I., the loyal stronghold of Charles I.; and contains —a circumstance unique in an English city except London, and only paralleled in Dublin and Rome-two cathedrals, St. John's having at one time served as the church of the see of Lichfield.

The walls of Chester are complete, three-quarters of a mile in circuit, and of mouldering sandstone, Roman at the base the towers were built 1307. At the north-east angle, on the old circular wall, built in the reign of Edward I., is built the Phoenix-tower, so called from the crest of a city company. The room above was built in 1618: from it Charles I. watched the battle of Rowton Moor, Sept. 24, 1645. On the north-west, approached by Bonwaldesthorne Turret, is the Water-tower, built 1322 by John Helpstone. It is now fitted up as a Museum. At a remote period ships came up the Dee, at high-tide, and lay moored under this tower. A house, the only one spared in the plague, bears the inscription,-"God's providence is mine inheritance." The Castle has Roman vaulting, Norman walls, and an Early English, or Late Norman, gatehouse and chapel. The Stanley House, or old Palace,