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there is nothing else in the world at all like it, except the prints published by the enterprising booksellers who live there. But very convenient is this arrangement for old ladies of weak minds who quail at meeting cattle, and young ladies of extravagant ones who doat on shopping, in spite of the weather. For it raises the first above suspicion of danger, and shelters the second from being favoured with the visits of the clouds, who cannot here drop in upon them."

Chester Race Course has deservedly acquired high renown, being inferior to none, if not superior to any in Britain. It forms a perfect amphitheatre, and affording the spectator an uninterrupted view.

Amongst the numerous Roman remains, which give so much interest to the old town of Chester, we may mention a hypocaust and sweating bath, which is near the site of the old Feathers Hotel. This old relic is of surpassing interest, and in almost as perfect a state as when first erected. This ancient relic consists of two rooms, considerably below the present level of the street, the first being 15 feet long, 8 feet wide, and about 64 feet deep. The hypocaust is rectangular, about the same size; but, except at the entrance, not more than half as deep as the first chamber. Thirty-two feet square pillars 2 feet high, and one foot in diameter at top and bottom originally supported it, of which pillars twenty-eight still remain. These pillars are surmounted by brick tiles, 18 inches square, and 3 inches thick, over these again are placed tiles 2 feet square, perforated here and there with small holes, through which the heat ascended to the sweeting chamber above. Immediately over the hypocaust was the sudatory or sweating room, which was provided with seats for the bathers, who soon found themselves in a hot perspiration. They were next either plunged into a cold-water bath, or carefully scraped with an instrument made for the purpose; after which they were rubbed down with towels, and being anointed with fresh oil, they repaired to the tiring room: here they dressed themselves, left ther denarii for the attendants, and so departed, after the enjoyment of a luxury which, perhaps, only Romans had then learned to enjoy.

The premises have been rebuilt; but we are happy to say, that antiquarian zeal has taken care to preserve from injury this interesting relic of old Rome. Since the premises were rebuilt, the bath is much easier of access than formerly, and visitors can inspect the remains without any discomfort.

In the Yatch Field, in 1779, while excavating for the houses between Stanley-place and Watergate-street, several Roman remains of the highest interest were brought to light, and among them a curious altar. This altar, which is now in the British Museum, has its two sides richly sculptured with sacraficial instruments, as well as cornucopia, rudder, serpent, &c. The inscription is in several places very much defaced, but the opening lines seem to read, when translated, as follows:-"To returning fortune, to Esculapius, and to (the genius) of his health, &e."

When Chester Castle was first erected, whether during the British, Roman, or Saxon occupation, is a problem likely never to be determined. It is, however, recorded in history that Ethelfleda, the brave daughter of King Alfred, and wife of Ethelred, Earl of Mercia, enlarged the boundaries of the city by out-building

the ancient walls upon the south side, and thus including therein the Castle, which was before that time inconveniently situated "without the walls.' There can be no question, therefore, that a fortress existed here long previous to the Norman conquest; and that, although it was the chosen court and camp of Hugh Lupus the Norman, nephew of the Conqueror, it is stated by Camden to have been merely repaired by that powerful baron. On the death of the last Norman Earl, the Castle passed into the hands of the King (Henry III.).

Henry of Lancaster (afterwards Henry IV.) having taken up arms against Richard II., in 1399, mustered his army upon the banks of the Dee, under the walls of Chester, and Sir Tiers Legh, of Lyme, an adherent of Richard, was beheadad, and his head set upon the top of the highest tower in the Castle. A few days afterwards, the unfortunate Richard and the Earl of Salisbury were brought prisoners to Chester, mounted (says Hail)" upon two little nagges, not worth forty francs,' when the King was delivered" to the Duke of Gloucester's sonne and the Earl of Arundell's sonne, that loved him but a little, for he had put their fathers to death, who led him strait to the Castell."

In 1403, Henry Percy, the renowned Hotspur, visited Chester, on his way to the fatal field of Shrewsbury, and caused proclamation to be made that King Richard was yet alive, and a prisoner in Chester Castle, where he might be seen.

Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, wife of the good Duke Humphrey, was confined for several months in Chester Castle, in 1447, previons to her removal to the Isle of Man, under a sentence of perpetual imprisonment on a charge of" practising the King's death."

Time warns us to conclude for the present, but we hope next month to trace our return route to the Lowlands of Scotland.

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ENGRAVED BY E. HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY THE LATE ABRAHAM COOPER, R.A.

Among those not intimately conversant with the history of deer, there is a mistaken supposition that these great stags are the last example of an extinct species. Naturalists, however, entertain no question of their identity with the common red deer, and there is no doubt that they were merely giants of an uncommon occurrence, at a time when the race had not been diminished and degenerated by the continual slaughter of fire-arms, and the abridgment of their great forests. The trophies preserved at Mauritzburg were the choice of two centuries, and the range of various kingdoms brought together by sovereign power, and from the finest haunts; and wherever deer have been preserved with the same advantages as those which produced the Royal Saxon heads, they doubtless presented, with an equal period, a similar superiority of growth. The largest Scottish deer of the present period known to us was the last great hart shot in the forest of Glen-Fidich in the year 1831, and said to weigh thirty stones. But this stag having been killed upon a Saturday evening, was left "in the hill" until Monday morning, and then for facility of carriage being broken on the

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ground, his weight was only computed from the quarters sent to the castle. The head of this stag bears seventeen points, and is preserved in the ducal collection. Another very similar and of equal size is—or during the life of the late James Duff was to be seen at Innes House, in the Woods of which it was killed about a year later than the Great Hart of Glen-Fidich; both of these were inferior to the Cromarty head, which, as before noticed, bears twenty-two points. These deer, however, were rare, but of old in the vast chases of the border and great forests of the Highlands, the one bounded by plains of corn and wood, the other clothed like those of Hungary with oaks the ancient Scottish stags were of a size approaching to those of the Continent. From the uncommented rule in the old books of hunting, that a stag was not considered a "Great Hart" until he obtained sixteen points, and that his "summing" was afterwards to be named by as many more as he acquired, it is evident that the first number must have been an ordinary distinction, and that a considerable excess was not uncommon. The horns occasionally dug out of mosses confirm this presumption: at Coire-Monaidh, in the time of the late hereditary family, there was preserved one found near the head of Glen-Urchart, the beam of which was far superior to that of any living deer, and bore a great palmed top, a feature now almost unknown in the Highland forests, though formerly common among the old deer, both in the high and low country chases. At Tongue, the seat of the Lords of Reay, when that estate was in the possession of their family, there was shown a gigantic head discovered in a moss at the foot of Bean Loyal, and which bore an oval "crown" above fourteen inches in circumference, and having within the tines a "cuach" or cup, which, according to the jolly gauge of the old Highlanders, was " capable of containing a wine-glass of whisky." The stags which bore these heads were equalled, if not exceeded, in the low country chases. The mosses of Liddesdale, Eskdale, and Cheviot, have produced examples of beams bearing from fourteen to sixteen points, and one found in Ettrick Forest measured thirty-eight inches in length, and bore twenty-four tines. Such deer are now no longer to be found, and circumscribed by sheep and desolation, or divested of the great oak forests which were their support and shelter in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the existing race cannot equal their continental neighbours, because their growth is often stunted by severe winters and worse springs, in which, devoid of warm shelter and corn pastures, they have no resource in a sufficiently diversified range. It is for this reason that sheep are the greatest enemies to deer, by diminishing their already restricted haunts, disturbing their repose, and deteriorating their best pastures. For all these causes the gallant natives of the hill detest the sordid and encroaching intruders, and will not inhabit the same ground with large flocks. A remarkable instance of this antipathy was observed in the end of the last century by an old drover, familiarly called “ An dròbhair bàn,”† when crossing one of the great moors in Sutherland, soon after the first "head" of sheep had

* Seventeen are counted, but one is very small, and is rather a "croché" or thorn, which might never have grown into a tine.

The late respectable Mr. MacIntyre of Clunamacre in Lorn, whose acute observation, great traditionary recollections, and warm hospitality, rendered him a remarkable example of the last race of " true Highlanders."

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