Читать книгу The Stranger's Handbook to Chester and Its Environs онлайн

11 страница из 41

“In 1312, Edward II. came to Chester to meet Piers de Gaveston, on his return from Ireland.

“In 1399, Henry of Lancaster, in arms against Richard II., mustered his troops under the Walls of Chester, whence, on the 19th of August, he marched for Flint, and returned on the following day with Richard, whom he lodged in a tower over the outer gateway of the castle, opposite to Glover’s Stone, from whence he was conveyed prisoner to London.

“In 1459, Henry VI., with Queen Margaret and her son Edward, visited Chester, and bestowed little silver swans on the Cheshire gentlemen who espoused her cause.

“On the 13th of July, 1494, Henry VII., with his mother and the Queen, came to Chester with a great retinue, from whence they proceeded to Hawarden; the Earl of Derby, and a number of ‘Chester gallants’ attending.

“The summer of the year 1507, was memorable here from the awful visitation of the ‘sweating sickness,’ which raged for a short time with great violence. It is recorded that 91 householders were carried off in three days by this distemper; but it is worthy of remark, that the female sex were generally exempt from the plague, only four having fallen victims to the disease. Cats and women have each nine lives! In 1517, the sweating sickness again proved fatal to many of the inhabitants; and the city was also infected with the plague, probably to a more serious extent. It is recorded that ‘many died and others fled out of the city, insomuch that the streets were full of grass;’ and ‘that for want of trading the grass did grow a foot high at the Cross, and in other streets of the city.’ In 1550 the city suffered severely from the sweating sickness, and to this affliction was added a great scarcity of provisions; corn selling in Chester at sixteen shillings a bushel. From the year 1602 to 1605, with few intermissions, the dreadful effects of the plague were experienced in the city. It is stated to have begun in the month of September, in the former year, at the house of one Glover, in St. John’s lane, in whose house alone seven persons died. The contagion was particularly fatal in 1603 and 1604; 650 persons died in the former year, and 986 in the latter; at one period 55 died weekly.—During this dreadful visitation, the fairs of the city were suspended, the court of exchequer was removed to Tarvin, and the county assizes were held at Nantwich. The plague had abated in the month of February 1605.”