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

35 страница из 41

Passing on from ivy-capt Pemberton’s Parlour, we see on our left hand, through that refreshing grove of trees, a large and verdant mead, still retaining its ancient name of the Barrow Field, or Lady Barrow’s Hay. This is the place where the soldiers of old Rome went through their daily military exercises, and where, 1500 years afterwards, great numbers of the citizens who died of the plague were hurriedly interred. We are now upon a flat iron Bridge, and whew! with a rush like that of a tiger from his den, the giant of the nineteenth century—a steam-engine and train—emerge from the dark tunnel which passes under the city, and dash away beneath us, full forty miles an hour, en route to Ireland, by way of Holyhead. The Roman Walls, that resisted so successfully the Roundhead batteries, have in our own times succumbed to the engines of peace, and the railway trains, with their living freight, now career it merrily through two neighbouring apertures in these ancient fortifications.

A little farther ahead are some modern steps, leading down to the new Baths and Washhouses, in which is a capacious swimming-bath, where plebeians may indulge in a plunge for a penny, and where hot and cold shower and vapour baths are at the service of the public on equally reasonable terms. Previous to the erection of these Baths, the only means of egress from the city at this point was by an ancient postern underneath us, now blocked up.