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“In thys cyte ben ways under erth, with vowtes and stone werke, wonderfully wrought, three chambred werkes, grete stones ingrave with old mannes names there in. Thys is that cyte that Ethelfrede, Kyng of Northumberlonde, destroyed, and sloughe there fast by nygh two thousonde monks of the mynster of Bangor. Thys is the cyte that Kyng Edgar cam to, some tyme, with seven Kyngs that were subject to hym.”

The delectable style of building above described is also thus commented upon in that poetical curiosity, the “Lyfe of St. Werburgh,” by Henry Bradshaw, another monk of Chester Abbey, who flourished in sackcloth and ashes sometime previous to 1500:—

The founder of Chester, as saith Polychronicon,

Was Leon Gauer, a mighty strong giant;

Which builded caves and dungeons many a one,

No goodly buildings, ne proper, ne pleasant.

But King Leil, a Briton sure and valiant,

Was founder of Chester by pleasant building,

And of Caerleil also named by the King.

Among the ancient Britons, the city was known from time immemorial as Caerlleon Vawr, and Caerlleon ar Dyfyrdwy, and was certainly with them a city of great importance, long before the advent of the Roman invaders to these shores. Equally certain is it that our primitive forefathers, unable to stem the onward current of the victorious Romans, fled in disorder from the city of Caerlleon (Chester), to the mountain fastnesses of Wales, and there concentrating themselves, defied for many a long and eventful century alike the wiles and encroachments of their enemies.