more accommodation within.  The remains of the Clifford’s Tower, which played an important part in the siege, tell of the destruction caused by the blowing up of the magazine in 1683, an event which had more the appearance of design than accident.  York abounds with quaint houses and narrow streets.  We give an illustration of the curious Melia’s Passage; the origin of the name I am at a loss to conjecture.

Chester is, we believe, the only city in England which has retained the entire circuit of its walls complete.  According to old unreliable legends, Marius, or Marcius, King of the British, grandson of Cymbeline, who began his reign A.D. 73, first surrounded Chester with a wall, a mysterious person who must be classed with Leon Gawr, or Vawr, a mighty strong giant who founded Chester, digging caverns in the rocks for habitations, and with the story of King Leir, who first made human habitations in the future city.  Possibly there was here a British camp.  It was certainly a Roman city, and has preserved the form and plan which the Romans were accustomed to affect; its four principal streets diverging at right angles from a common centre, and extending north, east, south, and west, and terminating in a gate, the other streets forming insulae as at Silchester.  There is every reason to believe that the Romans surrounded the city with a wall.  Its strength was often tried.  Hither the Saxons came under Ethelfrith and pillaged the city, but left it to the Britons, who were not again dislodged until Egbert came in 828 and recovered it.  The Danish pirates came here and were besieged by Alfred, who slew all within its walls.  These walls were standing but ruinous when the noble daughter of Alfred, Ethelfleda, restored them in 907.  A volume would be needed to give a full account of Chester’s varied history, and our main concern is with the treasures that remain.  The circumference of the walls is nearly two miles, and there are four principal gates besides posterns—­the North, East, Bridge-gate, and Water-gate.  The North Gate was in the charge of the citizens; the others were held by persons who had that office by serjeanty under the Earls of Chester, and were entitled to certain tolls, which, with the custody of the gates, were frequently purchased by the Corporation.  The custody of the Bridge-gate belonged to the Raby family in the reign of Edward III.  It had two round towers, on the westernmost of which was an octagonal water-tower.  These were all taken down in 1710-81 and the gate rebuilt.  The East Gate was given by Edward I to Henry Bradford, who was bound to find a crannoc and a bushel for measuring the salt that might be brought in.  Needless to say, the old gate has vanished.  It was of Roman architecture, and consisted of two arches formed by large stones.  Between the tops of the arches, which were cased with Norman masonry, was the whole-length figure of a Roman soldier.  This gate was a porta principalis, the termination of the great Watling Street that led