Tuesday, September 19th 1854 ~ Liverpool, U.K.

Liverpool ~ The Doctor (Gallup) finally bid us good bye today and started for London. He had become, in his character of suitor to Alice, a little in the way. It would have been amusing to me, if I had not felt a little badly for him in his disappointment. We bought for him yesterday a cane with a compass in the top, a very odd affair, as a little memento of our friendship and voyage. He said goodbye to us just as we were getting into a carriage to take us to the railway for Chester, which ancient city we visited today in company with Capt Knowles. Starting at ten this morning and returning at seven o’clock in the evening – as soon as we arrived in Chester we went to a hotel and ordered dinner prepared at a certain hour and then walked out to see the place. This is the oldest town in England, or rather the oldest looking town- its walls are still perfect and most of their watch towers standing, all of course covered with moss and ivy. The walls cannot be over 12 feet high and have a very antique bow and arrow look. They extend completely around the city and upon them is a very pretty walk presenting picturesque views. This being the first walled town we have seen delights us much – the streets are narrow; the houses queer and old fashioned, and the people primitive looking for England. The chief object of interest in this place is the fine old cathedral, which with a few alterations since, was completed in the 12th century and is still perfect. It is a most venerable looking pile of blackened stone, weather worn on the outside and its carving much defaced. Like almost all catholic cathedrals it is cruciform – one enters by the (nave) which is empty and unadorned, except by a few plain marble tablets to the memory of men who died in the 18th century. From the end of the nave opens the Choir, which is beautifully fitted up for service. The lower part is lined with tier above tier of carved oak in gothic spires – the seats, or rather their arms, are also elaborately carved and this work is very curious. It was done in the middle ages and is taken from scriptural history. Of course the designs are somewhat rough and uncouth – one is the “root of Jesse, he is represented as an old man with a tail and to this tail are attached several other old men and women, his descendants in single file. Many feet above us and running around the building is a very narrow stone gallery – so narrow that two persons could not possibly walk abreast in it. It is arched and that so low that a man of the usual size cannot stand upright in it. Here, eight hundred years ago, in each of these arches, stood a veiled nun and chanted the Te Deum, in concert with the monks who were placed in a similar gallery just above this. The Captain became wedged in one of the passages and it was really several minutes before he could extricate himself. In the transepts are the “parish chapel”, the “chapter house”, school room and monks refectory. The transepts being thus divided up, break the cruciform appearance of the cathedral. In the chapter house are preserved some torn flags borne at Bunker Hill. In one of the passages a Norman crypt was pointed out to us, where many of the dignitaries of church and state in the times of the first English Normans were laid. We saw it through a grated window. In passing we noticed a monument about two feet high of stone and somewhat carved of an Abbot that landed in England with William the Conqueror – this is in one of the side isles. There are many monuments here that were much defaced in the time of Cromwell who made the cathedral a vast stable for his horses. We now returned to the hotel and dined, after dinner we returned and heard service here. The chanting was done by a choir of eleven boys of different sizes and it was very sweet indeed. They were all robed in white and looked very devotional and withal made a perfect picture standing in the midst of the gothic spires of dark oak, in this venerable and massive building. The shadows of a thousand years seemed looking down upon us. These sang sweetly and the whole service was most impressive. We walked to the barracks and on the wall of the city and then returned to Liverpool.