commonly called West-Chester, to distinguish it from many other Chesters in the kingdom; the capital of Cheshire in England. It is a very ancient city, supposed to have been founded by the Romans; and plainly appears to have been a Roman station by the many antiquities which have been and are still discovered in and about the town. It was among the last places the Romans quitted; and here the Britons maintained their liberty long after the Saxons had got possession of the rest of their country. At present it is a large, well-built, wealthy city, and carries on a considerable trade. Mr Pennant calls it a city without a parallel, on account of the singular structure of the four principal streets. They are as if excavated out of the earth, and sunk many feet beneath the surface; the carriages drive far beneath the level of the kitchens on a line with ranges of shops. The houses are mostly of wood, with galleries, piazzas, and covered walls before them; by which not only the shops, but those who are walking about the town, are so hid, that one would imagine there were scarce any inhabitants in it. But though by this contrivance such as walk the streets are screened from rain, &c. yet the shops are thereby rendered dark and inconvenient. The back courts of all the houses are on a level with the ground; but to go into any of the four principal streets, it is necessary to descend a flight of several steps. It contained 17,472 inhabitants in 1811.

Chester is a bishop's see. It was anciently part of the diocese of Litchfield; one of whose bishops removing the seat of his see hither in the year 1075, occasioned his successors to be frequently styled bishop of Chester. But it was not erected into a distinct bishopric until the general dissolution of monasteries, when King Henry VIII. in the year 1547, raised it to this dignity, and allotted the church of the abbey of St Werburg for the cathedral, styling it the cathedral church of Christ and the blessed Virgin; adding the bishopric to the province of Canterbury: but soon after he disjoined it from Canterbury, and added it to the province of York. When this abbey was dissolved, its revenues were valued at £1033. 5s. 11d. This diocese contains the entire counties of Chester and Lancaster, part of the counties of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Yorkshire, two chapels in Denbighshire, and five parishes in Flintshire; amounting in all to 256 parishes, of which 101 are impropriations. This bishopric is valued in the king's books at £200l. 1s. 8d. and is computed to be worth annually £2900l.; the clergy's tenth amounting to £435l. 12s. To this cathedral belong a dean, two archdeacons, a chancellor, a treasurer, six prebendaries, and other inferior officers and servants. W. Long. 3. o. N. Lat. 53. 12.

Chester-le-Street, the Cunacestre of the Saxons; a small thoroughfare town between Newcastle and Durham, with a good church and fine spire. In the Saxon times this place was greatly respected on account of the relics of St Cuthbert, deposited here by Bishop Eardolf, for fear of the Danes, who at that time (about 884) ravaged the country. His shrine became afterwards an object of great devotion. King Athelstan, on his expedition to Scotland, paid it a visit, to obtain, by intercession of the saint, success on his arms; bestowed a multitude of gifts on the church; and directed, in case he died in his enterprise, that his body should be interred there. At the same time that this place was honoured with the remains of St Cuthbert, the bishopric of Lindesfarne was removed here, and endowed with all the lands between the Tyne and the Wear, the present county of Durham. It was styled St Cuthbert's patrimony. The inhabitants had great privileges, and always thought themselves exempt from all military duty, except that of defending the body of their saint. Chester-le-Street may be considered as the parent of the see of Durham: for when the relics were removed there, the see in 995 followed them. Tanner says, that probably a chapter of monks, or rather secular canons, attended the body at this place from its first arrival; but Bishop Bekke, in 1286, in honour of the saint, made the church collegiate, and established here a dean and suitable ecclesiastics; and, among other privileges, gave the dean a right of fishing on the Wear, and the tythe of fish.

New-Chester, a town of Pennsylvania in America, and capital of a county of that name. It is seated on the Delaware: and has a fine capacious harbour, admitting vessels of any burden. W. Long. 74. 7. N. Lat. 40. 15.