county lies in the direction of domestic buildings rather than ecclesiastical. Old half-timbered houses are common in almost every part of the county; many of these add to the picturesqueness of the streets in the older towns, as in the case of the famous Rows in Chester, while in the country many ancient manor-houses remain as farm-houses. Among the finest examples are Bramhall Hall, between Stockport and Macclesfield, and Moreton Old Hall, near Congleton (see House, Plate IV., fig. 13). The first, occupying three sides of a quadrangle (formerly completed by a fourth side), dates from the 13th and 14th centuries, and contains a splendid panelled hall and other rooms. Of Moreton Hall, which is moated, only three sides similarly remain; its date is of the 16th century. Other buildings of the Elizabethan period are not infrequent, such as Brereton and Dorfold Halls, while more modern mansions, set in fine estates, are numerous. Crewe Hall is a modern building on an ancient site, and Vale Royal near Winsford incorporates fragments of a Cistercian monastery founded in 1277. A noteworthy instance of the half-timbered style applied to an ecclesiastical building is found in the church of Lower Peover near Knutsford, of which only the tower is of stone. The church dates from the 13th century, and was carefully restored in 1852. Cheshire has no monastic remains of importance, save those attached to the cathedral of Chester, nor are its village churches as a rule of special interest. There is, however, a fine late Perpendicular church (with earlier portions) at Astbury near Congleton, and of this style and the Decorated the churches of Bunbury and Malpas may be noticed as good illustrations. In Chester, besides the cathedral, there is the massive Norman church of St John; and St Michael’s church and the Rivers chapel at Macclesfield are noteworthy. No more remarkable religious monuments remain in the county than the two sculptured Saxon crosses in the market-place at Sandbach. Ruins of two Norman castles exist in Beeston and Halton.
Authorities.—Sir John Doddridge, History of the Ancient and Modern State of the Principality of Wales, Duchy of Cornwall, and Earldom of Chester (London, 1630; 2nd ed., 1714); D. King, The Vale-Royall of England, or the County Palatine of Cheshire Illustrated, 4 parts (London, 1656); D. and S. Lysons, Magna Britannia, vol. ii. pt. ii. (London, 1810); J. H. Hanshall, History of the County Palatine of Chester (Chester, 1817–1823); J. O. Halliwell, Palatine Anthology (London, 1850); G. Ormerod, History of the County Palatine and City of Chester (London, 1819; new ed., London, 1875–1882); J. P. Earwaker, East Cheshire (2 vols., London, 1877); R. Wilbraham, Glossary (London, 1820; 2nd ed., London, 1826); and Glossary founded on Wilbraham by E. Leigh (London, 1877); J. Croston, Historic Sites of Cheshire (Manchester, 1883); and County Families of Cheshire (Manchester, 1887); W. E. A. Axon, Cheshire Gleanings (Manchester, 1884); Holland, Glossary of Words used in the County of Cheshire (London, 1884–1886); N. G. Philips, Views of Old Halls in Cheshire (London, 1893); Victoria County History, Cheshire. See also various volumes of the Chetham Society and of the Record Society of Manchester, as well as the Proceedings of the Cheshire Antiquarian Society, and Cheshire Notes and Queries.
CHESHUNT, an urban district in the Hertford parliamentary division of Hertfordshire, England, on the Lea, 14 m. N. of London by the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1891) 9620; (1901) 12,292. The church of St Mary is Perpendicular and has been enlarged in modern times. A college was founded, for the education of young men to the ministry of the Connexion, by Selina countess of Huntingdon in 1768 at Trevecca-isaf near Talgarth, Brecknockshire. In 1792 it was moved to Cheshunt, and became known as Cheshunt College. In 1904, as it was felt that the college was unable properly to carry on its work under existing conditions, it was proposed to amalgamate it with Hackney College, but the Board of Education refused to sanction any arrangement which would set aside the requirements of the deed of foundation, namely that the officers and students of Cheshunt College should subscribe the fifteen articles appended to the deed, and should take certain other obligations. In 1905 it was decided by the board to reorganize the college and remove it to Cambridge.
Nursery and market gardening, largely under glass, brick-making and saw-mills are the chief industries of Cheshunt. Roman coins and other remains have been found at this place, and an urn appears built into the wall of an inn. A Romano-British village or small town is indicated. There was a Benedictine nunnery here in the 13th century. Of several interesting mansions in the vicinity one, the Great House, belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, and a former Pengelly House was the residence of Richard Cromwell the Protector after his resignation. Theobalds Park was built in the 18th century, but the original mansion was acquired by William Cecil, Lord Burghley, in 1561; being taken in 1607 by James I. from Robert Cecil, first earl of Salisbury, in exchange for Hatfield House. James died here in 1625, and Charles I. set out from here for Nottingham in 1642 at the outset of the Civil War. One of the entrances to Theobalds Park is the old Temple Bar, removed from Fleet Street, London, in 1878.
CHESIL BANK (A.S. ceosol, pebble bank), a remarkable beach of shingle on the coast of Dorsetshire, England. It is separated from the mainland for 8 m. by an inlet called the Fleet, famous for its swannery, and continues in all for 18 m. south-eastward from Abbotsbury, terminating at the so-called Isle of Portland. The height of the bank at the Portland end is 35 ft. above spring-tide level, and its breadth 200 yds. The greater height at this end accords with the general-movement of shingle along this coast from west to east; and for the same reason the pebbles of the bank decrease in size from 1 to 3 in. in diameter at Portland to the size of peas at the western end, where the breadth is only 170 yds.
CHESNELONG, PIERRE CHARLES (1820–1894), French politician, was born at Orthez in the department of the Basses-Pyrénées, on the 14th of April 1820. In 1848 he proclaimed himself a Republican; but after the establishment of the Second Empire he changed his views, and in 1865 was returned to the chamber as the official candidate for his native place. He at once became conspicuous, both for his eloquence and for his uncompromising clericalism, especially in urging the necessity for maintaining the temporal power of the papacy. In 1869 he was again returned, and, devoting himself with exceptional ability to financial questions, was in 1870 appointed to report the budget. During and after the war, for which he voted, he retired for a while into private life; but in 1872 he was again elected deputy, this time as a Legitimist, and took his seat among the extreme Right. He was the soul of the reactionary opposition that led to the fall of Thiers; and in 1873 it was he who, with Lucien Brun, carried to the comte de Chambord the proposals of the chambers. Through some misunderstanding, he reported on his return that the count had accepted all the terms offered, including the retention of the tricolour flag; and the count published a formal denial. Chesnelong now devoted himself to the establishment of Catholic universities and to the formation of Catholic working-men’s clubs. In 1876 he was again returned for Orthez, but was unseated, and then beaten by the republican candidate. On the 24th of November, however, he was elected to a seat in the senate, where he continued his vigorous polemic against the progressive attempts of the republican government to secularize the educational system of France until his death in 1894.
CHESNEY, CHARLES CORNWALLIS (1826–1876), British soldier and military writer, the third son of Charles Cornwallis Chesney, captain on the retired list of the Bengal Artillery, and nephew of General F. R. Chesney, was born in Co. Down, Ireland, on the 29th of September 1826. Educated at Blundell’s school, Tiverton, and afterwards at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he obtained his first commission as second lieutenant of engineers in 1845, passing out of the academy at the head of his term. His early service was spent in the ordinary course of regimental duty at home and abroad, and he was stationed in New Zealand during the Crimean War. Among the various reforms in the British military system which followed from that war was the impetus given to military education; and in 1858 Captain Chesney was appointed professor of military history at Sandhurst. In 1864 he succeeded Colonel (afterwards Sir Edward) Hamley in the corresponding chair at the Staff College. The writings of these two brilliant officers had a great influence not only at home, but on the continent and in America. Chesney’s
