August 24th.--I went to Eaton Hall yesterday with my wife and Mr. G. P.
Bradford, via Chester. On our way, at the latter place, we visited St.
John's Church. It is built of the same red freestone as the cathedral,
and looked exceedingly antique, and venerable; this kind of stone, from
its softness, and its liability to be acted upon by the weather, being
liable to an early decay. Nevertheless, I believe the church was built
above a thousand years ago,--some parts of it, at least,--and the surface
of the tower and walls is worn away and hollowed in shallow sweeps by the
hand of Time. There were broken niches in several places, where statues
had formerly stood. All, except two or three, had fallen or crumbled
away, and those which remained were much damaged. The face and details
of the figure were almost obliterated. There were many gravestones round
the church, but none of them of any antiquity. Probably, as the names
become indistinguishable on the older stones, the graves are dug over
again, and filled with new occupants and covered with new stones, or
perhaps with the old ones newly inscribed.
Closely connected with the church was the clergyman's house, a
comfortable-looking residence; and likewise in the churchyard, with
tombstones all about it, even almost at the threshold, so that the
doorstep itself might have been a tombstone, was another house, of
respectable size and aspect.
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