ishd for the Prpreters, W. Clam New Bond S&J. Carpenter, Old Bond S Ostaleg.

CH.

Drawn Engrav by J.Storer, for the Antiquarian Topographical Cabin.co.

Buttress on the Noide Chichester Cathedral.

Published for the Propractors by W Clarke New Bond S&J Carpenter, Old Bond. Od 11809

THE city of Chichester is erected on a small eminence situated in a pleasant plain, in the western part of the county of Sussex near the borders of Hampshire, sheltered from the north and north-east winds, by part of a range of hills which reaches from the Arun to the county of Hants: the highest of these, St. Roche, and Bow hills, command most extensive and beautiful prospects; on the former is a Danish encampment, and on the latter are some barrows, which were examined a few years since, when some military weapons of an uncommon sort, and other things usually discovered in barrows, were dug up.

At this distance of time, it is impossible to ascertain the period when the city was founded: the walls which surround it were certainly erected by the Romans; urns and coins of that people have at various times been discovered in them; but it must not be concluded from this circumstance that the city derived its origin from them. A spacious temple was erected here to Neptune and Minerva, in the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius. This fact was ascertained by the discovery of a stone in the year 1731, by the workmen employed in laying the foundation of the present council chamber in the North Street :

F

CHICHESTER.

this stone was by the corporation presented to the then duke of Richmond, at whose magnificent seat at Goodwood it is still preserved. The inscription runs thus:

NEPTVNO.ET.MINERVÆ.TEMPLVM.PROSALVTE.

DOMVS.DIVINE.EX.AVCTORITATE. COGIDVENI.REGIS.

LEGATI. TIBERII.CLAVDII.AVGVSTI.IN.BRITTANIA.

COLLEGIVM.FABRORVM.ET.QVI.IN.EO.E.SACRIS. VEL. HOÑORATI.SVNT.DE.SVO.DEDICAVERVNT.DONANTE.AREAM. PVDENTE.PVDENTINI.FILIO.

At the same time a Roman pavement was discovered, which was continued as far as the workmen had occasion to dig.

Chichester appears to have greatly declined in wealth and population, from the union of the heptarchy, in the early part of the ninth century, to nearly the end of the eleventh, at which time the episcopal seat was removed to this city from Selsea, where it had been fixed nearly 300 years. It was originally established there by St. Wilfred, who first converted the inhabitants of Sussex to the Christian faith: shortly after this removal the city began to flourish, and has been in a state of progressive improvement until the present day.

Prior to the translation, the only religious buildings of note in this city appear to have been the monastery of St. Peter, which is supposed to have occupied a part of the site of the present cathedral, and a little nunnery,