Journey 3
Celia Fiennes
Chester
Why would Celia disparage our love of the past?
To Celia, Chester failed to meet the criteria of a modern city.
Although its port and new exchange embraced the era’s boom in trade, its buildings disappointed her.
She saw the contemporary ‘shambolic galleries propped up on pillars above the street’ as old-fashioned,
and would have preferred something that better represented progress.
But to us, such features (called ‘the Rows’) are now quaint and congenial, and the aspect of Chester most worth celebrating. It seems our love of the past runs counter to the thirst Fiennes had for the modern and innovative.