200 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB VOL. Xiii. (3) 



three principal points in it. First, that it, too, has the 

 Council Chamber in an upper floor; second, that it has very- 

 large and heavy sash windows, which were copied, with 

 modification, in the plate-glass lights of the late Tolsey ; 

 and third, that the room stands upon pillars, and covers 

 the side walk in the street, forming a portico. This older 

 building dates from 1602. Where did the architect who 

 designed this Tolsey of three centuries ago, get his idea 

 of the covered gangway ? for it was certainly a survival, 

 not an innovation. An examination of the Roman build- 

 ing on the same site gives us the clue ; for it, too, had a 

 covered ambulatory ; and so had the Basilica at Silchester. 



The new Guildhall, which happens to stand on the site 

 of the Roman Praetorium, is itself in some degree an 

 evolution of the Tolsey which it replaces, inasmuch as it 

 preserves the principal feature in the older building, which 

 was the placing of the Council Chamber in the upper 

 storey, instead of on the ground floor. 



This arrangement was the result of experience ; and it 

 is clear that if the Tolsey has thus helped to determine the 

 form of the newer building, it must in turn have received 

 some impress from its predecessor : what it retained, with 

 what it discontinued, make up the evolution we shall 

 endeavour to follow. 



It is remarkable that while the City of Chester has been 

 so far destroyed in the disturbances it has sulTcrcd, that 

 even the main cross of the streets is displaced, yet it has 

 retained the style of building which provides such covered 

 ambulatories on a larger scale than any other town in 

 Britain ; for in the Rows at Chester, with their two- 

 storeyed covered passages, we have the parallel evolution 

 to that which is off"ercd by the Doge's Palace in Venice. 

 The only diff"ercnces are those arising from the purposes 

 of a commercial building being different to those of one 

 intended for official occupation [Plate IV., fig. 2.] 



