By the Rev. W. H. Jones. 87 
tute the ‘Shambles.’ The mark of the gable-line is still perceptible 
on the blank wall against which it formerly stood. It was oblong in 
shape, about 25 feet long and 15 feet broad, and was supported on 
two sides by a row of stone pillars, all the space below being open, 
and appropriated principally to butchers’ stalls. Between pillar 
and pillar was inserted some wooden palisading. Above, on the 
first floor, there was a room in which the Courts were held and the 
business of the Manor transacted. Hard by, were the pillory and 
the stocks, the upright post of the former probably serving as a 
whipping pillar to which young culprits were bound. The stocks 
were afterwards removed to the foot of the Bridge, on the south 
side, whence they have now disappeared altogether. Not a few 
are there among our ancients who regret that the days are passed, 
in which a little summary punishment checked the onward progress 
of crime, without the necessity of consigning the young offender 
to a gaol, and thus branding him with a mark of disgrace that no 
length of time can obliterate. 
With all these relics of bygone days, the old Town Hall, as 
we have just intimated, has itself passed away. It had long been 
in a decaying state for want of repairs. Again and again had 
presentments been made concerning it, as a place not only ‘unfit 
but unsafe to transact the Lord’s business in.’ Once at least the 
Borough Jury were bold enough to present the Steward, for not 
attending to their presentments in this particular. No attempt 
however was made to sustain the tottering fabric, and one night 
the building fell. Whether its fall was caused by accident or 
design,—rumour strongly asserts the latter,—men cared not to 
enquire. The person is now living who carted away the materials 
of the ‘Old Town Hall’ of Bradford, which he previously pur- 
chased for the sum of Twenty Shillings! 
A few words may be added on the PresenpaL Manor which 
for the last three hundred years has been held separately from the 
Lay Manor, to which more especially the remarks in the previous 
pages have had reference. 
The ‘Prebendal Manor’ was, at the Dissolution, bestowed, as we 
have already stated, (p. 41.) on the Dean and Chapter of Bristol by 
