OLD STREET ARRANGEMENT. 119 



CHAPTER XIV. 



CHESTEE WITH IX. PECULIARITIES OF BUILDING. THE ROWS. A SEA-CAP 

 TAIN. ROMANCING. AN OLD INN. OLD ENGLISH TOWN HOUSES. TIMBER 



HOUSES. CLAIMING AN INHERITANCE. A COOK SHOP. ONE OF THE AL 

 LEYS. BREAKING INTO THE CATHEDRAL. EXPULSION. THE CURFEW. 



THE four gates of the city are opposite, and about equally 

 distant from each other. Four streets run from them, 

 meeting in the centre and dividing it into four quarters. 

 These principal streets are from one to three rods wide, and 

 besides them there are only a few narrow alleys, in which 

 carts can pass. But the whole city is honeycombed with 

 by-ways, varying from two to five feet in width ; sometimes 

 open above, and sometimes built over ; crooked and intri 

 cate, and if he cares where they lead him to, most puzzling 

 to a stranger. Besides these courts, alleys, and foot-paths, 

 there is another highway peculiarity in Chester, which it will 

 be difficult to describe. 



Imagine you have entered the gate with us after the walk 

 about the wall. The second story of most the old houses is 

 thrown forward, as you have seen it in the &quot; old settler s&quot; 

 houses at home. Sometimes it projects several feet, and is 

 supported by posts in the sidewalk. Soon this becomes a 

 frequent, and then a continuous arrangement ; the posts are 

 generally of stone, forming an arcade, and you walk behind 

 them in the shade. Sometimes, instead of posts, a solid wall 

 supports the upper house. You observe, as would be likely 



