120 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



in an old city, that the surface is irregular ; we are ascending 

 a slight elevation. Notwithstanding the old structure over 

 head, and the well-worn, thick, old flagging under foot, we 

 notice the shop fronts are finished with plate-glass, and all the 

 brilliancy of the most modern commercial art and taste. 

 Turning, to make the contrast more striking, by looking at 

 the little windows and rude carvings of the houses opposite, 

 we see a bannister or hand-rail separates the sidewalk from 

 the carriage-way, and are astonished, in stepping out to it, to 

 find the street is some ten feet below us. We are evidently 

 in the second story of the houses. Finding steps leading 

 down, we descend into the streets and discover another tier 

 of shops, on the roofs of which we have been waling. 



Going on, we shortly come to where the streets meet in 

 the centre of the town. Passing over the ground where the 

 cross, and the pillory, and other institutions of religion, and 

 justice, and merry-making formerly stood, we ascend steps, 

 and are again in one of those singular walks called by the 

 inhabitants the Eows. There are no more stylish shop fronts, 

 but dark doorways and old windows again, and on almost 

 every door-post little black and red checkers, which hiero 

 glyphics, if you are not sufficiently versed in Falstaffian lore 

 to understand, you can find rendered in plain black and white 

 queen s English (or people s English by our law), under some 

 woman s name, painted on the beam overhead &quot; Licensed to 

 sell beer,&quot; &c. Generally there will be an additional sign, 

 naming the inn or tavern, always in letters and almost never 

 in portraiture. I remember &quot; The Crown and Castle ? &quot; &quot; The 

 Crown and Anchor,&quot; &quot;The Castle and Falcon,&quot; &quot;THe, King s 

 Head,&quot; &quot;The Black Bear,&quot; &quot;The Blue Boar,&quot; &quot;The .Pied 

 Bull,&quot; &quot;The Green Dragon,&quot; &quot;The White Lion,&quot; &quot;The Sun 

 and Apple Tree,&quot; &quot;The Colliers Arms,&quot; &quot;The Arms of 

 Man,&quot; &quot;The Malt Shovel,&quot; etc., etc. 



