PECULIARITIES OF BUILDINGS. 101 



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 in an old city, that the surface is 

 irregular ; we are ascending a slight elevation. Notwithstanding 

 the old structure overhead, and the well-worn, thick, old flagging 

 under foot, we notice that the shop fronts are finished with plate- 

 glass, and all the brilliancy of the latest commercial taste and art. 

 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 side-walk from the carriage- 

 way, and are surprised, on stepping out to it, to find that the street 

 is some ten feet below us. We are evidently in the second story 

 of the houses. Finding steps leading downwards, we descend 

 into the street and discover another tier of shops, on the roofs of 

 which we have been walking. 



Going on, we shortly come to where the two 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 Rows." There are no more stylish shop fronta ; but dark 

 doorways and old windows again, and on almost every door-post 

 little black and red checkers, which hieroglyphics, if you are not 

 sufficiently versed in Falstaffian lore to understand, you can find 

 rendered in plain black and white queen's English on the beam 

 overhead " Licensed to sell beer," etc. Generally there will be 

 an additional sign, naming the inn or tavern, always in letters, 

 and almost never in portraiture. I remember " The Crown and 

 Castle," " The Crown and Anchor," " The Castle and Falcon," 

 "The King's Head," "The Black Bear," "The Blue Boar," 

 "The Pied Bull," "The Green Dragon," "The White Lion," 



