evenings, to drink milk at the country inn, and gossip with each
other round the holy well. On the right hand, between Cow Lane and the
Thames, lay the open, airy suburbs of Fleet and Temple, and the royal
Palace of Bridewell, with its grounds. In front, Hosier Lane and Cock
Lane gave access to Smithfield, beyond which was the sumptuous but now
dissolved Priory of Saint Bartholomew, the once royal domain of Little
Britain, and the walls and gates of the great city, with the grand tower
of Saint Paul's Cathedral visible in the distance, over the low roofs of
the surrounding houses.

The locality of Cow Lane was far from being a low neighbourhood, though
its name was not particularly aristocratic in sound. In the old days
before the dissolution, which Agnes could just remember, the Prior of
Sempringham had his town house in Cow Lane; and the Earl of Bath lived
on the further side of the Fleet River, with Furnival's Inn beyond, the
residence of the Barons Furnival, now merged in the Earldom of
Shrewsbury. Mistress Winter lived in the last house at the north end of
the lane, next to Cow Cross, and almost in the country. There is no
need to name her neighbours, with two exceptions, since these only are
concerned in the story. But in Cow Lane every body knew every body
else's business; and the mistress at the Fetterlock could not put on a
new ribbon without the chambermaid at the Black Lion being aware of it.
Do not rush to the conclusion, gentle modern reader, that Cow Lane was
full of inns or public-houses. Streets were not numbered in those days;
and in order to effect the necessary distinction between one house and
another, every man hung out his sign, selecting a silent woman [Note 1],
a blue cow, a griffin, or a rose, according as his fancy led him.
Sign-painting must have been a profitable trade at that time, and a very
necessary one, when scarcely one man in twenty knew his alphabet; and
the cardinal figures were cabalistic signs to common eyes.

The two families previously alluded to lived at the southern end of Cow
Lane, and their respective names were Flint and Marvell. Mistress Flint
was a cheerful, good-tempered woman, with whom life went easily, and who
had a large family of sons and daughters, the youngest but one, little
Will, being a special favourite with Agnes. The Marvells were very
quiet people, who kept their opinions and feelings to themselves; though
their son Christie, a mischievous lad of so