e. The cars
disdain the smaller establishments, and run such long distances that
only a few houses along the road derive much benefit from them. For
many their days are numbered, and it may be useful to describe them
before, like four-wheelers and hansom-cabs, they have quite vanished
away.

[Illustration: Spandril. The Marquis of Granby Inn, Colchester]

CHAPTER XI

OLD MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS

No class of buildings has suffered more than the old town halls of our
country boroughs. Many of these towns have become decayed and all
their ancient glories have departed. They were once flourishing places
in the palmy days of the cloth trade, and could boast of fairs and
markets and a considerable number of inhabitants and wealthy
merchants; but the tide of trade has flowed elsewhere. The invention
of steam and complex machinery necessitating proximity to coal-fields
has turned its course elsewhere, to the smoky regions of Yorkshire and
Lancashire, and the old town has lost its prosperity and its power.
Its charter has gone; it can boast of no municipal corporation; hence
the town hall is scarcely needed save for some itinerant Thespians, an
occasional public meeting, or as a storehouse of rubbish. It begins to
fall into decay, and the decayed town is not rich enough, or
public-spirited enough, to prop its weakened timbers. For the sake of
the safety of the public it has to come down.

On the other hand, an influx of prosperity often dooms the aged town
hall to destruction. It vanishes before a wave of prosperity. The
borough has enlarged its borders. It has become quite a great town and
transacts much business. The old shops have given place to grand
emporiums with large plate-glass windows, wherein are exhibited the
most recent fashions of London and Paris, and motor-cars can be
bought, and all is very brisk and up-to-date. The old town hall is now
deemed a very poor and inadequate building. It is small, inconvenient,
and unsuited to the taste of the municipal councillors, whose ideas
have expanded with their trade. The Mayor and Corporation meet, and
decide to build a brand-new town hall replete with every luxury and
convenience. The old must vanish.

And yet, how picturesque these ancient council chambers are. They
usually stand in the centre of the market-place, and have an
undercroft, the upper storey resting on pillars. Beneath this shelter
the market women display their wares and fix their stalls on market