zabethan
processions, and triumphal arches, of guilds, of Georges and dragons,
down to the last relic of the spirit of olden times--the chairing of its
members; and not even the scant nourishment offered in this nineteenth
century, has yet sufficed to starve and wither the seeds thus sown and
fostered in the very nature of the people.

In a work that professes not to follow out the thread of history through
all its variable windings, or note consecutively all the beads of truth
that have been carved by the hand of time, and strung upon its surface,
but only here and there to pause, as some gem more glittering than its
fellows meets the eye, or some quaint rude relic of a day gone by lays
claim to a passing curiosity, wonder, or pity, we feel at liberty to make
a kaleidoscope sort of _pattern_ of our gleanings and notes on the old
market-place. Interwoven with its progress, and associated with its
memories, must be almost every historical reminiscence, peculiarly
belonging to an important municipality, and thriving mart of commerce and
manufactures; from the first simple gatherings in the outer court of the
castle, to the days when trades and crafts, brought over by Norman
intruders, and flourishing under the skilful tutelage of Flemish
refugees, clustered together in groups around the old croft, the
saddlers, the hosiers, the tanners, the mercers, the parmenters, the
goldsmiths, the cutlers, each with their own _row_, to the time when
staples were fixed, or right of wholesale dealing granted--when cloth
halls witnessed the measuring and sealing by government inspectors of
every manufactured piece of cloth, to ensure fairness of dealing between
buyer and seller--when sumptuary laws regulated quantity, quality, and
pattern of the dresses of all dutiful and loyal subjects--down through
ages of fluctuating vicissitudes of prosperity and adversity--tremulous
shakings--and reviving struggles against the tide of competition that has
sunk the first and greatest manufacturing city our country once could
boast, beneath the level of many a nurseling of yesterday, a mere
mushroom in growth and age--from the era of ultra-carnivorous diet, when
boars, peacocks, venison, and porpoise, were scattered in plentiful
profusion on the boards of butchers' stalls, and in the regions of
"_Puleteria_,"--when the potato, brocoli, turnip, onion, and radish, were
unknown--the tansy, the rampion, cow cabbage, and salsify, their only
substitutes in