of being clear) than they are in reality. This leads you
across the Place des Ponts de Robec to the beginning of the _Rue Eau
de Robec_ where you will notice at once, on the left, the house at No.
186, with the sign which shows the faithful horse returning from the
scene of his master's murder to bring the news into the town. No. 223
on the other side at the corner of the Rue de la Grande Mesme is fine,
and so is No. 187 at the angle of the _Rue du Ruissel_. All the while
the inky water is trickling under countless bridges on your left hand
("Ignoble little Venice" Flaubert calls it all in "Madame Bovary,"
which gives you, otherwise, the worst impression of Rouen in any book
I know), and swarms of little children chatter and play about the
cobblestones, while women throng the countless dens and cubbyholes,
until you fly for shelter into one of the numerous curiosity shops and
buy a fifteenth-century door-knocker manufactured expressly for your
visit. Past the Place St. Vivien and the Church, the Eau de Robec
still continues; and, as the Rue du Pont a Dame Renaude opens on your
left, there is a good house at the corner of the opposite street.
Further on to the left a great building with overhanging eaves
stretches from 34 to 30. Then, over a broader bridge, the Rue des
Celestins goes northwards, and this street of bridges ends in the
green trees of the Boulevard, with a lovely view of that Maison des
Celestins which the Duke of Bedford endowed, far to your right in the
distant corner of the old wall of the Hospital.

Coming back by the Robec (for it well deserves looking at from each
end), when you reach the Rue de la Republique turn northwards for a
sight of the south front of St. Ouen, and then leave the Place de
l'Hotel de Ville by way of the _Rue de l'Hopital_ due west. No. 1 is
an exquisite Renaissance house with its colonnade and arches and
carved capitals. In the courtyard within is a beautiful doorway of the
same period set at right angles to the street facade. Upon its
entrance columns (which are double, one set above another) two
delicately moulded statuettes of women are placed on each side of the
slender upper shaft. Over the door is the motto--"DomiNuS MICHI
ADIUTOR," the same which occurs above the arms of Cardinal Wolsey on
the terra-cotta plaque at Hampton Court. This fine house extends some
way down the street, and leads you pleasantly onwards till the Rue
Socrate opens to your left. Go down it and glan