produce and left it outside the gate to be taken in by the city
dwellers, who deposited the money for the goods in bowls of vinegar,
whence it was abstracted by pincers, to avoid infection. The stone on
which the exchanges were made is incorporated in the base of the
obelisk.

The West Gate is the only one that remains of the principal entrances to
the city, as King's Gate, with the little church of St. Swithun perched
on top, was of secondary importance. This West Gate escaped the fate
that has overtaken so many of our old city gates owing to its having
been used for some time as a smoking room for the adjacent hotel. This
apartment above the crown of the gateway arch is, like that over the
West Gate of Canterbury, used for the purposes of a museum, wherein are
deposited such interesting relics as the Winchester bushel, cloth
measures, and ancient instruments of punishment. At one time the room
was used as a prison, and the walls are covered with names or marks made
by those who were incarcerated here.

The gate is of fourteenth-century date, the two panels with armorial
bearings seen on the western side of the archway being later insertions.
Through the gateway a delightful view is obtained of the picturesque
High Street, with many a high-pitched gable rising above the masses of
irregular architecture; while an ancient clock on a wooden bracket juts
out from the old Queen Anne Guildhall, which has a statue of Her Majesty
over the entrance, the Curfew Tower rising on one side of the building.
A new Guildhall of greater architectural pretensions has been erected in
the Broadway, the original one being now used as a shop.

[Illustration: THE BUTTER CROSS]

From the West Gate the High Street slopes down to the Itchen. On the
right stands the old Butter Cross, in rather a cramped position. Two
reasons have been given for its name: one, that during Lent, those
wishing to eat butter could do so by consuming it by the cross; the
other, and more probable, explanation is that here came farmers wishing
to dispose of their butter, which they exposed for sale on the steps
of the cross. The structure is of fifteenth-century date, but has been
much restored, the only original figure on it being that of St.
Amphibalus. Just beside the cross is the interesting little opening that
leads into the Close, and in which is the entrance to St. Lawrence
Church, of which nothing is visible from this point but the doorway, and
the tower r