ntrances of
abodes where poverty and labour have long since found shelter in the
cast-off habitations of ancient wealth and aristocracy.

He may venture to explore cavernous cellars with groined roofings and
piers that register their age; may make his way through moth-corrupted
storehouses of dust and lumber; to revel in the grandeur of some old
"hall," boasting itself a relic of the domestic architecture of the days
of the last Henry, and there lose himself in admiration of old mullioned
windows, tie-beams, and antique staircases; may ferret out old cabinets
and quaint old buffets hard by, that once, perchance, found lodging in
the "Stranger's Hall," as it is wont, though erringly, to be designated;
he may wander thence through bye lanes and streets, stretching forth
their upper stories as if to meet their opposite neighbours half way with
the embrace of friendship; over the plain, memorable as the scene of
slaughter in famous Kett's rebellion, to the "World's End;" and see amid
the tottering ruins of half demolished pauper tenements, the richly
carved king-posts and beams of the banquet chamber of the famous knight,
Sir Thomas Erpingham, whose martial fame and religious "heresy" have
found a more lasting monument than the perishable frame-work of his
mansion-house, in the magnificent gateway known by his name, and raised
in commemoration of his sin of Lollardism. He may accompany the
philanthropist in his visit to the "Old Man's Hospital," and mourn over
the misappropriation of the nave and chancel of fine old St. Helen's,
where lies buried Kirkpatrick, a patriarch of the tribe of antiquaries;
he may visit the grammar school that has sent forth scholars, divines,
warriors, and lawyers; a Keye, a Clarke, an Earle, {5} a Nelson, and a
Rajah Brooke, to spread its fame in the wide world. He may see in it a
record of the days when grammar was forbidden to be taught elsewhere; he
may peep through the oriels that look in upon the charnel-house of the
ancient dead beneath; may feast his eyes upon the beauties of the
Erpingham, and strange composite details of the Ethelbert gateways;
explore the mysteries of the Donjon, or Cow Tower; and following the
windings of the river past the low archway of the picturesque little
ferry, find himself at length stumbling upon some fragment of the old
"_Wall_." Thence he may trace the ancient frontier line of the Old City,
and the sites of its venerable gateways, that _were_, but _are not