In one of these is established the old Banbury Cake Shop.  In the High Street there is a very perfect example of these Elizabethan houses, erected about the year 1600.  It has a fine oak staircase, the newels beautifully carved and enriched with pierced finials and pendants.  The market-place has two good specimens of the same date, one of which is probably the front of the Unicorn Inn, and had a fine pair of wooden gates bearing the date 1684, but I am not sure whether they are still there.  The Reindeer Inn is one of the chief architectural attractions of the town.  We see the dates 1624 and 1637 inscribed on different parts of the building, but its chief glory is the Globe Room, with a large window, rich plaster ceiling, good panelling, elaborately decorated doorways and chimney-piece.  The courtyard is a fine specimen of sixteenth-century architecture.  A curious feature is the mounting-block near the large oriel window.  It must have been designed not for mounting horses, unless these were of giant size, but for climbing to the top of coaches.  The Globe Room is a typical example of Vanishing England, as it is reported that the whole building has been sold for transportation to America.  We give an illustration of some old houses in Paradise Square, that does not belie its name.  The houses all round the square are thatched, and the gardens in the centre are a blaze of colour, full of old-fashioned flowers.  The King’s Head Inn has a good courtyard.  Banbury suffered from a disastrous fire in 1628 which destroyed a great part of the town, and called forth a vehement sermon from the Rev. William Whateley, of two hours’ duration, on the depravity of the town, which merited such a severe judgment.  In spite of the fire much old work survived, and we give an illustration of a Tudor fire-place which you cannot now discover, as it is walled up into the passage of an ironmonger’s shop.

[Illustration:  The “Fish House,” Littleport, Cambs]

The old ports and harbours are always attractive.  The old fishermen mending their nets delight to tell their stories of their adventures, and retain their old customs and usages, which are profoundly interesting to the lovers of folk-lore.  Their houses are often primitive and quaint.  There is the curious Fish House at Littleport, Cambridgeshire, with part of it built of stone, having a gable and Tudor weather-moulding over the windows.  The rest of the building was added at a later date.

[Illustration:  Sixteenth-century Cottage, formerly standing in Upper Deal, Kent]

In Upper Deal there is an interesting house which shows Flemish influence in the construction of its picturesque gable and octagonal chimney, and contrasted with it an early sixteenth-century cottage much the worse for wear.

We give a sketch of a Portsmouth row which resembles in narrowness those at Yarmouth, and in Crown Street there is a battered, three-gabled, weather-boarded house which has evidently seen better days.  There is a fine canopy over the front door of Buckingham House, wherein George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was assassinated by John Felton on August 23rd, 1628.