wood, iron, earthenware, seeds, and implements of agriculture; these for the supply of other necessities considered equally important.  Each market has its appropriate site.  For picturesque effect, you must visit the Vieux Marche, for vegetables and fish; which is kept in an open space, once filled by the servants and troops of the old Dukes of Normandy, having the ancient ducal palace in front.  This is the fountain head whence the minor markets are supplied.  Every stall has a large old tattered sort of umbrella spread above it, to ward off the rain or rays of heat; and, seen from some points of view, the effect of all this, with the ever-restless motion of the tongues and feet of the vendors, united to their strange attire, is exceedingly singular and interesting.

Leaving the old market place, you pass on to the Marche Neuf, where fruits, eggs, and butter are chiefly sold.  At this season of the year there is necessarily little or no fruit, but I could have filled one coat pocket with eggs for less than half a franc.  While on the subject of buying and selling, let us go to the Halles of Rouen; being large public buildings now exclusively appropriated to the sale of cloths, linen, and the varied et-ceteras of mercery.  These are at once spacious and interesting in a high degree.  They form the divisions of the open spaces, or squares, where the markets just mentioned are held; and were formerly the appurtenances of the palaces and chateaux of the old Dukes of Normandy:  the latter of which are now wholly demolished.  You must rise betimes on a Friday morning, to witness a sight of which you can have no conception in England:  unless it be at a similar scene in Leeds.  By six o’clock the busy world is in motion within these halls.  Then commences the incessant and inconceivable vociferation of buying and selling.  The whole scene is alive, and carried on in several large stone-arched rooms, supported by a row of pillars in the centre.  Of these halls, the largest is about three hundred and twenty English feet in length, by fifty-five in width.  The centre, in each division, contains tables and counters for the display of cloth, cotton, stuff, and linen of all descriptions.  The display of divers colours—­the commendations bestowed by the seller, and the reluctant assent of the purchaser—­the animated eye of the former, and the calculating brow of the latter—­the removal of one set of wares, and the bringing on of another—­in short, the never-ceasing succession of sounds and sights astonishes the gravity of an Englishman; whose astonishment is yet heightened by the extraordinary good humour which every where prevails.  The laugh, the joke, the equivoque, and reply, were worth being recorded in pointed metre;—­and what metre but that of Crabbe could possibly render it justice?  By nine of the clock all is hushed.  The sale is over:  the goods are cleared; and both buyers and sellers have quitted the scene.