time, and many of the houses date as far back as Charles the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh, which is coeval with our Henry the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth.  There is one house of which the ancient staircase still remaining is as old as the year 1220; it is situated in the Rue du Four, near the Rue de la Harpe, and called the Maison Blanche, having been inhabited by the mother of Saint-Louis, but there is no doubt that the only part now standing that could have been built at that period is the staircase; in the same neighbourhood are many objects that would interest the antiquary, to which I shall hereafter allude.  Paris is encircled by a double row of Boulevards, the north inner circle is that which is the most frequented; the outer circle runs all along the walls which encompass Paris, where the barriers are situated, of which there are fifty-six, all rather handsome buildings than otherwise, and no two of them quite alike.  Many of the streets as you approach the farthest Boulevards of Paris have a very dull appearance, consisting in many instances of high walls and habitations separated from each other, with market gardens behind, but which cannot be seen from the street as they are all enclosed, and grass growing here and there in patches give them more the appearance of roads which have been abandoned than of inhabited streets.  Some of the modern parts of Paris are extremely handsome and indeed all which has been built within the last five-and-twenty years.  The Chaussee-d’Antin is the favourite quarter; there the streets are of a fair width and are well paved, and some very recently built are really beautiful, especially one just finished called the Rue Tronchet, just behind the Madeleine.  The quarter round the Place Vendome is certainly one of the finest in Paris, and most decidedly the dearest.  I know persons who pay fourteen thousand francs a year for unfurnished lodgings in the Place Vendome, that is 600_l._ a year; a whole house in a fashionable quarter of London may be had for the same money; indeed on the Boulevards, in some of the Passages and the most fashionable streets in Paris, shops let for more money than in any part of London; there is an instance of a single shop letting for 600_l._ per annum, and not one of particularly extensive dimensions, but situated on the Boulevard Montmartre, which is perhaps the best position in Paris.  One of the greatest attractions is the Passages, something in the style of the Burlington Arcade but mostly superior; of these there are from twenty to thirty, so that in wet weather you may walk a considerable distance under cover.