The paving of rough cobbles and ample mud was distinctly poor.  There was no adequate drainage; in fact there was very little attempt at any beyond the provision of gutters down the middle or at the sides of the streets.  There were no regular street lights, and pavements, when they existed, were too meagre to be of much use to pedestrians.

Streets led to the two open market-places of this mediaeval city.  Both of them (Thursday Market, now called St. Sampson’s Square, and Pavement, which was a broad street with a market cross near one end) were used as markets, but for different kinds of produce.  Some markets, such as the cattle market, were held in the streets.  These two market-places were the principal public open spaces, parts of a town that are given such importance in modern town-planning schemes.  Other open spaces were the cloisters and gardens of the monasteries, the courts of the Castle, the graveyards of the churches, and private gardens.  In spite of these and the passage of a tidal river through the city, it cannot be denied that the inhabitants of our mediaeval city lived in rather dirty and badly ventilated surroundings.

The River Ouse was crossed by one bridge, which was of stone, with houses and shops of wood built up from the body of the bridge.  The arches were small, and afford a striking contrast to the later constructions, in which a wide central arch replaced the two central small arches.  The quays were just below the bridge.  At one end of Ouse Bridge was St. William’s Chapel, a beautiful little church,[2] as we know from the fragments of it that remain.  Adjoining the chapel was the sheriffs’ court; on the next storey was the Exchequer court; then there was the common prison called the Kidcote, while above these were other prisons which continued round the back of the chapel.  Next to the prisons were the Council Chamber and Muniment Room.  Opposite the chapel were the court-house, called the Tollbooth,[3] the Debtors’ Prison, and a Maison Dieu, that is, a kind of almshouse.

The present streets called Shambles (formerly Mangergate),[4] Finkle Street, Jubbergate, Petergate, and especially Shambles, Little Shambles, and the passages leading from them, help one to realise the appearance of mediaeval streets and ways.

C. BUILDINGS

[Illustration:  COOKING WITH THE SPIT.]

Dwelling-houses ranged from big town residences of noble or distinguished families, by way of the beautifully decorated, costly houses of the rich middle-class merchants, to the humble dwellings of the poorest inhabitants.  Every type of house from the palace to the hovel was well represented.  The Archbishop’s Palace, consisting of hall, chapel, quadrangle, mint, and gateway with prison, was near the Minster.  Beyond the fine thirteenth-century chapel (now part of the Minster library buildings) hardly a trace of this undoubtedly splendid residence is left.