defensive works consisting of an embattled wall on a mound, with a
moat or protecting ditch running parallel to it. At intervals along
the walls there are towers. Where the four main roads enter the city
there are the four gateways, or Bars, high enough to act as
watch-towers and fit by their solid construction to offer a stout
defence. The royal State keeps its stern watch around and within.

The third great element, the _People_, are represented by the few
narrow, winding streets and the crowded houses, sending up blue smoke
from their hearths, clustering round the great buildings of Church and
State. The town itself is almost entirely in the eastern section of
the city. On the western side the houses are grouped along the river
bank and between Micklegate Bar and Ouse Bridge; there are several
monasteries and churches in this section also. The third estate, the
closely living masses, the people, has its outstanding buildings, but
these are of comparatively local and small importance. Although the
_city_ and _guild_ halls stand out utilitarian yet beautiful above the
dwelling-houses, yet they are not at all so prominent as the great
erections of the Church and the State.

A glance over the city to-day from the Walls or the top of a church
tower emphasises the dominance of the cathedral over the whole city.
The castle keep (Clifford's Tower) is still an important feature in
the view. There were as rivals neither factories nor great commercial
offices in the fifteenth-century city.

St. Clement's Nunnery and six churches, of which three were not far
from Walmgate Bar and one was near Monk Bar, were actually outside the
city walls.