which obviously had to be enclosed and capable of maintaining and
enduring isolation, was independent of the city. Each of these
ecclesiastical institutions enjoyed a large measure of freedom from
the rule of the municipal authorities. The city was also subdivided
into parishes, which, of course, were not enclosed by walls. The
parish boundaries, although less well defined than those of the areas
above mentioned, were none the less distinctly marked.


B. STREETS

Streets, as we use the word to-day, were quite few in number. They
were usually called gates and were mostly continuations of the great
high-roads that came into and through the city, after crossing the
wild country that covered most of northern England, a desert in which
a city was an oasis and a sanctuary. In the lofty and graceful open
lantern-tower of All Saints, Pavement, a lamp was hung to guide
belated travellers to the safety and hospitality that obtained within
the city walls. For the same purpose a bell was rung at St. Michael's,
Ouse Bridge.

There were a few buildings along the high-roads just outside the great
entrances, the Bars. Besides the few hovels and huts there were
hospitals for travellers. There were four hospitals for lepers, the
most wretched of all the sufferers from mediæval lack of cleanliness.

Most of the streets were mere alleys, passages between houses and
groups of buildings. They were very narrow and often the sky could
hardly be seen from them because of the overhanging upper storeys of
the buildings along each side. Goods in the Middle Ages and right down