other parts were the mansions of the Scropes and the Vavasours. It is,
however, the houses of the prosperous traders that are the most
interesting, for in them we see the kind of house a man built from the
results of successful business. Most houses were of timber; those of
the more wealthy were of stone and timber.{original had ","} The use
of half-timbering, when the face of a building consisted of woodwork
and plaster, made houses and streets very picturesque. The woodwork
was often artistically carved. Each storey was made to overhang the
one below it, so that an umbrella, if umbrellas had been in use then,
would have been almost a superfluity, if not a needless luxury,
besides being impossible to manipulate in the narrow streets and ways
of a mediæval city. The upper storeys of two houses facing each other
across a street were often very close. Usually there were no more than
three storeys. The roofs were very steep and covered generally with
tiles, but in the case of the smaller dwellings with thatch. From a
house-top the view across the neighbourhood would be of a huddled
medley of red-tiled roofs, all broken up with gables and tiny dormer
windows; there would be no regularity, just a jumble of patches of
red-tiled roofing.

The present streets called Shambles, Pavement, Petergate and
Stonegate, contain excellent examples of mediæval domestic
architecture.

Shops were distinguished by having the front of the ground floor
arranged as a show-room, warehouse, or business room which was open
to the street. The trader lived at his shop. In the case of a
butcher's, for example, the front part of the shutters that covered
the unglazed window at night, was let down in business hours so that
it hung over the footway. On it were exhibited the joints of meat.