This is a large building at the corner of St. Andrew’s Broad Street; erected in 1856, and opened in 1857, under the Free Libraries and Museum Act, by the Corporation, at a cost of £10,000. It includes large rooms for the Museum and the Free Library, the Literary Institution, and the School of Art. The Free Library, in the lower room, contains about 4,000 volumes, and the Old Collection called the City Library. The middle room above is fitted up as a lecture hall. The School of Art is located at the top of the building, where rooms are furnished for about 200 pupils, who receive instruction in drawing, designing, and decorative art. There is a committee of management for the Free Library, another for the Museum, and another for the School of Art. Mr. Harper is the librarian. THE THEATRE ROYAL is situate at a short distance from the Market Place, in Theatre Street. It is a very plain building, erected in 1826, but the interior is quite commodious enough for the limited number of patrons which Norwich furnishes to the drama. THE POST OFFICE is a large, but by no means handsome building; situate in Post Office Street, near the Market Place. There are two deliveries from London daily, and mails daily to all parts of the kingdom. THE PARISHES AND PARISH CHURCHES. Norwich appears to have taken the lead in the erection of religious edifices. At a very early period, before the reign of Edward the Confessor, the city contained 25 churches, and in the eleventh century, 55 existed in or near the town. After the conquest, 43 chapels were in the patronage of the burgesses, most of which were afterwards made parochial. In the reign of Edward III., 58 parish churches and chapels were within the walls, besides 19 monastic institutions and cells, anchorages, &c. Norwich still contains a greater number of churches and parishes than any other city in England except London. Many of the present churches are excellent specimens of ancient architecture. Several of them are built of squared flints. Besides the cathedral there are three undoubted specimens of the Norman style, and there are also many examples of the decorated or florid which succeeded the lancet style, of the transition style, and of the perpendicular. This later perpendicular style, which prevailed during the 15th and 16th centuries, is the chief characteristic of the city churches. The best examples of this style are the churches of St. Peter Mancroft, St. Andrew, St. Stephen, St. Giles, and St. John Maddermarket; also St. Andrew’s Hall. Of all these churches complete restorations have been lately effected. The original designs have been faithfully adhered to by the architects and contractors, which is the highest praise that can be awarded them. In this age we can only restore or rebuild; we cannot invent new orders of architecture. All our restorations take us back to the middle ages, and the spirit of those ages seems to be again revived in our parish churches.