Beside a panelled door, hanging loosely on its hinges, hopped a tame rook, rather out at elbows as touching its wing plumage, pecking at the rain-water which had dripped into an old silver plate of quaint design which lay tilted against the kerb stone. Further up was a house with a bulging front, as of someone who has lived too well and attained thereby his corporation. In some streets the houses are slated down the entire frontage, and only the ground floor timbered. Many of the houses are labelled "_Ancienne Maison_," and the name beneath, and some--but only some, alas!--have the date over the door. There are some exceedingly quaint dedications over one or two of the shops in Rouen. One, which specially arrested our attention, was over a shop in the Rue Grosse-Horloge, and ran thus:--"_Au pauvre diable et à St. Herbland réunis!_" Another was to "Father Adam"; another to "_Petit St. Herbland_,"; another to "_St. Antoine de Padue_:" this last was a very favourite dedication, and one came across it in all parts of the city. Though, when one saw how often he was the patron saint of "Robes and Modes," I must say one wondered what the connection was between the saint and a milliner's shop. Was it a reminder of that one of his temptations in which three beautiful maidens, scantily attired, appeared and danced before him? Only, if so, surely the _double entendre_ suggested by the dedication would act as a deterrent, if it acted at all, on those who were tempted by the chiffons, _draperies et soieries_, displayed in the shop window, to go within. One could see that there was a singular fitness in "Father Adam" being the patron of an eating shop, as was the case in one street.