Cellars are not mentioned in the Assize, but we find them noticed, and that too as places used for business, as early as the first half of the reign of Henry the Third. It is incidentally mentioned, also, that steps led to these cellars from the street; indeed, they seem to have seriously encroached upon the footway at times, for at later periods they are the subject of frequent enactment. By Fitz-Alwyne’s Assize, contrary to the spirit of equity that has prevailed in more recent times, a person when building had full liberty to obstruct a neighbour’s ancient lights, unless, indeed, some writing could be produced by that neighbour showing a right on his side to the contrary. [Illustration: BUILDERS AT WORK From MS. in British Museum. Harl. 2278.] The Assize, as already noticed, makes no provision for the materials to be used for roofing; within a century and a half later, however, we find reiterated enactments that the houses of the citizens shall be covered with lead, tiles, or stone. Stalls, too, are not mentioned in the Assize; but these had become common in the latter part of the following century. These stalls were projections—of wooden framework, no doubt—from the gable facing the street, and were used as shops for the exposure of various articles for sale. By civic enactment we find it ordered that these stalls shall not be more than two and a half feet in depth, movable and flexible, according to the discretion of the Alderman of the Ward, and according as the streets or lanes are wide or narrow. The pentices, or pent-houses, which are so frequently mentioned in the City ordinances, must have been projections on a larger scale, as the citizens are reminded that they are to be made at least nine feet in height, ‘so as to allow of people riding beneath’; a provision, from which it is evident that they must have extended beyond the portion of the street reserved as a footpath. In favour of the landlords, it was also enacted that penthouses, once fastened by iron nails or wooden pegs to the timber framework of the house—be the occupier a tenant for life, for years, or quarterly,—should be deemed not removable, but fixtures, part and parcel of the freehold.