With this cursory glance at the work of the great historian of the district, we close our chapter on the subjects suggested by the “Old Market-place.” The sketches have been necessarily superficial, but they afford proof that its chronicles include a variety of matter and incident that may interest almost every class of mind. CHAPTER V. GUILDHALL. THE GUILDHALL.—_Visit to its dungeons_.—_Bilney_.—_St. Barbara’s chapel_.—_Legend of St. Barbara_.—_Assize court_.—_Old document_.—_Trial by Jury_.—_Council chamber_.—_Old record room_.—_Guilds_.—_St. George’s company_.—_History of St. George_.—_Legend of St. Margaret_. Our rambles have now brought us to the threshold of that quaint, but beautiful old “studwork” chamber, the guildhall; the seat of civic honour, power, and glory, with its many appendages of courts and cells, the witnesses of those multiplied alternations of tragedy, comedy, and melodrama, that may be looked for to have been enacted during centuries, beneath a roof covering a council chamber, an assize court, and a prison. Once again, we avow that we aim not to be complete topographers, or guides to all the strange old carvings, and grotesque remains of ancient sculpture, that may be found in such rich abundance around the pathways of a venerable city, neither do we profess to furnish all the historic details that may be gleaned concerning these relics of antiquity; are they not chronicled elsewhere, in many mighty tomes, readable and unreadable, in “guides,” and “tours,” and manifold “directories?” We look and think, and odd associations weave our thinkings sometimes, perhaps, into a queer mottled garb, though we would solemnly aver the woof through which the shuttle of our fancy plays is every fibre of it truth. Such a preface is needed to our sketch of this fine old ornament of the city’s market-place, lest disappointment should attend the hopes of the inquisitive investigator of sights and relics.