No doubt if it were possible to find at the present time the same picturesque architectural displays as were to be met with in London in Queen Elizabeth's days, our artistic friends would be able to pick up many a nice subject for their pencils, but in those days there were plenty of drawbacks; the pavement was bad, the drainage was worse, and from the eaves of the houses and pents of the shops, streams of water ran down in wet weather upon the wayfarers, and, by lodging in the thoroughfares, made the London streets something in the same state as those of Agar Town and some other neglected parts of the metropolis. We must not forget that in the days to which we allude there were no flagged footpaths, and that the only distinction from the horse and cart roads, and that for the foot passengers, was a separation by wooden posts, which, in genteel places, were made supports for chains. People, however, got tired of this bad state of things, and measures were taken to put a stop to the streams of water from the roofs, &c. After the Great Fire, an enactment was made for an alteration in the spouts, &c.; all barbers poles, and projecting signs, and other projections were to be done away with, and other changes made for the better. Up to the reign of Queen Anne, we find, by reference to views of Cheapside and the neighbourhood of the Monument, that the projecting signs were still in use; and that even at that recent date, many of the London shops in the important neighbourhoods above mentioned were without glazing, and looked much like some of the greengrocers' sheds in use now in Bermondsey and some other places. Severe measures seem to have been at length taken against the projecting signs, and most of them disappeared, and then it became a most difficult matter either to address letters, or find a man's shop. In Dr. Johnson's day, he and other persons gave the address "over against" a particular sign, or so many doors from such a sign. In consequence of this uncertainty, many houses in London, which from their association with eminent men would possess much interest now, cannot be pointed out; and it was a wonderful benefit to the metropolis when the plan of numbering the houses in each street was hit upon. But for this, considering that the population has doubled in the last fifty years, it is difficult to know how the genius of Rowland Hill would have worked his plan of London post-office delivery, or business could be carried on with any kind of comfort.