only in public buildings and palaces, but in the ordinary domestic architecture of mediæval Bruges. Indeed, at the opening of the fifteen hundreds, as Mark Gheeraert's map bears witness, Bruges was a city of steeples. They have, however, for the most part disappeared, and those that have come down to us can be almost counted on the fingers. The old mansion in the _rue aux laines_, to which we have just called attention, possesses, as we have seen, one. It is at the back of the house, and the summit alone is visible from the street. A stone's throw from it, on the further bank of the Roya, hard-by the _Quai du Rosaire_, there is another--a beautiful, red brick, dilapidated structure, crowned with a silvery steeple, the last tower erected in mediæval Bruges. Those in the _rue des Aiguilles_ we have already noted. There is a fifth in the _Place Memlinc_, very tall and very slender, octagonal in shape and wholly devoid of ornament. When the Smyrna Consuls, who dwelt in the house to which it is an adjunct, first erected it, it was not so comely as it is to-day. The waxing and waning of four hundred summers and the rude embraces of wind and weather have marvellously beautified it, and the blushing brick of which it is constructed is now all shot with gold. Close by, in the _Place des Biscayens_, there is another and a more stately tower of grey stone. It stands alongside of the _Poorters Logie_, a sort of mediæval club-house where the burghers in days gone by were wont to hold convivial meetings. There is a seventh and very beautiful tower on the ramparts at the end of the _rue des Carmes_. It adorns the home of the great military guild of St. Sebastian. There is an eighth by the _École Normale_, a mere ruin, the last remnant of the habitation of a kindred society--the Crossbowmen of St. George and St. Denis. It is a great square tower of red brick, which originally was considerably higher than it is at present, and it contains a very curious stone staircase with a beautiful groined ceiling. This building is the property of the town, and the corporation intend to restore it and convert it into a clock-tower for the _École Normale_ and furnish it with a _carillon_. The list of ancient turreted mansions in Bruges is completed by the _Hôtel Gruthuise_. Here are two octagonal towers, one of them of considerable dimensions and no less curious than pleasing. [Illustration: GUILD HALL OF THE ARCHERS OF ST. SEBASTIAN] It will be interesting to note that the taste for towers has recently revived in the city of Bruges. At least five new buildings are provided with them, nor do they compare unfavourably with some of the work of the builders of former days. Notably the red brick tower of the _Académie_ in the _rue Ste. Cathérine_, from the designs of Monsieur de Wolf, who at present occupies the position of city architect, and the station clock-tower, of which the steeple is a reproduction in miniature of the glorious steeple which once crowned the Belfry.