“Dr. Henry Cole, Dean of St. Paul’s, was charged by Queen Mary with a commission to the council of Ireland, which had for its object the persecution of the Irish protestants. The doctor stopped one night here on his way to Dublin, and put up at the _Blue Posts_, then kept by a Mrs. Mottershead. In this house he was visited by the mayor, to whom, in the course of conversation, he related his errand; in confirmation of which he took from his cloak bag a leather box, exclaiming in a tone of exultation, ‘Here is what will lash the heretics of Ireland!’ This announcement was caught by the landlady, who had a brother in Dublin: and while the commissioner was escorting his worship down-stairs, the good woman, prompted by an affectionate regard for the safety of her brother, opened the box, took out the commission, and placed in lieu thereof a pack of cards, with the _knave of clubs_ uppermost! This the doctor carefully packed up, without suspecting the transformation; nor was the deception discovered till his arrival in the presence of the lord deputy and privy council at the castle of Dublin. The surprise of the whole assembly, on opening the supposed commission, may be more easily imagined than described. The doctor, in short, was immediately sent back for a more satisfactory authority; but, before he could return to Ireland, Queen Mary had breathed her last. It should be added that the ingenuity and affectionate zeal of the landlady were rewarded by Elizabeth with a pension of £40 a-year.” The first street we meet with on the right hand is COMMONHALL STREET, so called from the _Common Hall_ of the city having been at one time situate there. This hall of justice stood upon the south side of the street, and close to those venerable-looking almshouses still situate there. It had previously been the _Chapel of St. Ursula_, which was founded there, with an _Hospital_ for decayed persons, by Sir Thomas Smith, in 1532. The Hospital of St. Ursula still weathers the storm, in those odd-looking, tottering almshouses on the south side of this street. Lower down Bridge Street, on the same side, is another break in the row, formed by _Pierpoint Lane_, not now a thoroughfare, but through which went a passage in olden time to the _Common Hall_, just referred to. Scarcely so far down as this last-named lane, and on the opposite side of Bridge Street, is a new and handsome range of buildings, erected in 1853 by Mr. Alderman Royle. On the higher side of these premises, and adjoining the Feathers Hotel, exist a ROMAN HYPOCAUST and _Sweating Bath_, of surpassing interest, and in a state almost as perfect as when first erected. The following account of this “ancient of days” is the result of a recent personal visit to the bath.