The paving was in evil repair, forming here and there considerable pools of water, the stench and the colour whereof led to the supposition that the inhabitants facilitated domestic operations by emptying casual vessels out of the windows.

The dirty little casements on the ground floor exhibited without exception a rag of red or white curtain on the one side, prevailing fashion evidently requiring no corresponding drapery on the other.

The Court was a _cul de sac_, and at the far end stood a receptacle for ashes, the odour from which was intolerable.

Strangely enough, almost all the window-sills displayed flower-pots, and, despite the wretched weather, several little bird-cages hung out from the upper storeys.

In one of them a lark was singing briskly.
They began their progress through the tenements, commencing at the top of Litany Lane.