The oldest dwelling in the town stands on St. George's Street, nearly
opposite the old-fashioned inn known as the Foster House. Its walls were
originally made of mud from the flats, held together by the wiry marsh
grass, which, being dried, was mixed in the sticky substance as hair is
in plaster; but as these walls gave way from the effects of time the
seams and cracks were plastered up, and by degrees boarded over, until
now the original shows only in one part of the interior.
The houses throughout this region are almost invariably without blinds
or outside shutters, and consequently look oddly to us, who are inclined
to screen ourselves too much from "the blessed sunshine". Bay windows
are popular.
We saw one small house with four double and two single ones, giving it
an air of impertinent curiosity, as the dwellers therein could look out
from every possible direction. The ancient dormer windows on the roofs
have given place to these queer bulging ones, which, in Halifax
especially, are set three in a row on the gray shingles, and bear
ludicrous resemblance to gigantic bee-hives.
In some of the shops, at the post office and railroad station, our money
is taken at a small discount; but in many of the shops they allow us
full value for it.
