So they rode to their hostel in the market place, which lay a little
back from the river in an ingle of the ridge and one of its buttresses;
and all round the said market were houses as fair as the first they had seen:
but above, on the hill-sides, save for the castle and palace of the Queen
(for a woman ruled in Goldburg), were the houses but low, poorly built
of post and pan, and thatched with straw, or reed, or shingle.
But the great church was all along one side of the market place;
and albeit this folk was somewhat wild and strange of faith for Christian men,
yet was it dainty and delicate as might be, and its steeples and bell-towers
were high and well builded, and adorned exceeding richly.
So they lighted down at their hostel, and never had Ralph seen such another,
for the court within was very great and with a fair garden filled with
flowers and orchard-trees, and amidst it was a fountain of fresh water,
built in the goodliest fashion of many-coloured marble-stones. And
the arched and pillared way about the said court was as fair as the cloister
of a mitred abbey; and the hall for the guests was of like fashion,
vaulted with marvellous cunning, and with a row of pillars amidmost.
There they abode in good entertainment; yet this noted Ralph, that as goodly
as was the fashion of the building of that house, yet the hangings and beds,
and stools, and chairs, and other plenishing were no richer or better than
might be seen in the hostelry of any good town.
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