noon
The direction in which Mr. Milsom betook himself , after he passed the border-land of waste ground and newly-built houses which separates London from the country , was the direction of Ratcliff Highway . He walked rapidly through the crowded streets , in which the crowd grew thicker as he approached the regions of the Tower . But rapidly as he walked , the steps of Time were faster . It had been bright noon when he entered the quiet little town of Barnet . It was night when he first heard the scraping fiddles and stamping feet of Ratcliff Highway . He went straight to the ` Jolly Tar ' . Here all was unchanged .