five
o’clock
Little ships , trees , and wonderful enamelled representations of perils by robbers , field and flood , hung thickly on St. Julian 's pillar , and on the wall and splay of the window beside it ; and here , after crossing himself , Master Headley rapidly repeated a Paternoster , and ratified his vow of presenting a bronze image of the hound to whom he owed his rescue . One of the clergy came up to register the vow , and the good armourer proceeded to bespeak a mass of thanksgiving on the next morning , also ten for the soul of Master John Birkenholt , late Verdurer of the New Forest in Hampshire -- a mode of showing his gratitude which the two sons highly appreciated . Then , climbing up the steps again , and emerging from the cathedral by the west door , the boys beheld a scene for which their experiences of Romsey , and even of Winchester , had by no means prepared them . It was five o'clock on a summer evening , so that the place was full of stir . Old women sat with baskets of rosaries and little crosses , or images of saints , on the steps of the cathedral , while in the open space beyond , more than one horse was displaying his paces for the benefit of some undecided purchaser , who had been chaffering for hours in Paul 's Walk . Merchants in the costume of their countries , Lombard , Spanish , Dutch , or French , were walking away in pairs , attended by servants , from their Exchange , likewise in the nave . Women , some alone , some protected by serving-men or apprentices , were returning from their orisons , or , it might be , from their gossipings .