"Crabal Square lies on the fringes of Jalkin's north-west quarter, a land where gold almost protrudes up between the paving stones. Always as pristine and well-maintained as is possible, the square has featured on more paintings than anywhere else in Jalkin, possibly because, with the exception of one notorious building, it most closely embodies the lost spirit of the architectural dreamland which the city once was. Picturesque villas, mansions and churches take up three of its sides; the centre of the square is dominated by three large fountains carved in the shape of mermaids and fishes. Around the fountains stand a hollow square of beech trees - yes, trees, real living trees inside Jalkin's walls, however much people might joke.
Unlike much of the neighbourhood, Crabal Square was quite busy the afternoon Kenner called. The Lewis Avenue quarter mainly holds town houses for landed gentry who, if having no political duties, spend the summer whooping it up on their country estates. Crabal Square lies one step down from Lewis Avenue, though the difference in Kenner's eyes was imperceptible. Money seemed to stalk everywhere. Great showy carriages clattered by continuously. Pulled by four or even six chargers, some were painted scarlet or blue, others covered in thin sheets of gold and many had tapestries bearing the family coat of arms blanking out every window. A laughing party of girls loitered by the fountains, their rings flashing in the sunshine. Their dresses, coloured every shade of the rainbow, had puffed up sleeves and leg-clinging skirts, and two wore the hats with raised veils which were this year's fashion item. Two elderly matrons chugged past in old and highly expensive deerskin coats, with rouged faces and the oddly battle-scarred expressions of women of their class and age. Celebrities flitted by, recognisable from newsheet sketches: Gasel Satswan, arch-priestess of Ella, Privy Council member and trim silver haired woman alighting from a carriage and deep in a technical discussion with a colleague; Olran Womerack, who owned half the Cities' market halls, disappearing furtively through some house gates flanked by two bodyguards with Newhaven-type swords; and, aptly, one of the girls by the fountains was Elzerbeth Bolean, a society belle chiefly noted for the laudable act of pushing one of Lord Brightson's disagreeable sons into the river last year."(from City Hobgoblins)