Clarify some archaic idioms ("but that" and "as the crow flies") in Dickens' "Bleak House"?

Question

I have a question about a difficult paragraph in *Bleak House* by Charles Dickens.In chapter 2, I came across the following paragraph containing a couple of idioms which I can't understand completely, and believe are archaic: > It is but a glimpse of the world of fashion that we want on this same miry afternoon. It is not so unlike the Court of Chancery, **but that** we may pass from the one scene to the other, **as the crow flies**.I'm struggling with the two bolded phrases, *but that*, which I believe is archaic, and so I can't understand, andand *as the crow flies*, which I understand usually means 'in a straight line' but in this context, that meaning doesn't seem to fit.Please clarify the meanings of these two phrases in this context, as far as you are able.

Answer 1

In this context, but that means except that. You might rewrite the second sentence you quote above to read, "It is like the Court of Chancery, except that we may pass from one scene to the other, as the crow flies," where as the crow flies means at will or freely. The narrator suggests here that we as readers have left the solicitors behind in chapter one to glimpse the world of fashion in chapter two, much as a theater-goer watches a play proceed from scene to scene.