; that Sir Thomas Gresham's Exchange was
standing. But among the many city halls burnt down, were there any fine
specimens of architecture, any churches worthy of note? And as Guildhall
was not entirely consumed, what parts of the present edifice belong to the
olden time?

You are doubtless aware that the fire did not extend to St. Giles's
Cripplegate, and that at the back of the church are remains of the old city
walls.

ARDELIO.

* * * * *

BATTLE OF OTTERBURN.

On what authority does Mr. Tytler (_History of Scotland_, vol. iii. pp.
45--53.), in his otherwise very fair account of this celebrated battle,
assert that the Earl of Douglas was a younger man than Hotspur? I have no
doubt that he found it so recorded somewhere, and willingly believed that
his countrymen had prevailed, not only over superior numbers of the enemy,
but also over greater experience on the part of the hostile general; but a
little more investigation would have shown him that the difference of age
lay the other way. Henry Percy, by his own account (in the Scrope and
Grosvenor Controversy), was born in 1366, and was therefore twenty-two when
the battle was fought. I do not know that there is any direct evidence to
Douglas's age, but the following considerations appear to me decisive as to
his being much older than his rival.

1. Froissart's visit to Scotland was undoubtedly prior to 1366 (although
the exact date is not given), and during his stay of fifteen days at
Dalkeith, he saw much of the youthful heir of that castle, the future hero
of Otterburn, and describes him as a "promising youth."

2. Hotspur, in his deposition above mentioned, says that he first bore arms
at the siege of Berwick in 1378; but his antagonist must have commenced his
military career long before, as Froissart mentions him as knighted on the
occasion of the battle fought a few days after the surrender of that place,
between Sir Archibald Douglas and Sir Thomas Musgrave; none but kings' sons
were knighted in childhood in those days, or without undergoing a long
previous probation in the inferior grades of chivalry.

3. An early and constant family (if not general) tradition asserts that
Douglas had a natural son {349} (ancestor of the Cavers family), old enough
to bear his father's banner in the battle; on this, however, I lay little
stress, as Froissart distinctly assigns that honourable post to another
person, David Campbell, who was