d ancient
documents, and affording such details of the 'fashionable arrivals'
here as give us a high idea of what this our first colony was capable
of doing in its palmy days.

There landed, for instance, on the 8th of May 1500, Henry VII.,
accompanied by his queen, the Bishop of London, the Duke of
Buckingham, the Earls of Surrey and Essex, with several other
noblemen. Closely following, came the Earl of Suffolk, with an immense
retinue of esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen; the Bishop of Durham, the
Earl of Ormond, with seven other noblemen and gentlemen of rank; and
in the following month, the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Mountjoy,
Lord Devonshire, Sir John Wyngfielde, and their retinues, to assist at
a magnificent banquet given by Henry to the Archduke Philip of
Burgundy. Nothing, as our annalist observes, but numbers, real names,
and dates, can effectually enable the reader to form a notion of the
state, 350 years ago, of this at present trist and unimportant
frontier town. And even with these authentic data before us, it
appears surprising how such a host of nobility, with their numerous
retainers, should have been adequately lodged within the walls of
Calais, on viewing the existing proportions of the town. The banquet
was given at St Peter's, just without the walls--for it seems not to
have been the mode to invite continental guests to 'walk inside'--the
fine old parish church being partitioned off into various apartments
for the guests, and richly hung with arras and cloth of gold.

'Our Lady's Chapel was set apart for the archduke's chamber, the walls
being hung with arras representing the story of Ahasuerus and Esther,
and the floor laid with carpets strewed with roses, lavender, and
other sweet herbs. Another compartment of the church was hung with
tapestry, representing the siege of Troy; the walls of the choir being
covered with blue cloth, emblazoned with _fleurs-de-luce_. The vestry
was hung with "red sarsenet, most richly beseen;" whilst the belfry
was ordained for the offices of the pantry, confectionary, and cellar.
There "lacked neither venison, cream, spice-cakes, strawberries, or
wafers," as the chronicler expresses it; an English fat ox was
"poudered and lesed;" an immense number of young kids and
venison-pasties were consumed, besides "great plenty of divers sorts
of wine, and two hogsheads of hippocrass." Seven horse-loads of
cherries were eaten, besides "pypyns, grengenges, and other sugardys."