. The admiral's train consisted of thirty
gentlemen of the king's household, apparelled with massive chains.
Besides these, he had a great number of gentlemen of his own suite, in
blue velvet and crimson satin, as well as the mariners of his ship, in
satin of Bruges (blue), both coats and slops of the same colour--his
yeomen being clad in blue damask.' A foul wind detained the lady here
for fifteen days, 'during which time, in order to afford her
recreation, jousts and banquets were got up by the authorities.' The
simplicity with which our gracious Queen travels from the Isle of
Wight to Aberdeenshire, or takes a trip across the Channel to see her
uncle Leopold, makes us almost forget that such gorgeous state
attended every step of royalty in the olden time. Glance we now a
moment at the commercial aspect of Calais during the English
occupancy.

The Staple-Hall or Wool Staple (now called the Cour de Guise) built by
letters-patent from Richard II., dated 1389, was a singular
combination of palace and market, exchequer and cloth-hall; the seat
alike of royalty and trade; for here our English monarchs often
lodged, and within these precincts our ancestors established their
seat of custom, beneath the royal eye and roof-tree. Hither were not
only the 'merchauntes and occupiers of all manner of wares and
merchandizes' in England, but the 'merchauntes straungers' of the Low
Countries invited by proclamation to resort and repair, from time to
time, there to 'buy and sell, change and rechange, with perfect and
equal freedom and immunity;' provided always the traffic or 'feates of
merchandizes' were effected according to tariff; 'our dread and
sovereigne lord the king mynding the wealth, increase, and enriching
of his realm of England, and of this his town of Calais.' In the court
of this our Calaisian Guildhall, the iron-clad man-at-arms, the
gaily-decked esquire, or captain of the guard, used to mingle with the
staid wool-staplers, clothiers, cutlers, or weavers, just arrived from
our primitive manufacturing districts, laden with bales and hardwares
for bartering with their colonial and Flemish customers; whilst the
nobles, princes, and at times even the king of England, sat at the
upper casements, countenancing if not enjoying the bustle of the mart.
Immense fortunes were realised by the merchants of the Staple; they
were often in a position to aid the exchequer of the mother-country;
and one of them named Fermour was, from