some patriotic act in
money-matters, raised to the peerage under the title of Lord Pomfret.
We are told that a great revenue was derived to the crown from the
customs' duty here levied on wool; that which passed into the
Netherlands alone amounting to 50,000 crowns per annum--an enormous
sum in those days. Modern Vandalism has done for this building what
time had failed to effect; and now there is little remains of it to
gratify the antiquary, save its metamorphosed contour and a fine old
gateway.

That a handful of troops and emigrant residents should have enjoyed
for above two centuries the unmolested occupation of a sea-port town,
and an extensive adjacent district, in one of the most powerful and
warlike kingdoms of Europe, is a singular episode in the history of
the two nations. At length, after an almost fabulous retention of the
place, the very facility of tenure having led to heedlessness and
neglect of proper precaution, the day of reprisal came. In 1558, the
Duke of Guise, being put in command of a powerful army, effected its
recapture without any signal display of valour on the one hand, or
heroism on the other. On its surrender, the lord-deputy, with 50 of
his officers, were detained as prisoners of war; the residue of the
inhabitants had to turn out, as the French had done before, and were
compelled to retire either to England or Flanders. All the property of
every description was placed at the disposal of the conqueror, in
honour of whom our famous Wool Staple was thenceforth called the Cour
de Guise. The booty in gold, silver, and valuable merchandise was
enormous, and even the common soldiers, we are told, made fortunes by
their share of it. So perished England's first colony!

FOOTNOTES:

[3] _Annals and Legends of Calais_. By Robert B. Calton. London: J. R.
Smith. 1852.

A FLOATING CITY.

The city of Bang-kok, the capital of Siam, consists of a long, double,
and, in some parts, treble row of neatly and tastefully painted wooden
cabins, floating on thick bamboo rafts, and linked to each other, in
parcels of six or seven houses, by chains; which chains were fastened
to huge poles driven into the bed of the river. The whole city rose at
once like a magic picture to our admiring gaze.... If the air of the
'Fleet Street' of Siam does not agree with Mrs Yowchowfow and her
children, or they wish to obtain a more aristocratic footing by being
domiciled higher up and nearer to the king's palace