A. D. 121 7. 383 



many fmaller ones and gallies well armed, coming to the afliftance of 

 Louis. The Englifh, who are noted for their expertnefs in maritime 

 warfare, began the attack by a dreadful difcharge of arrows from the 

 crofs-bow-men and archers ; and having got the wind of their enemy, 

 they rufhed againft them with the iron beaks (or rojlrd) of their gallies, 

 whereby many of the French (hips were inflantly funk. They alfo 

 availed themfelves of their fituation to windward by throwing pulver- 

 ized quick lime into the French Ihips, whereby the men were blinded *. 

 After a clofe engagement, wherein the French fought bravely, but not 

 fo fkilfully as the Englifh, the greatefl part of them being llain or 

 drowned, almoft the whole fleet fubmitted to the Englifli, who triumph- 

 antly towed them into Dover. [M. Paris, p. 2^^ — Annul. Waver l. p. 

 183, ed. Gale — Rob. nfGlouc. p. 515.] 



1220 — The merchants of Cologne in Germany (perhaps in confe- 

 quence of King John's invitation in the year 1203) efl:ablifhed a hall 

 or fadory in London called their Gildhall, for the faifme (or legal pof- 

 feflion) of which they now paid thirty marks to the king. [Madox's 

 Hijl. of the excheq. c. 1 1, § 2.] It feems probable that this Gildhall, by 

 the aflbciation of the merchants of other cities with thofe of Cologne, 

 became in time the general fadory and refidence of all the German 

 merchants in London, and was the fame that was afterwards known by 

 the name of the German Gildhall (' Gildhalla Teutonicorum') f. 



It appears that the merchants of Cologne were bound to make a pay- 

 ment of two {hillings, probably a referved annual rent (for we are not 

 told' upon what occafions it was payable) out of their Gildhall, befides 

 other cuftoms and demands, from all which they were exempted in the 

 year 1235 by King Henry III, who moreover gave them permifllon to 

 attend fairs in any part of England, and alfo to buy and fell in London, 

 laving the liberties of the city. {^Charter hi Hakluyfs Voiages, V. i, p. 130, 

 ed. 1598.] 



It may be prefumed, that there were very few people in England, 

 who pofiefTed the elegant and comfortable accommodation of glafs in 

 sheir windows about this time ; for, from the manner in which the 

 windows of a church furnilhed with glafs are mentioned by Mathew 

 Paris, \yit. p. 122] it appears that fuch windows were not in general 

 ufe, even in churches. 



Though we find by Domefday book that fome of the inhabitants of 

 Yarmouth were fifliermen in the time of the Conqueror, it gives us not 

 the fmalleft hint of the /6frri«'^.fifliery, which has been the great iburce 



* Above two centuries after this time, tlie ftra- f The inaccuracy of confounding the Teutonic 



tngem of throwing quick lime was ptaCtiled by tlie gildhall with the Steelyard will be accounted for 

 Genoefe in a naval engagement, and was thought undfr the year 1475. 

 a notable invention. 'I'his fnows that the ptafticc 

 was at leatl uncommon. 



