596 A. D. 1384. 



hibited goods ; and veffels driven on either coaft by ftrefs of weather, 

 or putting in for want of provifions, were not to be maltreated. The 

 truce was afterwards prolonged to the i*' of May 1385, and the kings 

 of Caftile and Scotland became parties to it. [Fcedera, V. Vn, pp. 419, 

 441.] 



Both kingdoms immediately felt the happy efFeds of the fufpenfion of 

 hoflilities in a brifk commercial intercourfe, wherein the Normans were 

 diftinguifhed as the mofl active traders. By them was England fuppUed 

 in the fpring of this year with an extraordinary abundance of wine, 

 fruits, fpicery, and fifli, which were all fold wonderfully cheap ; and, as 

 gold and filver were given by the Englifh in exchange for them, the 

 reciprocal advantages of the intercourfe made the people on both fides 

 very defirous of a permanent peace *. [IValfingham^ Hijl. p. 308.] 



About this time Edinburgh, though lately become the general re- 

 fidence of the kings of Scotland, was reckoned by Froiifart, a French 

 author who had vifited it, rather inferior to Tournay or Valenciennes, 

 cities in the Netherlands, and eflimated to contain fcarcely four hundred 

 houfesf. The houfes, according to Walfingham, {Hiji. p. 308] were 

 thatched with ftraw (' ftramentum'), as, indeed, thofe of the cities of 

 England generally were. Edinburgh was this year deflroyed in confe- 

 quence of an Englifli invafion : and its fituation, fo near the border, 

 whereby it was expofed to a frequent repetition of fuch difafters, was 

 fufficient to prevent the citizens from ereding valuable houfes, though 

 they had had the means. It is not probable that any other town in 

 Scotland, unlefs perhaps Perth, contained even fo many houfes as Edin- 

 burgh. 



King Richard in his feventh year appointed William Brampton of 

 London to be governor ^ of the merchants of the wool-flaple at Middle- 

 burg ; and he direded him to fearch all merchants, natives or aliens, ar- 



• This fpiritci'. trade of the Normans, who with Bath, were certainly much fmaller. Such were 

 refpeft to the rpiceries appear to have been the cities in thofe days. There is, therefor, no need 

 carriers between the Mediterranean ports and Eng- to fuppofe Froifl'art niillakcn, and to correft his 

 land, gives fonie fupport to what is faid of their account by altering it to/war thoufand, a number 

 early adventurous voyages and fettlements on the fcarcely inferior to that of the houfes in London, 

 coall of Africa. {See above, p. ^1 2.) The Nor- and vallly too great for any other city or town of 

 mans were undoubtedly the greateft merchants on England in that age ; or to fuppofe that he muft 

 the weft coaft of France, as thofe of Marfcille were mean lands, as they are now called in Edinburgh, 

 on the fouth coaft. Robert Bremville was at this each floor of which is a feparate habitation, near- 

 time diftinguidied as the moft opulent and power- ly fimilar to a fet of chambers in the inns of court 

 ful merchant in Normandy. \_lValfingham, Hiji. in London. The very fubftantialllile of building, 

 p. 318.] ncceflary for fuch large edifices, was apparently 



f Though the houfes, and confequently the po- then confined to ecclefiaftical and mililaiy archi- 



pulation, of Edinburgh arc rated fo low by Froif- tefture in both the Britifh kingdoms, 

 fart, we hnd he places it nearly on a level with the J The title of governor feems to have come in 



ppulerit manufacturing city of Tournay. And from place of that of mayor ofthejlaple. This is prob- 



ihe tax-roll of England in the year 1377 it is pre- ably the firft cftablilhment of the ftaple at Mid- 



fumablc, that the cities of Exeter, Worcefter, and dlcburg, of which, I believe, we have no other 



Winchcilcr, were not larger or more populous than record, except the xiXmnJrotn it to Calais in the 



Edinburgh, if, indeed, they were equal to it, and year 1388. a 



that Litchfield, Chichcfter, Carlile, Rochtftcr, and 



