by a pleasing carriage, amiable manners, a kind, gentle disposition, and a moral, pious turn of mind j in the language of Piers, the rhyming historian, she was "Good withouten lack." By the decree of the Pope, Margaret was dowered with the portion left her by her father, a yearly rent of thirteen thousand pounds Tournois (about five thousand seven hundred andfifty pounds sterling). According to some writers, Philip the Fair meant to appropriate this sum to himself ; but, however this may be, Edward augmented it by the addition of lands, castles, and other property of considerable value ; the most important being the town and castle of Gloucester, of Southampton, Guildford, Hertford, Devizes, Porchester, and Marlborough, together with Havering in Essex, and other less significant manors, the whole of which he agreed to confer on Margaret, at the church door, on the bridal morning. The marriage preliminaries being arranged, Margaret embarked for England, under the immediate protection of the Duke of Burgundy and the Earl of Brittany, and accompanied by a goodly train of nobles, besides ladies of the bed-chamber, maids of honour, and other noble demoiselles and attendants. Dover being tho appointed landingplace, great preparations were made there for her disembarkation, and a royal barge, decked with tapestry, was provided to convey her ashore. At length the royal party neared the cliffs of Albion, the Princess entered the royal barge, and welcomed by merry music and the hearty huzzas of the populace, effected a safe landing, on the ninth of September, and immediately proceeded to Canterbury, where Prince Edward and numerous English nobles gave her a cordial reception. The Prince lost no time in despatching the valet of the royal chamber, Edmund of Cornwall, with the intelligence of her landing, to his father, then at Chatham ; and the glad tidings so delighted the old King, that he presented the messenger with two hundred marks, gave an additional offering at vespers in the church at Chatham, and with a heart full of pleasurable emotions, and a countenance radiant with smiles, hastened to the presence of his expectant young bride. The marriage of Edward and Margaret was solemnized on the twelfth of September, 1299, in Canterbury Cathedral ; but as there was an urgent necessity for Edward's immediate presence in the north—his barons, during his absence, having disbanded their troops, whilst the Scotch patriots were daily increasing in force and strength—the coronation of Margaret was omitted. Indeed, the marriage festival lasted but four days ; the banquet, which was neither sumptuous nor gorgeous, was, for want of better accommodation, served in the great hall belonging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and on the following Wednesday Edward took a hasty farewell of his consort, and proceeded with all speed to the Scottish border. What were the feelings of Margaret on being wedded to one old enough to be her grandfather — Edward having reached the frosty age of sixty, whilst she was only in her eighteenth year— is nowhere recorded ; but, disagreeable as the first impressions doubtless were, she soon became reconciled to her lot, and, impressed with sentiments of affection towards her aged lord, lived with him on terms of conjugal happiness, and, like her predecessor, Eleanora of Castile, followed him in his campaigns, and made it her greatest pleasure to share his joys, woes, and perils. It may be remarked, parenthetically of course, that in this era monopoly and protection were deemed essential to the advancement of commerce and trade. Every calling and occupation, from that of the merchant to the petty dealer, or the poor artizan, was manacled by numerous regulations and restrictions, then deemed, and probably found to be, in practice, wise and healthful, but which, m the present day, could not endure an hour, so greatly changed are the circumstances by which we are surrounded from those in existence at the commencement of the thirteenth century—a period when even the dealers in ducks and