n, and stayed in the old house next to St. Nicholas' Church. She
gave the city the privileges of a seaport, much to the annoyance of
Bristol. Gloucester supplied one ship to the navy at the time of the
Armada in 1588. In the disastrous Civil War the city played an important
part. It is said that the unpopularity of Laud, who had been Dean of
Gloucester, led the citizens to side with the Parliament. They held the
city under Colonel Massie, against enormous odds, through a long siege,
and the king, who had his headquarters at Matson House, was obliged,
owing to the approach of Essex with relief, to raise the siege. This was
a most serious blow to the failing cause of Charles I.

During the Commonwealth the citizens seem to have lost their heads
somewhat, and to have turned against the officer who had saved their
city from destruction. Some, too, had made arrangements for demolishing
the Cathedral, but fortunately were frustrated in their plans.

As a matter of policy the city congratulated Charles II. at the
Restoration in 1660, but without much result, as the walls and gates
were ordered to be destroyed. James II. visited Gloucester, and is said
to have touched over a hundred persons for the king's evil, a proceeding
to which he objected on the score of expense.

The last two Georges visited the city, and Queen Victoria visited it
when Princess Victoria, and again later, after her marriage.

The city, like Tewkesbury, is a curious admixture of the new and the
old. It has long emerged from the primitive state, and is now well
drained and well supplied with water; but the heavy penalty attaching to
transition has been paid, and many old houses and historic buildings,
like the Tolsey and others, have disappeared.

The history of Gloucester, commercially, is a history of progress. In
Domesday Book, Gloucester is mentioned in connection with iron, the
founding of nails for the king's ships. As the ore was obtained locally,
this branch of trade flourished till the seventeenth century.
Bell-founding was practised as early as 1350 by John Sandre, and one of
his bells still hangs and rings in the cathedral tower. Cloth-making,
too, was practised, but, declining in the fifteenth century, was
superseded by pin-making, for which Gloucester was for many years
famous. Glass-making was carried on in the seventeenth century, and the
Rudhall family for several generations had a bell-foundry of wide
reputation.

Elizabeth made the t