in his time it had greatly declined. It is certainly, however, much
exaggerated by earlier historians. And I entertain some doubts as to
Guicciardini's estimate of the number of houses. If at least he was
accurate, more than half of the city must since have been demolished or
become uninhabited, which its present appearance does not indicate; for
Ghent, though not very flourishing, by no means presents the decay and
dilapidation of several Italian towns.

[577] Guicciardini, p. 362; Mem. de Comines, 1. v. c. 17; Meyer, fol.
354; Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 647, 651.

[578] Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, thinks that a colony of
Flemings settled as early as this reign at Worsted, a village in that
county, and immortalized its name by their manufacture. It soon reached
Norwich, though not conspicuous till the reign of Edward I. Hist. of
Norfolk, vol. ii. Macpherson speaks of it for the first time in 1327.
There were several guilds of weavers in the time of Henry II. Lyttelton,
vol. ii. p. 174.

[579] Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 412, from Walter
Hemingford. I am considerably indebted to this laborious and useful
publication, which has superseded that of Anderson.

[580] Rymer, t. ii. p. 32, 50, 737, 949, 965; t. iii. p. 533, 1106, et
alibi.

[581] Rymer, t. iii. p. 759. A Flemish factory was established at
Berwick about 1286. Macpherson.

[582] In 1295 Edward I. made masters of neutral ships in English ports
find security not to trade with France. Rymer, t. ii. p. 679.

[583] Rymer, t. iv. p. 491, &c. Fuller draws a notable picture of the
inducements held out to the Flemings. "Here they should feed on fat beef
and mutton, till nothing but their fulness should stint their stomachs;
their beds should be good, and their bedfellows better, seeing the
richest yeomen in England would not disdain to marry their daughters
unto them, and such the English beauties that the most envious
foreigners could not but commend them." Fuller's Church History, quoted
in Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk.

[584] Rymer, t. v. p. 137, 430, 540.

[585] In 1409 woollen cloths formed great part of our exports, and were
extensively used over Spain and Italy. And in 1449, English cloths
having been prohibited by the duke of Burgundy, it was enacted that,
until he should repeal this ordinance, no merchandise of his dominions
should be admitted into England. 27 H. VI. c. 1. The system of
prohibiting the impo