retainers: those in the service of a nobleman and wearing his livery and badge.
Hanseatic merchants: merchants trading with the Hanse cities in Germany (among which was Hamburg) who had formed a league for self-protection about the twelfth century.
granary: a place for storing up grain or corn.
[23. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL. PART I.]
460 feet: the loftiest spire in England, that of Salisbury Cathedral, is about 404 feet.
its length was at least 600 feet: the present cathedral, the third on the site, is 500 feet long.
shrine: a receptacle for relics and other sacred things. (The word means a 'chest.')
aisle (pronounced īle) is the side or wing of a church.
scribe: a writer. In those early times so few people could read or write that men often had to have recourse to professional writers.