Idonia: A Romance of Old LondonWallis, Arthur Frederick
History
Idonia: A Romance of Old London
Wallis, Arthur Frederick
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
On the Sunday we remained all day in the Inn, except that I went in the
morning to the Church there, when I heard a sermon by the curate upon
Wars and the Rumours thereof, wherein he advised us very earnestly to
examine our pieces and have them ready to hand and not to keep our
powder in the loft under the leaky thatch. He brought in somewhat,
too, about the Sword of the Spirit and the Shield of Faith, but
listlessly, and I saw that no one attended much to that, all men being
full of fear of the Papists, to which they were particularly moved by
Mr. Will. Parry's malicious behaviour in the House of Commons. The
scholar did not accompany me to the Church, I suppose because he was
himself a Papist, though perhaps no very rigorous one, but feigned a
stiffness from riding; and when I returned I found him in the larder,
where he was discoursing amply of the Scythians and their method of
extracting a fermented liquor from the milk of mares, which was of a
grateful potency, but (he lamented) not now to be obtained.
I wrote home a letter to my father after dinner, and in the evening
entertained the curate, who had got to hear of our going to London, and
came to speak with us thereon. He was an honest man, and of an
ingenuous complacency, which he manifested in telling us very quietly
that his Grace of Canterbury was of the same university as he, and he
doubted not, would be pleased to hear of him, and that he had taken
another rood of ground into the churchyard; all which I promised, if I
should meet his lordship, to relate.
We departed as was our custom, betimes on the morrow, travelling
towards Reading, and thereafter to Windsor, where we beheld with
admiration the great Castle of her Majesty's that is there; howbeit we
went not into the place, but left it on our right hand, and proceeded
still forward. But the night falling soon afterwards, we were fain to
put up in the little hamlet of Brentford upon the river Thames, whither
we learned that 'twas fortunate we had without accident arrived, a
certain haberdasher of repute having been robbed of all he carried upon
the heath we had but lately rid over into that place, and left for dead
by the wayside.
Perhaps it was this outrage which had made for our safety, and that,
being so far satisfied with the spoil of silks and rich stuff taken,
the malefactors had hastened to dispose of it to some that make a
living by that cowardly means, and are mostly dwellers about the Stocks
market, in the narrow lanes thereby, although some (as Culver Alley)
have been stopped up against such notorious use of thieves.
Notwithstanding, I here affirm, that in the morning, when we saw the
monstrous charges our lodging stood us in, we found we had not far to
seek for a thief as big as any; and having paid the innkeeper, told him
so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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