Great Britain -- History -- Henry II, 1154-1189 -- Juvenile fiction; Guilds -- Juvenile fiction; Middle Ages -- Juvenile fiction
Barty felt as if he had seen enough for the day already as he gazed up
at the great square keep among the lesser buildings, jutting out into
the river as if to challenge all comers. However, there was never a boy
who could not go on sight-seeing forever. By the time they had returned
to Fleet Street he had tucked away the Tower and London Bridge in his
mind and was ready for the Fair.
The Fair was a city of booths, of tents, of sheds and of awnings. Bunyan
described the like in Vanity Fair. Cloth-sellers from Cambrai, Paris,
Ypres, Arras and other towns where weavers dwelt, had a street to
themselves, and so did the jewelers. The jewelry was made more for show
than worth, and there were gay cords for lacing bodices or shoes, and
necklaces that were called "tawdrey chains" from the fair of St.
Etheldreda or Saint Audrey, where they were first sold. There were glass
beads and perfume-bottles from Venice; there were linens of Damietta,
brocaded stuff from Damascus, veils and scarfs from Moussoul--or so they
were said to be. Shoes of Cordovan leather were there also, spices, and
sweetmeats, herbs and cakes.
Old-fashioned people call machine-sawed wooden borders on porches
"gingerbread work." The gingerbread sold by old Goody Raby looked very
much like them. She had gingerbread horses, and men, and peacocks, and
monkeys, gingerbread churches and gingerbread castles, gingerbread kings
and queens and saints and dragons and elephants, although the elephant
looked rather queer. They were made of a spicy yellow-brown dough rolled
into thin sheets, cut into shapes, baked hard and then gilded here and
there. The king's crown, the peacock's head and neck, the castle on the
elephant's back, were gilded. Barty bought a horse for himself and a
small menagerie of animals for the younger children at home.
A boy not much older than himself was selling perfume in a tiny corner.
It struck Barty that here might be something that his mother would like,
and he pulled at Aunt Olive's sleeve and asked her what she thought.
She agreed with him, and they spent some pleasant minutes choosing
little balls of perfumed wax, which could be carried in a box or bag, or
laid away in chests. There was something wholesome and refreshing about
the scent, and Barty could not make up his mind what flower it was like.
The boy said that several kinds were used in the making of each perfume,
and that he had helped in the work. He said that his name was "Vanni,"
which Barty thought a very queer one, but this name, it appeared, was
the same as John in his country. Barty himself would be called there
Bartolomeo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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