Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A King's Ransom
It was a brilliant afternoon, in the summer of the year of grace 1651. Even late in the day the August sun was intolerably fierce. Out in the open country, the work of ripening corn and fruit was almost done; here in London City, the rays beat down into crowded alleys and narrow lanes, and made them close and sultry, like streets of an Eastern town. But nowhere did the sun beams rest more gaily than on the broad bosom of the river Thames. They shone upon the stately palaces and beautiful gardens with which its banks were lined, caught the edges of the leaves rustling in the breeze, and sparkled in a thousand lights upon the rippled surface of the water.
There was scarcely a view in all England which, for historic and picturesque interest, could equal the sight from old London Bridge. To the North rose the still graceful structure of St. Paul's Cathedral. The beauti ful spire, for centuries the pride of the City, had been burnt down in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and an insignificant tower substituted for it. The South tran sept, designed by Inigo Jones, had been hastily pulled down by the Parliament for the sake of the scaffolding, and part of the Cathedral with it; and the interior had been sadly desecrated by the Puritans. Still, however, to outward seeming, the building was the noblest in London.
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