Read London in Chains for Free Online

you did with a book that was worthless the week after you bought it.
    Getting across the bridge was quicker on foot than on horseback: it was possible to squeeze past obstacles by nipping in and out of doorways. When they reached the northern bank of the Thames, they paused a moment to catch their breath. Thomas smiled at Lucy and said, ‘You’ve not been to London before, is that so?’
    Lucy nodded.
    â€˜A fearful city,’ said Thomas. ‘I remember when I first came here, thirty years ago, it seemed to me a hell on earth.’
    â€˜Aye,’ agreed Lucy, a little too quickly, and Thomas smiled again.
    â€˜One grows used to it. Here, let me show you the shape of it, in case you get lost.’ He led her to a point on the riverbank where there was a view. ‘ That ,’ he pointed across the bridge, ‘is the borough of Southwark, which is reckoned almost a separate city. That tower there, that’s St Mary Overie – see it, the great church? This ,’ he waved at the shore about them, ‘is the City of London. Now that ,’ he pointed west and a little north to a tower which rose above the crowding roofs, ‘there, that is London’s cathedral, St Paul’s. If ever you are lost, look for the towers of Paul’s or St Mary’s, and then you can find Southwark. Downriver yonder – see the ships? That’s the Pool of London, the port where all our merchandise comes and goes. That great fortress above it, that’s the Tower.’
    â€˜Where prisoners are kept, sir?’ asked Lucy, remembering what Susan had said, that the author of Mr Browne’s pamphlets, a friend of Thomas’s, was imprisoned there.
    â€˜Aye, where men whom the state fears are kept prisoner, but also where all the coin of the realm is minted. There’s a menagerie there, too, with lions and other strange beasts, well worth three farthings to view. But today we are bound north, to Moorgate.’
    At first Thomas continued to point out the sights: Lombard Street, where the rich bankers had their offices; the fine shops on Cheapside; the merchants’ Exchange on Cornhill. After that, however, he trudged in silence. Lucy was wondering what the matter was, when suddenly he burst out, ‘Lucy, my girl, I confess I am having doubts whether you should take up this place. In fact, I–I should never have agreed to it!’
    Her heart gave a jolt: the prospect of returning to the house now , and resigning herself to becoming Aunt Agnes’s maidservant, was utterly abhorrent. ‘I like the notion of it very well, Uncle,’ she said quickly. ‘Shouldn’t we at least make trial of it?’
    He frowned. ‘There’s a matter. I should have spoken of it last night, but . . . well, Will was eager, and your aunt was pressing me.’
    This, Lucy suspected, was going to be about the seditiousness of the pamphlets and ending up in Bridewell. ‘Yes, Uncle?’
    â€˜The printing press is unlicensed,’ said Uncle Thomas. He peered at her anxiously. ‘Do you know what that means, child?’
    â€˜No,’ she admitted, taken aback. ‘Do most printing presses have licences?’
    â€˜Now, that I’m unsure of,’ Thomas said with a nervous smile. ‘There’s no doubt, though, that they’re supposed to. The Stationers’ Company is responsible for licensing them, and every printer in England is required to get his name on the Stationers’ register, and afterwards submit all he wishes to publish to the licensors before he prints it. But since the war began, regulation has been all at sixes and sevens, and there are many unlicensed presses in London. The Stationers’ men strain every sinew to find them out, but London is a very great city, and they’ve no more hope of finding every unlicensed press than of catching every pickpocket at Bartholomew Fair. However, when they do find an illegal press it