Introduction
Macaulay’s influential history of England, which first appeared in 1848, was a paean to Progress and especially to progress in Britain. By his day, London was truly England’s capital, a cosmopolitan railway hub; back in the 1660s, however, it was an island entire of itself, and any rural squire who struggled in over the dirty and rutted roads found himself in a foreign land.
WHEN the lord of a Lincolnshire or Shropshire manor appeared in Fleet Street, he was as easily distinguished from the resident population as a Turk or a Lascar.* His dress, his gait, his accent, the manner in which he gazed at the shops, stumbled into the gutters, ran against the porters, and stood under the waterspouts, marked him out as an excellent subject for the operations of swindlers and barterers. Bullies jostled him into the kennel.* Hackney coachmen splashed him from head to foot. Thieves explored with perfect security the huge pockets of his horseman’s coat, while he stood entranced by the splendour of the Lord Mayor’s show. Moneydroppers,* sore from the cart’s tail,* introduced themselves to him, and appeared to him the most honest friendly gentlemen that he had ever seen. Painted women, the refuse of Lewkner Lane* and Whetstone Park,* passed themselves on him for countesses and maids of honour.
A Lascar was a name for a sailor from India or South East Asia. The word is Urdu in origin, via Portuguese.
Kennel in this sense is an alteration of ‘cannel,’ a broad gutter or open sewer.
A Moneydropper would pretend to find a coin just in front of his mark, so that he could scrape his acquaintance and then lead him into some scam or a mugging.
That is, smarting from a whipping. Miscreants would be tied to the rear of a cart and whipped as the cart trundled forward.
Lewkner Lane (now Macklin Street) near Drury Lane was famous as a place of brothels and drinking dens, and a convenient place to fence stolen goods. The notorious burglar and jail-breaker Jack Sheppard (1702-1724), whose autobiography was apparently ghost-written by Daniel Defoe and whose exploits inspired Macheath in John Gay’s ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ (1728), had his hideout there.
Whetstone Park is a small street in Holborn. Samuel Pepys wrote of it that his wife’s former maid-companion Deborah Willets (1650-1678) had moved there, “which do trouble me mightily that the poor girle should be in a desperate condition forced to go thereabouts.” See Diary, November 16th 1668.
Précis
Baron Macaulay described in colourful terms the visit of a rural gentleman to London in the days of Charles II. It was a catalogue of mishaps, as our squire, betrayed by dress, accent and gait, stumbled about the crowded and dirty streets, falling victim to pick-pockets, bullies, confidence tricksters and working girls, all taking advantage of his provincial naïvety. (59 / 60 words)
Baron Macaulay described in colourful terms the visit of a rural gentleman to London in the days of Charles II. It was a catalogue of mishaps, as our squire, betrayed by dress, accent and gait, stumbled about the crowded and dirty streets, falling victim to pick-pockets, bullies, confidence tricksters and working girls, all taking advantage of his provincial naïvety.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, if, just, must, ought, until, whereas.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
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