than good Queen Bess; he didn’t put up at the public – houses.
She was nuts on public – houses, was England’s Virgin Queen. There’s scarcely a pub of any attractions within ten miles of London that she does not seem to have looked in at, or stopped at, or slept at, some time or other. I wonder now, supposing Harris, say, turned over a new leaf, and became a great and good man, and got to be Prime Minister, and died, if they would put up signs over the public – houses that he had patronised: "Harris had a glass of bitter in this house;""Harris had two of Scotch cold here in the summer of '88;""Harris was chucked from here in December, 1886."
No, there would be too many of them! It would be the houses that he had never entered that would become famous. "Only house in South London that Harris never had a drink in!" The people would flock to it to see what could have been the matter with it.
How poor weak – minded King Edwy must have hated Kyningestun! The coronation feast had been too much for him. Maybe boar’s head stuffed with sugar – plums did not agree with him (it wouldn’t with me, I know), and he had had enough of sack and mead; so he slipped from the noisy revel to steal a quiet moonlight hour with his beloved Elgiva.
Perhaps, from the casement, standing hand – in – hand, they were watching the calm moonlight on the river, while from the distant halls the boisterous revelry floated in broken bursts of faint – heard din and tumult.
Then brutal Odo and St. Dunstan force their rude way into the quiet room, and hurl coarse insults at the sweet – faced Queen, and drag poor Edwy back to the loud clamour of the drunken brawl.
Years later, to the crash of battle – music, Saxon kings and Saxon revelry were buried side by side, and Kingston’s greatness passed away for a time, to rise once more when Hampton Court became the palace of the Tudors and the Stuarts, and the royal barges strained at their moorings on the river’s bank, and bright – cloaked gallants swaggered down the water – steps to cry: "What Ferry, ho! Gadzooks, gramercy."
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