Skiddy Nipper
1 min readSep 28, 2021

Sounds more like a description of Narnia than London . . . "On the north side are fields for pasture, and a delightful plain of meadow land, interspersed with flowing streams, on which stand mills, whose clack is very pleasing to the ear. Close by lies an immense forest, in which are densely wooded thickets, the coverts of game, stags, fallow-deer, boars, and wild bulls. The tillage lands of the city are not barren gravelly soils, but like the fertile plains of Asia, which produce abundant crops, and fill the barns of their cultivators with "Ceres plenteous sheaf". There are also round London, on the northern side, in the suburbs, excellent springs; the water of which is sweet, clear and salubrious, "mid glistening pebbles gliding playfully", amongst which Holywell, Clerkenwell and St Clement's Well are of the most note, and most frequently visited, as well by the scholars from the schools, as by the youth of the city when they go out to take the air in the summer evenings. The city is delightful indeed, when it has a good governor." From William Fitzstephen's preface to his biography of Thomas a Beckett. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89087906822&view=1up&seq=43

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Skiddy Nipper
Skiddy Nipper

Written by Skiddy Nipper

Slippery, immature, a bit of a crustacean, and dangerous to know.

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