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all facing sunward,--a cheerful haunt upon a winter's day. On the early maps this wharf appears as “Queen-Hithe,” a name more graceful than its present cognomen.
“Hithe” or “Hythe” signifies a small harbor, and is the final syllable of many English names, as of Lambeth.
Hythe is also one of those Cinque-Ports of which the Duke of Wellington was warden.
This wharf was probably still familiarly called Queen-Hithe in 1781, when Washington and Rochambeau walked its length bareheaded between the ranks of French soldiers; and it doubtless bore that name when Dean Berkeley arrived in 1729, and the Rev. Mr. Honyman and all his flock closed hastily their prayer-books, and hastened to the landing to receive their guest.
But it had lost this name ere the days, yet remembered by aged men, when the Long Wharf became a market.
Beeves were then driven thither and tethered, while each hungry applicant marked with a piece of chalk upon the creature's side the desired cut; when a sufficient portion had been thus secured, the sentence of death was issued.
Fancy the chalk a live coal, or the beast endowed with human consciousness, and
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