{"product_id":"2940013288959","title":"By Pike and Dyke","description":"CHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE \"GOOD VENTURE\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRotherhithe in the year of 1572 differed very widely from the\u003cbr\u003eRotherhithe of today. It was then a scattered village, inhabited\u003cbr\u003echiefly by a seafaring population. It was here that the captains\u003cbr\u003eof many of the ships that sailed from the port of London had their\u003cbr\u003eabode. Snug cottages with trim gardens lay thickly along the banks\u003cbr\u003eof the river, where their owners could sit and watch the vessels\u003cbr\u003epassing up and down or moored in the stream, and discourse with\u003cbr\u003eeach other over the hedges as to the way in which they were handled,\u003cbr\u003ethe smartness of their equipage, whence they had come, or where\u003cbr\u003ethey were going. For the trade of London was comparatively small\u003cbr\u003ein those days, and the skippers as they chatted together could form\u003cbr\u003ea shrewd guess from the size and appearance of each ship as to the\u003cbr\u003ecountry with which she traded, or whether she was a coaster working\u003cbr\u003ethe eastern or southern ports.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost of the vessels, indeed, would be recognized and the captains\u003cbr\u003eknown, and hats would be waved and welcomes or adieus shouted as\u003cbr\u003ethe vessels passed. There was something that savoured of Holland\u003cbr\u003ein the appearance of Rotherhithe; for it was with the Low Countries\u003cbr\u003ethat the chief trade of England was carried on; and the mariners\u003cbr\u003ewho spent their lives in journeying to and fro between London and\u003cbr\u003ethe ports of Zeeland, Friesland, and Flanders, who for the most part\u003cbr\u003epicked up the language of the country, and sometimes even brought\u003cbr\u003ehome wives from across the sea, naturally learned something from\u003cbr\u003etheir neighbours. Nowhere, perhaps, in and about London were the\u003cbr\u003ehouses so clean and bright, and the gardens so trimly and neatly\u003cbr\u003ekept, as in the village of Rotherhithe, and in all Rotherhithe not\u003cbr\u003eone was brighter and more comfortable than the abode of Captain\u003cbr\u003eWilliam Martin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was low and solid in appearance; the wooden framework was\u003cbr\u003eunusually massive, and there was much quaint carving on the beams.\u003cbr\u003eThe furniture was heavy and solid, and polished with beeswax until\u003cbr\u003eit shone. The fireplaces were lined with Dutch tiles; the flooring\u003cbr\u003ewas of oak, polished as brightly as the furniture. The appointments\u003cbr\u003efrom roof to floor were Dutch; and no wonder that this was so, for\u003cbr\u003eevery inch of wood in its framework and beams, floor and furniture,\u003cbr\u003eand had been brought across from Friesland by William Martin in\u003cbr\u003ehis ship, the Good Venture. It had been the dowry he received with\u003cbr\u003ehis pretty young wife, Sophie Plomaert.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSophie was the daughter of a well-to-do worker in wood near\u003cbr\u003eAmsterdam. She was his only daughter, and although he had nothing\u003cbr\u003eto say against the English sailor who had won her heart, and who\u003cbr\u003ewas chief owner of the ship he commanded, he grieved much that\u003cbr\u003eshe should leave her native land; and he and her three brothers\u003cbr\u003edetermined that she should always bear her former home in her\u003cbr\u003erecollection. They therefore prepared as her wedding gift a facsimile\u003cbr\u003eof the home in which she had been born and bred. The furniture\u003cbr\u003eand framework were similar in every particular, and it needed only\u003cbr\u003ethe insertion of the brickwork and plaster when it arrived. Two of\u003cbr\u003eher brothers made the voyage in the Good Venture, and themselves\u003cbr\u003eput the framework, beams, and flooring together, and saw to the\u003cbr\u003ecompletion of the house on the strip of ground that William Martin\u003cbr\u003ehad purchased on the bank of the river.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47168988250352,"sku":"2940013288959","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013288959_p0.jpg?v=1763579406","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013288959","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}