History teaches us about those noble and free individuals who dare to speak the whole truth before the Monarch, and only those with true courage have the right to do so. Their honesty often bears fruit, sometimes leading to their downfall, but never tarnishing their reputation.
——Jacob Grimm "My Dismissal"
The surface of the Thames River glistens with an iron hue on a winter afternoon, the wind sweeping the fog across the river, causing masts to emit low sounds.
But today at the London Pier, though still filled with the chaotic scene of vendors shouting, carriages rumbling, and workers hollering, the pier is also crowded with many middle-class people who seem out of place here.
Those gentlemen and ladies who usually appear in Jermyn Street, Regent Street, Green Park, or the library reading rooms are mostly unfamiliar with the smell of tides at the pier, nor are they accustomed to porters running by them with crates on the wet cobblestone paths.
