Chapter 52: Orphan of the Mist?

Chapter 52 – Misty City Orphans?

Arthur and the others in their regular clothes stood at the entrance to St. Giles Parish.

Closing their eyes, they could feel the earthly hustle and bustle of the place, the raucous shouting and the chatter of the crowds coming and going, as if it was just like the other opulent squares and streets of London’s West End.

In fact, it does have its own glorious past.

In the 16th century, the parish of St. Giles was just a rural village outside of London, with only a few groups of villages and a few dozen families who had lived here for generations.

However, an Act of 1541 changed the fate of the area. Because of the increasingly overcrowded living conditions in the City of London, Parliament intended to extend the city towards the fringes, and a thoroughfare was laid out from Holborn Bar to St. Giles’ Church.

As a result of the construction of this road, many of the upper class living in the City of London began to frequent the area on their days off, enjoying hunting hares and foxes in the Black Forest of Marylebone, near the parish of St. Giles.

With the arrival of these high class people, the parish of St. Giles began to flourish and the number of people living there began to rise.

During the reign of Charles II, an upper-class settlement called the Sundial of Seven Streets was gradually established in St. Giles Parish.

The number of houses in the neighborhood grew from a few dozen to 2,000.

On a map of London in 1720, it is difficult to find any vacant land in St. Giles Parish.

Yet this luxurious, upper-class neighborhood was rapidly transformed into a gathering place for the poor and a hideout for vice in the 18th century.

The most important reason for this was the massive development of the rest of the parishes in the West End of London.

In the midst of this wave of development, the parish of St. Giles was prevented from being regenerated due to confusion over the ownership of the land.

A large number of houses have become dilapidated due to lack of maintenance and upkeep.

As the rich fled the area, the gap between the rich and the poor became more polarized, and some of the population had more purchasing power, and they began to favor the suburban estates and other noble properties, abandoning the once-favored St. Giles Parish.

While the rich fled, the poor and the destitute discovered the value of St. Giles Parish.

For one thing, it was conveniently located within easy reach of Covent Garden Market, Soho, Westminster Abbey and the Thames Docks.

These places offered a wealth of jobs and could support a large service sector community engaged in manual labor.

They began to occupy the empty houses left behind by the exodus of the rich, and they came from a variety of origins – Irish, English, Scottish, and even French – and despite their different cultures, these people also had one thing in common.

That is, they were all expatriates who could not survive in their homeland and had to come to London to make a living.

And the landlord of St. Giles Parish saw a unique value in these people.

As a result, since the poor began to flock here, the city of St. Giles Parish has not only not shrunk in size, but has even expanded more rapidly than it did when it was inhabited by the rich.

Houses were being built at a rate of more than a year, the original spacious avenues were crowded with ever-expanding shanties, and all sorts of uninhabitable rooms were enlarged on the foundations of the original houses.

The reputation which St. Giles had spent two hundred years in accumulating was buried in the course of a few decades.

According to the civil organization ‘Society for the Suppression of Beggar’s Life’, more than a quarter of London’s beggars today come from this parish.

Yet it was in such a place that young Adam spent nine years of his life.

Arthur looked at Little Adam, who was being held by Tom’s hand beside him, and he spoke, “Adam, I’m sorry to have brought you back here again.”

Little Adam today was not the same person he had been in the courtroom.

His yellowish hair, which would have covered his eyes, was cut short, and he was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with a white frilly-edged shawl sewn around his shoulders for decoration.

Though it was not of any expensive material, judging by the texture of the garment, it was still evident from the stitching on the shawl that Mrs. Tom had done her work with care.

Adam looked up at Arthur and blinked. “Mr. Hastings, you don’t need to apologize, I’ve actually been meaning to make a trip back, and I have some things left here. Maybe I can’t use them now, but I can give them away.”

Hearing this, Tony couldn’t help but inquire, “Adam, are you sure the stuff is still there? Didn’t that asshole mother of yours put everything of value in the house ……”

Who knew that before Tony could finish his sentence, Tom glared and punched him hard in the stomach.

Tony momentarily ate the pain, couldn’t help but curse, “Fuck! Tom, what are you doing?”

Tom also ignored Tony, but squatted down and said with Adam: “Adam, don’t listen to his nonsense. Your mom just went to go to relatives, this time you will live in my home, of course, even if your mom came back, you can also live in my home, where you want to live on where to live.”

Adam pursed his lips at this and said nothing, just walked over to Tom.

Tom asked gently, “Adam, what’s wrong with you?”

Adam stared at his face for a long time and suddenly reached out his arms and hugged Tom.

“Dad.”

Tom froze at first, but in an instant, tears had stained his eyes.

He hugged Adam and father and son cried together.

“Adam! My good son.”

Tony laughed at the sight, then shrugged helplessly at Arthur.

Arthur gave father and son a look and pulled his pipe from the metal box in his pocket and took it to his lips and lit it.

Since he wasn’t wearing a police uniform today, he had the rare opportunity to smoke in public.

Arthur sipped his cigarette and spoke, “Tom, Adam’s adoption papers aren’t done yet, right? Why don’t we just change his name, let bygones be bygones. The past doesn’t matter, what matters is the present and the future.”

Tom wanted to reply, but he was too weepy to even say a complete sentence at this point, and just couldn’t stop nodding.

When Tony saw him in this state, he just felt angry, “Can’t even say a word! Tom, can you wipe your tears, we still have to work!”

Arthur saw that Tom could not be counted on, so he could only throw the topic to his son.

“Adam, I remember talking to you once upon a time, you told me that there was an old man in this area who specialized in adopting stray children? You also told me that you learned your pickpocketing skills from him. Can you take us to meet him?”

Adam was held in Tom’s arms as he wiped his reddened eyes and then spoke in a broken voice, “You mean Mr. Fay, Fagin? Are you, are you going to arrest him?”

“Fagin?”

Arthur frowned in thought, he always felt that the name was a bit familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere.

Just as he was thinking about it, he suddenly heard someone in front of him greet him, “Arthur!”

Arthur looked up, and it was none other than Dickens wearing his complimentary hat and slung small cloth bag.

Arthur’s pupils constricted slightly and he turned his head to Tom, who was beside him.

“Have you thought of a name for Adam yet?”

Tom sniffled and said with red eyes, “Just, just call him Oliver.”

(End of chapter)