Conclusion

Abstract

In 1642 Henry Peacham published a pamphlet advising ‘gentlemen, countrymen and strangers’ of the dangerous temptations of London. Towards the end of his brief work, Peacham turned his attention to ‘such as are of the poorest condition, and come to the Citie, compelled by necessitie to try their fortunes, to seek services, or other meanes to live’, including ‘young maids who never knew ill in their lives’ who risked being ‘enticed by impudent bawds, to turn common whores’, but who ‘if they can provide themselves, and take honest courses, by the blessing of God, they may come to as great preferment as aldermen and aldermens wives’.¹