very footmarks of the Roman soldier;" whilst one of our most thronged thoroughfares can be identified as a British trackway and Roman street. How often upon such sites are unearthed relics of the civilization and luxury of our conquerors and colonists.

The records of the Amusements of the People, and their Sights and Shows, in all ages, are richly stored with Curiosities: from the period when Smithfield was an Anglo-Norman race-course, to the waning of the last of the City pageants, Lord Mayor's Show. Old Poets and Dramatists, Travellers and Diarists, have left us pictures-in-little of the sports and pastimes, the follies and nine-day-wonders, of the "Londiners." Fitzstephen and Hentzner, Stow and Strype, Howell and Aubrey, Evelyn and Pepys, Ned Ward and Tom Brown, Gay and Walpole, have bequeathed us many "trivial fond records" of this anecdotic class. Again, how many amusing eccentricities are recorded in the lives of the Alchemists, Astrologers, and Antiquaries of Old London!

Such are the leading Archeological features which, interwoven with the Modern History and Present Condition of the Metropolis, form the staple of the present volume. In the intermediate changes have disappeared many old London landmarks, which it has been my special object to describe:

"Praising what is lost,

Makes the remembrance dear,"

HORNSEY-ROAD,

Dec. 1867.

JOHN TIMBS.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

THE FIRST EDITION.

L

ITTLE need be said to bespeak the interest of readers in the staple of the present work-the Notable Things in the History of London through its Nineteen Centuries of accredited antiquity. Still, I am anxious to offer a few words upon the origin and growth of this volume; and the means by which I have striven to render it as complete as the extent and ever-varying nature of the subject will allow.

Twenty-seven years since (in 1828), I wrote in the parlour of the house No. 3 Charing Cross (then a publisher's), the title and plan of a volume to be called "CURIOSITIES OF LONDON;" and the work here submitted to the public is the realization of that design. I then proposed to note the most memorable points in the annals of the Metropolis, and to describe its most remarkable objects of interest, from the earliest period to my own time,-for the Present has its Curiosities as well as the Past. Since the commencement of this design in 1828,—precisely midway in my lifetime,-I have scarcely for a day or hour lost sight of the subject; but, through a long course of literary activity, have endeavoured to profit by every fair opportunity to increase my stock of materials; and by constant comparison, "not to take for granted, but to weigh and consider," in turning such materials to account. In this labour I have been greatly aided by the communications of obliging friends, as well as by my own recollection of nearly Fifty Years' Changes in the aspects of " enlarged and still increasing London."

“Thinking how different a place London is to different people," I have, in this volume, studied many tastes; but its leading characteristics will

be found to consist in what Addison's Freeholder calls "the Curiosities of this great Town." Their bibliographical illustration, by quotations from Old Poets and Dramatists, Travellers and Diarists, presents a sort of literary chequer-work of an entertaining and anecdotic character; and these historic glimpses are brought into vivid contrast with the Social Statistics and other Great Facts of the London of to-day.

The plan of the book is in the main alphabetical. Districts and localities are, however, topographically described; the arrangement of streets being generally in a sub-alphabet. The Birthplaces, Abodes, and Burialplaces of Eminent Persons-so many sites of charmed ground—are specially noted, as are existing Antiquities, Collections of Rare Art and Virtu, Public Buildings, Royal and Noble Residences, Great Institutions, Public Amusements and Exhibitions, and Industrial Establishments; so to chronicle the renown of Modern as well as Ancient London. The articles describing the Churches, Exchanges, Halls, Libraries and Museums, Palaces and Parks, Parliament-Houses, Roman Remains, and the Tower of London, are, from their importance, most copious in their details.

The utmost pains has been taken to verify dates, names, and circumstances; and it is trusted that no errors may be found in addition to those noted at the close of the volume, with the changes in the Metropolis during the progress of the printing of the work. The reader, it is hoped, will regard these inaccuracies with indulgence, when the immense number of facts sought to be recorded in this volume is considered. Lastly, it has been my aim to render the Curiosities useful as well as entertaining; and with that view are introduced several matters of practical information for Londoners as well as visitors.

JOHN TIMBS.

88, SLOANE-STReet, Chelsea,

Jan. 16, 1855.