“Turn where you will in his pages, you get some interesting glimpse which opens up the past and illumines the present.”—The Contemporary Review.

“A handsome and very interesting book is the result, for which the curious reader and the student will alike be grateful.... Gives an admirable impression of the times.”—The Spectator.

“It is excellently planned, and very ably and agreeably executed.... The chief charm of this work is the pleasantness of the style in which it is written—easy, clear, and individual. To the accuracy of the ideal historian Sir Walter added the picturesqueness of the popular novelist.”—The Globe.

“A book full of entertainment and instruction for modern Londoners.”—The Daily Mail.

“To praise this book were superfluous. Sir Walter was ideally suited for the task which he set himself. He was an antiquarian, but not a Dryasdust; he had the topographical sense, but he spares us measurements; he was pleasantly discursive; if he moralised he was never tedious; he had the novelist’s eye for the romantic; above all, he loved and reverenced London. Though only a Londoner by adoption, he bestowed upon the capital a more than filial regard. Besant is the nineteenth-century Stow, and something more.... This remarkable volume.... It is a monument of faithful and careful research.”—The Daily Telegraph.

“Will be of the utmost value to every student of the life and history of London.”—The Standard.

“This handsome and really valuable volume.”—The Guardian.

“As a general survey of the eighteenth century this work has no rival.”—Glasgow Herald.

“It is indeed a living and fascinating book.”—The Yorkshire Post.

“It is a wonderfully complete history.... Will probably stand to all time as the brightest and most authoritative book on a period which is bound, by its very evils, to have a fascination for the student of customs and manners, and for the student of national development.”—The Liverpool Post.

“The reader will gather that this is a work which is of the highest importance. Beautifully written, beautifully produced and illustrated, it is in itself a monument to the steady industry and devotion of Sir Walter Besant, one of the best and sweetest influences this latter day has felt. The epitaph which honours Sir Christopher Wren might be inscribed, with a difference, on the title-page of London in the Eighteenth Century, for if we require a monument to Sir Walter Besant we need only look within.”—The Church Times.

“Altogether this posthumous work of the historian of London is one of the most fascinating books which he ever wrote.”—The Municipal Journal.

“The book is engrossing and its manner delightful.”—The Times.

“A work of great value and interest; ...profoundly interesting.”—The Westminster Gazette.

“Of facts and figures such as these this valuable book will be found full to overflowing, and it is calculated, therefore, to interest all kinds of readers, from the student to the dilettante, from the romancer in search of matter to the most voracious student of ‘Tit-Bits.’”—The AthenÆum.

“Stimulating, edifying, interesting, horrifying, in turns, the book has not a dull moment.... As it is the best, it will surely prove the most prized and popular of modern books on London.”—Notes and Queries.

“The work is copiously illustrated with reproductions of old prints, and is altogether a delightful and fascinating guide to the Metropolis at an eventful period of its history.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“Of the present lordly quarto volume it may be said that it fairly represents that ‘Survey’ which Sir Walter Besant conceived, and which he used to refer to as his magnum opus. It is a worthy literary monument to his deep knowledge and love of London.”—The Academy.

“Besant’s interesting and valuable book.”—Manchester Guardian.

“It is assuredly a delightful book to lose oneself in, and so to think one’s way back into a simpler and perhaps, after all, a merrier England.”—The Bookman.

“A book to be treasured and studied.... The work as a whole is a notable achievement, and will stand as the classical authority on eighteenth-century London.”—The Speaker.

“The vast mass of matter I have got together will open people’s eyes as to the extraordinary coarseness and brutality of that time.”—WALTER BESANT.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

History

James I.—Sir Walter Raleigh—Persecution of Roman Catholics—New River—Booke of Sportes—Colony of Virginia—Charles I.—Outbreak of Plague—Forced Loan—Assassination of Buckingham—Exasperation in the City—The Short Parliament—Attack on Spanish Ambassador—Strafford’s Death—The Civil War—The Trained Bands—Execution of the King—The Commonwealth—The Fifth Monarchy Men—Cromwell’s Death—The Restoration—Execution of the Regicides—Act of Uniformity—Charles closes the Exchequer—Quarrels between the City and the Commons—Court of Charles II.—James II.—Titus Oates’ sentence—Rising of Monmouth—The Bishops sent to the Tower—The Landing of William of Orange—Capture of Jeffreys—William III.—Lord Mayor’s Day—Queen Anne—The Case of Sacheverell.

Religion, Government, and Trade

The Puritan Character—The Laudian Persecution—Abolition of the Book of Common Prayer—Fanaticism—Zachary Crofton—James Naylor—Conventicles become Churches—Superstitions—William Lilly—Services for the Cramp Ring and King’s Evil—Sanctuary—Social Distinctions in the City—Crimping—Saltpetre-’Prentices—Trade—Silkworms—Imports—The Bank of England—The Royal Exchange and the New Exchange—Coinage—City Companies in Debt—The Irish Estates.

The Great Plague and Fire

Former Plague Records—Desertion of City—Pest Houses—Pepys’ Account—Defoe’s Account—Regulations for the Plague-stricken—The Symptoms of the Plague—Strange Nostrums—Charms—The Aspect of the City before the Fire—The Beginning of the Fire—The Destruction of Property—Amount of Damage estimated—What the Fire left—Origin of the Fire—People camped on Moorfields—Plans for Rebuilding—Another Plot to burn the City—Contemporary Evidence—Evelyn’s Account—Pepys’ Account—London rebuilt—Ogilby’s Map—The Suburbs and the City—Confusion of Property after the Fire—The River—Insanitary Condition of the City—Shops glazed for the first Time.

Manners and Customs

Cost of Living—Rents—Furniture—Beer and other Drinks—No Forks in Use—Cost of Food—The Popularity of the Tavern—The First Use of Tea—The Virtue of Coffee—Coffee-Houses—Chocolate-Houses—Tobacco now universal—Puritanic Fashions—Dress of Gallants and Courtiers—Wigs—Pocket Mirrors—Patches and Powder—Kissing as common as Shaking Hands—Servants—City Tradesmen—Customs at Weddings—Funeral Ceremonies—No Coffins for Poor People—Places of Resort—Hyde Park and St. James’s Park—Spring Gardens—Leper Hospital at St. James’s—James I.’s Menagerie—New Spring Gardens at Vauxhall—Attractions of the Shop Girls—Theatres—The First Introduction of Women to the Stage—The Cockpit—Nell Gwynn—The Time of the Performances—Variation of the Plays—Wearing of Masks—Coarseness—Music very popular—The Fine Arts—Arundelian Collection—Raffaelle’s Work—Sports and Amusements—Puritan Suppression of Sunday Games—Bear-baiting and other Brutal Sports—Fairs—Athletic Sports—Hunting—Predilection of King James I. for the Chase—Bowling-Alleys—Fencing—Mohocks—Wrestling—St. Bartholomew’s Fair—Coaches—Tolls for Road Repair—Punishment and Crime—Severity of the Punishments—Branding, Pillory, Boring through the Tongue with a Hot Iron—Case of Alexander Leighton—Earl of Oxford’s False Marriage—Lord Sanquhar’s Revenge—Prisoners for Debt—Tricks—“The Brave Shifter”—Usurers—Brokers—Public Morality and the Lord Mayor’s Proclamation—General Notes—Scarcity of Public Inns—Gentlemen carried Large Fans—Strange Processions—Horn Fair.

Appendices

The Court of Charles II.—List of the London Clergy ejected—List of Almshouses founded in the Seventeenth Century—Composition of the Lords and Commons—The New Buildings of London—Rules for Enlargement of the Streets—Gardens.

SOME PRESS OPINIONS

“Most readable and interesting.... It is a mine in which the student alike of topography and of manners and customs may dig and dig again with the certainty of finding something new and interesting.”—The Times.

“No lover of London can fail to be grateful to the late Sir Walter for his many carefully studied pictures of its ancient life, pictures often quaint and amusing, and bearing always the mark of earnest and minute research.... The general reader will find in this volume a world of interesting suggestion.”—The Daily Chronicle.

“We are again reminded of the vast debt which London owes to the late Sir Walter Besant by the appearance of this sumptuously printed and beautifully illustrated book, the second volume of his great Survey of London—unquestionably his magnum opus, upon which his fame will chiefly rest.... A book which should be in the library of every one who takes an intelligent interest in the history and development of London.”—The Daily Telegraph.

“The pen of the ready writer here is fluent; the picture wants nothing in completeness. The records of the city and the kingdom have been ransacked for facts and documents, and they are here marshalled with consummate skill. In surveying the political history of London from James I. to Queen Anne, Sir Walter Besant reveals himself as an unsparing and impartial historian, and in this respect alone the work must command our admiration and our praise. But there is also included the most vivid presentation of the story of the Great Plague and the Great Fire that has ever been brought between the covers of one book.”—The Pall Mall Gazette.

“There is not a dull page in the book, and the fact that the treatment is somewhat discursive makes the volume more delightful. We can give no idea of its variety and its charm, but every one who wishes to know the London of two hundred and fifty years ago will feel, as he opens this volume, that he has stepped back into that world of great events, and will live again through its civil discord, its Plague, and Fire, and its strange superstitions.”—The London Quarterly Review.

“Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted before.”—WALTER BESANT.

CONTENTS

• TUDOR SOVEREIGNS
• CHAP.
• 1. Henry VII.
• 2. Henry VIII.
• 3. Edward VI.
• 4. Mary.
• 5. Elizabeth.
• 6. The Queen in Splendour.
• RELIGION
• 1. The Dissolution and the Martyrs.
• 2. The Progress of the Reformation.
• 3. Superstition.
• ELIZABETHAN LONDON
• 1. With Stow.
• 2. Contemporary Evidence.
• 3. The Citizens.
• GOVERNMENT AND TRADE OF THE CITY.
• 1. The Mayor.
• 2. Trade.
• 3. Literature and Art.
• 4. Gog and Magog.
• SOCIAL LIFE.
• 1. Manners and Customs.
• 2. Food and Drink.
• 3. Dress—Weddings.
• 4. Soldiers.
• 5. The ’Prentice.
• 6. The London Inns.
• 7. Theatres and Sports.
• 8. The Poor.
• 9. Crime and Punishment.

PRESS OPINIONS

“Altogether it forms without question not only a monument to Sir Walter Besant’s affectionate enthusiasm for London, and devotion to what he regarded as the great task of his life, but an almost unrivalled popular presentation of English life and manners in the metropolis during the age of the Tudors.”—Glasgow Herald.

“A vivid and fascinating picture of London life in the sixteenth century—a novelist’s picture, full of life and movement, yet with the accurate detail of an antiquarian treatise.”—The Contemporary Review.

“Of books on London we hail all and every one, since none can be so wholly bad that nothing can be learnt from its perusal; of this exceptionally able achievement we believe that, whilst its high aim should act as a stimulus to further endeavour, it will be long before the literature of ancient London is enriched by a more fascinating work of introspection.”—The Times.

“There is not space to analyse this fine book to any adequate extent, and the temptation to enlarge upon it grows with the perusal of its fascinating pages.... For the student, as well as for those desultory readers who are drawn by the rare fascination of London to peruse its pages, this book will have a value and a charm which are unsurpassed by any of its predecessors.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“We know of no book that is calculated to interest lovers of this great city of ours to a greater degree than this posthumous contribution of a gifted writer to what he himself loved so well—the history of London.”—Daily Chronicle.

“This splendidly appointed volume, with its wealth of illustrations from the work of contemporary artists, as well as writers, is in keeping with its important subject, and, with its companion volumes, forms a monumental work that will assuredly go down to the far future.”—Aberdeen Free Press.

“I have been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I find something fresh in it every day.”—WALTER BESANT.

CONTENTS

VOL. I.

PART I.—MEDIÆVAL SOVEREIGNS.

1. Henry II. 2. Richard I. 3. John. 4. Henry III. 5. Edward I. 6. Edward II. 7. Edward III. 8. Richard II. 9. Henry IV. 10. Henry V. 11. Henry VI. 12. Edward IV. 13. Richard III.

PART II.—SOCIAL AND GENERAL.

1. General View. 2. Port and Trade of London. 3. Trade and Gentility. 4. The Streets. 5. The Buildings. 6. Furniture. 7. Wealth and State of Nobles and Citizens. 8. Manners and Customs. 9. Food. 10. Sport and Recreation. 11. Literature and Science in London—§ I. The Libraries of London; § II. London and Literature; § III. The Physician. 12. Fire, Plague, and Famine. 13. Crime and Punishment. 14. Christian Names and Surnames.

VOL. II.

PART I.—THE GOVERNMENT OF LONDON.

1. The Records. 2. The Charter of Henry the Second. 3. The Commune. 4. The Wards. 5. The Factions of the City. 6. The Century of Uncertain Steps. 7. After the Commune. 8. The City Companies.

PART II.—ECCLESIASTICAL LONDON.

1. The Religious Life. 2. Church Furniture. 3. The Calendar of the Year. 4. Hermits and Anchorites. 5. Pilgrimage. 6. Ordeal. 7. Sanctuary. 8. Miracle and Mystery Plays. 9. Superstitions, etc. 10. Order of Burial.

PART III.—RELIGIOUS HOUSES.

1. General. 2. St. Martin’s-le-Grand. 3. The Priory of the Holy Trinity, or Christ Church Priory. 4. The Charter House. 5. Elsyng Spital. 6. St. Bartholomew. 7. St. Thomas of Acon. 8. St. Anthony’s. 9. The Priory of St. John of Jerusalem. 10. The Clerkenwell Nunnery. 11. St. John the Baptist, or Holiwell Nunnery. 12. Bermondsey Abbey. 13. St. Mary Overies. 14. St. Thomas’s Hospital. 15. St. Giles-in-the-Fields. 16. St. Helen’s. 17. St. Mary Spital. 18. St. Mary of Bethlehem. 19. The Clares. 20. St. Katherine’s by the Tower. 21. Crutched Friars. 22. Austin Friars. 23. Grey Friars. 24. The Dominicans. 25. Whitefriars. 26. St. Mary of Graces. 27. The Smaller Foundations. 28. Fraternities. 29. Hospitals.

PRESS OPINIONS

“Like its predecessors, it is a work framed in a style at once popular and erudite, embracing a historical sketch of each reign included, and supplementary chapters on the commercial and social conditions of the period. No book could be suited better than this is to occupy an honoured place on the family bookshelf.”—Globe.

“Each volume that appears not merely reveals more vividly the magnitude of the undertaking, but the skill and knowledge, the historic imagination, and the picturesque sensibility of the writer. Two volumes were wisely devoted to MediÆval London. The first set before us the historical and social aspects of the capital, and did so with the charm that belongs to a living picture; the second volume, which is now published, is also marked by movement and colour, and in its pages are described the ecclesiastical life of the community and the great religious houses which flourished long before any man had dreamed of such a movement as the Reformation.”—Standard.

“It is unquestionably one of the most valuable of the books that have been published this year. Every ‘London’ collector who can afford to do so, will, of course, buy it; but it is deserving of a far wider circle of readers, and it is to be hoped that it will be placed promptly upon the lists of every public library in the land.”—The Record.

“It is a mine of wealth to the student, a joy to the antiquary, and a kaleidoscopic picture of times that were full of moving and changing events that rendered the history of London, more than at any other period, the history of the nation that was in the making.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“Written in the charming and fascinating style of which the author was a master. It is a mine of curious and interesting information for the historical student. It is a model of lucid arrangement, and presents a living and moving picture of days long gone by.”—Aberdeen Free Press.

“For the general reader, this work, for its liveliness and variety, will do what Chaucer and Langland do for the serious student of the Middle Ages.”—Tribune.

“This work fascinates me more than anything I have ever done.”—WALTER BESANT.

PRESS OPINIONS

“We have here, in fact, just what will give people who do not know their London a new interest in every walk they take, and indicate to those who want more the lines on which their studies may be conducted.”—Times.

“It is scarcely necessary to write any words of commendation when the great knowledge of the editor and the literary charm with which he always writes of London are taken into consideration.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

“The book, and the series of which it is a part, will be welcomed by those who already possess that detailed knowledge of London and its associations in which Sir Walter Besant delighted, and a perusal of its pages by those less fortunate will do much to add to the number of his disciples.”—County Council Times.

“This is a very pleasant little book, the work of a competent observer, who knows what to look for and how to deal with what he finds.”—The Spectator.

“Delightful guides. They are just the handbooks to make walks in London interesting, for they re-people every street with the figures which have lived in it in the past.”—The Pilot.

“We fancy that even the most observant and studious lover of the metropolis will find much in these dainty little volumes to instruct and surprise him. The glamour of bygone years and the spirit of to-day jostle each other on every page.”—Christian World.

“Well written, and valuable historically.”—St. James’s Gazette.

“These little volumes are of great value in the keeping of fact and tradition pleasantly alive.”-The Academy.

“Those who love their London, and are interested in its local history, should not fail to procure this interesting little volume.”—The Tribune.

“The handy and informing topographical series issued by Messrs. Black under the happy title of ‘The Fascination of London.’”—The Antiquary.

LONDON VANISHED AND VANISHING
PAINTED AND DESCRIBED BY PHILIP NORMAN, F.S.A.
CONTAINING 75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR

“A most beautiful as well as a most interesting book.... It should teach the citizens of this great capital to love and respect their city, both for its beauty and for the history and tradition which is their heritage, and of which some lasting memorials still exist around them.”—Daily News.

“Mr. Norman can talk about old London as well as he paints it, and his chapters are full of noteworthy historical, archÆological, and literary lore.”—Literary World.

THE SCENERY OF LONDON
PAINTED BY HERBERT M. MARSHALL, R.W.S.
DESCRIBED BY G. E. MITTON
CONTAINING 75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR

“None but a highly-gifted artist who was also a profoundly sympathetic student of the contributing factors of London’s wonderful appeal to the eye and imagination could have caught so much of its potent and infinitely diversified charm, or conveyed its colour and atmosphere and the many and various conditions with such almost invariable fidelity as Mr. Marshall has done in these delicate and delightful sketches; while Miss Mitton has here given fresh and most acceptable proof of that ‘extensive and peculiar’ knowledge of London which rendered her so valued a coadjutor of the late Sir Walter Besant.”—The World.

FAMILIAR LONDON
PAINTED AND DESCRIBED BY ROSE BARTON
CONTAINING 60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR

“Miss Barton yields to no artist as the pictorial chronicler of London. She gives us the London we know and love, the London which is part of the workaday lives we spend in the market of the universe.”—Douglas Sladen in The Queen.

“We cannot recall a collection of London pictures that catches and conveys better the spirit, the genius, and the charm of modern London with deeper subtlety and finer execution.”—Literary World.

LONDON TO THE NORE
PAINTED BY W. L. WYLLIE, R.A.
DESCRIBED BY MRS. WYLLIE
CONTAINING 60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR

“Now, at last, comes a volume which gives us the whole soul and figure, so to speak, of the great fleet-bearing, commercial, and warlike stream which constitutes the greatest port in the world—the port of London.”—Daily Graphic.

“It is an impressionist view in prose of what the workaday river is. The book is superbly illustrated by coloured pages of the never-ending scenes and pictures of men and things that Father Thames opens up to all who venture on his broad waters.”—John Burns, M.P., in the Daily News.

“This charming work is in every way welcome, and every Londoner who reads it will prize it. The reproductions are exquisitely done.”—Pall Mall Gazette.

THE THAMES
PAINTED BY MORTIMER MEMPES, R.I.
DESCRIBED BY G. E. MITTON
CONTAINING 75 ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR

“There is in it just the desired touch of historical reminiscence, with never a line of pedantry, nor a phrase in doubtful taste.... The pictures themselves are characteristic of their author’s happiest manner, which is but another way of saying that they are certain of popularity.”—The Standard.

“Rarely in the long series of coloured books have author and artist been so evenly matched. Miss Mitton writes as one who revels in the charms of the Upper Thames, and Mr. Mempes adds colour to the picture of beauty. Together they have produced a wholly delightful volume.”—Review of Reviews.