"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 spared us measurements; he was pleasantly discursive; if he moralized 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."—Daily Telegraph.

"Turn where you will in his pages you get some interesting glimpse which opens up the past and illumines the present."—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."—Spectator.

"It has not been possible to more than hint at the extraordinary interest and value of his work, part only of a greater. In spirit and arrangement it resembles those two fascinating volumes that the De Goncourts published: 'La SociÉtÉ FranÇaise sous la Revolution et sous le Directoire,' but is, of course, far more varied in its contents."—Pilot.

"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.

"Here is a book we believe to be without a rival in the same field—a work in which the author takes us into the inner life of a community—recalling to us, as from the time of oblivion, the homes and habits and labours of the Scottish peasantry, the modes and manners and thoughts of society, showing us what the people believed and what they practised, how they farmed and how they traded, how their children were taught, how their bodies were nourished, and how their souls were tended."—Daily Chronicle.

"His picture of the domestic life and industry, the rural economy, the religious customs and theological opinions, the superstitions, the laws, and the educational institutions of the age of our great-grandfathers, is as vivid in colouring and effective in grouping and composition as it is authentic and trustworthy as a piece of history."—Scotsman.

"An eminently readable book ... full of charm and interest. There is not a page of the book which does not sustain its interest, and nowhere does Mr. Graham fail to give us a lively picture of the life and character of those of whom he writes.... Mr. Graham has shown how literary biography may be made more attractive than many a creation of fiction."—Times.

"The book is readable on every page, and throws much light on the history of the modern Athens. Mr. Graham has indeed used his wide acquaintance with the diaries and memoirs of the eighteenth century to good advantage, and gives us a book more readable than most novels, as well as full of instruction."—World.

"Eminently readable, full of anecdote and brilliantly described incident, and illustrated by many admirable portraits."—Pall Mall Gazette.