If the study of History is to be made really valuable from either the recreative or the educational point of view, it is necessary to have frequent recourse to original sources and contemporary writings; they introduce a certain quality of reality and vividness, a kind of historical atmosphere, which is most essential to a true appreciation of the subject. This fact is now generally recognised, and many collections of sources are available for the student of English History. In this volume will be found a selection of passages, generally from contemporary sources, relating to the history of London. It is quite impossible, of course, in a small book to do justice to every aspect of the subject; and it has seemed best to give special prominence to those events which concern the City as a whole, its growth, its corporate life, and its connection with national affairs.

Besides a vast mass of general contemporary literature, a large number of the most important and interesting documents dealing with London history have already been printed; but all this material is very scattered, and frequently rather inaccessible to the general reader. The Histories by Maitland and Noorthouck, published in the eighteenth century, contain translations of charters and other documents; Riley's "Memorials" is invaluable for the fourteenth century; and many useful suggestions have been derived from Besant's "Survey of London."

The spelling of the extracts has generally been modernised, but in a few cases the original text has been exactly followed.

It is hoped that the chronological arrangement of the passages, the care which has been taken in selecting them so as to illustrate events or circumstances of definite importance in the history of the City, and the introductory remarks attached to each extract, will save this volume from being merely a collection of historical scraps, and will enable it to be of real use to all who are interested in the story of London.