THE SURVEY OF LONDON

Messrs. A. & C. Black have for some time been making arrangements, which are now completed, for the execution of a new “Survey of London.” The last edition of Stowe and Strype’s famous work was issued in 1754; Maitland’s Survey appeared in 1756; Entick’s Survey in 1766; Lambert’s Survey in 1806: all these were based upon Stowe. Since that time, though there have been many books written on London, on parts of London, on churches of London, and on institutions of London, there has been no actual Survey of London. In this long interval London has extended very far beyond the modest limits of its walls and suburbs of 1806. At the present moment the jurisdiction of the London County Council covers an area, including the old city, which roughly may be estimated at seventeen miles long by twelve miles broad. The whole of this area is to be included in the new Survey. The Editor, Director, and the principal writer of the work is Sir Walter Besant, M.A., F.S.A., who has made a study of London—not only in books, but in exploration of the streets—the occupation of his leisure hours for more than twenty-five years. The new work will not be, like those of Maitland and Entick, merely a reproduction brought up to date of Stowe, but an entirely new work on a different plan. It will contain a history of London newly written and illustrated by the records and documents which have been brought to light during the last fifty years. These papers enable the historian to reconstruct and to present the city and its people as they were from age to age; not only the achievement of its liberties will be recorded, but also the development of its trade, the growth of its political power, the changes in its religious ideas, the manners and customs of the people. There will be a perambulation of the whole “County” as well as of the City proper, in the course of which every ancient building, every historical association, every Institution—Church, School, Hospital, Almshouse, Museum, Town Hall, Theatre—every great house of business will be noted and described.

It is, in short, the desire of the Publishers and the Editor to erect a monument worthy of this great and venerable city.

The work will be abundantly illustrated with Maps and Drawings of buildings past and present, and will form at least eight Royal quarto volumes, the first to be published in 1900, to be followed at short regular intervals.

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.

By Rear-admiral the Hon. VICTOR A. MONTAGU