THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF LONDON, WESTMINSTER, SOUTHWARK, AND PARTS ADJACENT. BY THOMAS ALLEN. CONTINUED TO THE PRESENT TIME, BY THOMAS WRIGHT, ESQ. OF TRIN. COLL. CAMBRIDGE, VOL. I. London: PUBLISHED BY GEORGE VIRTUE, 26, IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW. (RECAP) PREFACE. To trace the rise and progress of this powerful City, from rude infancy to its present power and magnificence; to mark the origin and increase of its commerce; to delineate the customs and manners of its inhabitants, and shew their preponderance in the general government of the kingdom, is a task of considerable difficulty; the material being scattered over so many voluminous works, the major part of which are of extreme rarity. The author of the following volumes, fully sensible of the inconveniences to an inquiring reader, has endeavoured to give a clear and comprehensive, yet condensed HISTORY OF LONDON and its environs. New information will be found of the most authentic kind, and derived from the most respectable sources; and the author feels confident that there is no fact of importance either omitted or misrepresented. His sole ambition was to be correct and impartial: his first object, to ascertain what was true; his second, to relate those truths in a plain unvarnished manner. SA 1465 1185 11 |