HISTORICAL

AND

TOPOGRAPHICAL ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

London and its Environs.

LONDON may well be considered as the metropolis of the world. It has been the liberal foster-parent of the elegant no less than the useful arts,—and in point of wealth and commercial prosperity it exceeds every other city on record. When "Domesday-Book" was compiled in the reign of William the Conqueror, London consisted but of a few houses near Middle-Row, on the banks of the Old-bourne, a stream which flowed into the river Fleet; and it must have made most rapid strides towards maturity, as we find William of Malmsbury in the reign of king Stephen, speaking of the Metropolis as " a noble city renowned for the opulence of its inhabitants.”

"But it is at the era of Elizabeth," says Mr. Britton, " that we are presented with the most curious picture of London, in the first map of a Metropolis then thought too large, and, in consequence, positively forbidden to be further extended by that imperious sovereign. From this map it appears, that the greater part of the Metropolis was then contained within the walls, in which narrow limits there were many gardens, which have since been converted into lanes, courts, and alleys. The whole of the buildings were bounded on the east by the monastery of St. Catherine; East Smithfield was open to Tower Hill, and of the buildings now beyond there is no appearance. The Minories were built only on the east side, which fronted the city wall; cattle grazed in Goodman's Fields; and Whitechapel extended but a little beyond the bars, and had no houses to the north; for Spital Fields, now built upon, and extensive enough to compose a very large town, were then really separated from each other by hedges and rows of trees. Hounds

B