OF LONDON: EXHIBITING THE MOST RARE AND REMARKABLE OBJECTS OF INTEREST IN WITH NEARLY Sixty Years' Personal Recollections. BY JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A. "I'll see these Things!-They're rare and passing curious."-OLD PLAY. "I walked up to the window in my dusty black coat, and looking through the glass, saw In "the wonderful extent and variety of London, men of curious inquiry may see such "The man that is tired of London is tired of existence."-JOHNSON. A NEW EDITION, CORRECTED AND ENLARGED. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER. MDCCC LXVIII. PREFACE. IT. T is not without considerable anxiety that I submit to the public this enlarged edition of a Work in which are garnered many of the labours of a long life, for the most part passed amidst the localities and characteristics which it is the aim of this volume to focus and portray. The cause of the above anxiety lies chiefly in the changeful nature of the subject; for at no period in the existence of the Metropolis have so many changes been wrought in its "scarred face," and its modern aspect, as in the Twelve Years that have elapsed since the publication of the first edition of this Work. The CURIOSITIES OF LONDON" originally appeared in the Spring of 1855, in a small octavo volume of 800 pages, when it was received by the Critical Press with almost unanimous approval; or, in some respects, an inclination to take the word for the deed, and in others to kindly regard the difficulties of the labour. In either case I am bound to be grateful. The edition, over 3000 copies, was sold within a comparatively short period, considering the character of the work, then regarded as almost exclusively antiquarian; although the above reception induces the belief that "the Present has its Curiosities as well as the Past." The book remained for several years entirely out of print, and second-hand could only be rarely obtained by advertisement. I then resolved upon its revision, and its reproduction, enlarged and more perfect in its details than hitherto; and the present volume of library size, 880 pages, is the result; improved, it is hoped, in the value of its contents, as well as increased in bulk. |