OR, A

POCKET COMPANION

IN A

TOUR ROUND LONDON,

WITHIN THE CIRCUIT OF TWENTY FIVE MILES:.

DESCRIBING

Whatever is most remarkable for Antiquity, Grandeur,
Elegance, or Rural Beauty:

INCLUDING.

NEW CATALOGUES OF PICTURES,

AND ILLUSTRATED BY

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL OBSERVATIONS:

TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED

A. Concise Description of the Metropolis.

AND

A MAP OF THE COUNTRY DESCRIBED.

Si te grata quies

Delectat; fi te pulvis ftrepitufque rotarum,
Si lædit caupona; Ferentinum ire jubebo.

New scenes arife, new landscapes strike the eye,
And all th' enlivened country beautify.

HORAT.

THOMSON.

THE FOURTH EDITION.

LONDON:

Printed for J. BEw, and G. and T. WILKIE, Pater-nofter Row, and
SCATCHERD and WHITAKER, Ave-Maria Lanc.

TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

N the utility of a work of this nature it is scarce neceffary to expatiate. No part of the kingdom, perhaps, can prefent more attractive scenes than the environs of London; in which the man of leisure may find amusement, and the man of bufinefs the most agreeable relaxation. With refpect, indeed, to rural fcenery, the country, defcribed in the following Tour, does not exhibit Nature in her more fublime and stupendous views: it prefents no favage mountains crowned with perennial fnows, no vaft extent of uncultivated wilds, no tremendous cataracts, no wonderful expanfe of waters. But rural elegance and rural beauty here appear in their most fascinating forms. Royal palaces, magnificent feats, and elegant villas interfperfed, afford inexhaustible gratifications for curiofity; in fome, the finest collections of paintings, ineftimable antiques, venerable decorations of ancient splendour, or all the exquifite embellishments of modern art. Extenfive profpects charm the eye with undefcribable variety :: the landscape, less extenfive, invites the penfive mind to contemplation; or the creative powers of Art exhibit an Elyfium, where Nature once appeared in her rudeft state.

To affift the inhabitants of the Metropolis, or its occafional visitors, in the choice of their excurfions, is a principal object of this publication: to be an entertaining companion in thefe excurfions, is another. With this view, the Editor has not only described. whatever he found curious in the works of Nature or of Art, but where any place has been distinguished by fome memorable circumftance, he has not forgotten how much the incidental recollection of it may improve the fources of conversation, nor what pleafure a well-cultivated mind may derive in contempla