Ellustrated with a Map of London,

AND UPWARDS OF TWO HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD,
By Prior, Shepherd, Delamotte, Gilks, Bissagar, and other Eminent Artists.

LONDON:

H. G. CLARKE & CO., 4, EXETER CHANGE.

MDCCCLI.

T. C. Johns, Printer,

Wine Office Court, Fleet Street.

PREFACE.

The unexampled success which has attended the publication of this work, has been highly gratifying to the Editor, assuring him, as it does, that his intentions have been appreciated; and, he now with confidence submits it to the Public, in the hope that it will be found a faithful and entertaining picture of "London as it is to Day."

The Editor anxious to justify and substantiate the title by which he has introduced his work to the public, will seek in each succeeding edition, to convey an adequate notion of its ever-changing mien. The task he has undertaken, is, it must be confessed, one of great magnitude, yet it is from the contemplation of the dignity of the subject, that he has derived the necessary stimulus to exertion. If he has occasionally dilated on comparative trifles, it must be recollected that minute parts are of essential importance to a mighty whole; we pass the isolated block, as an abstract object, but gaze with awe at the solemn pyramid; and without pretending to the skill of a painter, in arranging his materials with that refinement of composition, so necessary to the ends of art, the Editor trusts that their proportionate magnitudes have been observed, their due stations assigned to them, and that no artifices of light and shade have been resorted to, in order to enhance or deteriorate their value. He has endeavoured, in treating of national objects, to evince a national feeling.