THE STREETS OF LONDON, WITH Anecdotes of their more Celebrated Residents. BY JOHN THOMAS SMITH, LATE KEEPER OF THE PRINTS AND DRAWINGS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM ; AND A BOOK FOR A RAINY DAY." EDITED BY CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D. NEW EDITION. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1854. ADVERTISEMENT. FEW persons, it may be asserted, have ever been so well qualified for the task of depicting the characteristic peculiarities, and of reviving associations, historical and anecdotical, of the more remarkable London localities, as the Author of the following Work. Amongst other pursuits, he was engaged with zealous industry, for a very long period, in collecting materials for it, which cherished project, although nearly completed by him, he did not live to see published. The duties of his situation as Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum, while they furnished him with unusual facilities for improving and extending his design, interfered no doubt with the progress of its completion. Residing for the greater part of his life in London, his extensive local knowledge, the result of an ardent love of antiquarian and biographical study, was constantly enriched by the communications of kindred spirits, prompted by his pleasant gossipy humour and rich fund of anecdote to aid him in this his "labour of love." His Sketches and Recollections of the Streets of London, accordingly, will be found to contain a fulness and variety of illustrative matter conveyed in an easy original style, rarely met with in similar works. |