We will now say a few words about the great private collections of London topographical prints, drawings, maps and plans, formed many years ago, chiefly of material which comes within the period to which we are limited. Three of these collections are specially famous, and they were brought together by busy men who died within living memory. These were Frederick Crace, to whom we owe the many portfolios catalogued under his name in the Print Room of the British Museum; James Holbert Wilson, whose collection has unfortunately been dispersed, and John Edmund Gardner. It is his amazing collection, far larger than all the rest put together, which has been saved for our interest and instruction by Sir Edward Coates, and of which a few examples are here shown. The late Mr. Gardner who formed it, began when little more than a boy, by the purchase for five guineas of an extra illustrated Pennant, and he continued buying steadily throughout a long life. He passed away December 29th, 1899, at the ripe age of eighty-two, having occupied himself with his beloved portfolios on that very day. Among his more important purchases were almost all the original drawings, about two hundred in number, made for the “Londina Illustrata,” and twenty-eight folio volumes of sketches by John Carter. Not very many years ago the late J. P. Emslie, who, with C. J. Richardson and others, carried on the work of previous generations, told the present writer that he had just completed his thousandth drawing for the Gardner collection. To conclude. It is now somewhat the habit to speak slightingly of topographical pictures and drawings, as if there were something unworthy in copying with correctness the appearance of an interesting building or an attractive river or street scene. Such work is supposed to be outside the region of art, as giving no play to the imagination. But surely “the originality of a subject is in its treatment.” A man without a touch of the true spirit may paint the most ideal scene and leave us cold. On the other hand, while many artists of no exceptional talent, by their honest efforts have left topographical records for which we are thankful, almost all our great landscape painters have deigned now and then to depict London, and for those in sympathy with them they still give something of the thrill of pleasure which they themselves felt when they put their whole souls into their work. PHILIP NORMAN. [Illustration] [Illustration] CATALOGUE [Illustration] _The numbering of the Drawings and Pictures begins on the Entrance Door, and is continued to the left._ _The measurements are in inches (the width preceding the height) and do not include the frame or mount._ _The Furniture, etc., is described after the Pictures._ _The Committee accept no responsibility for the accuracy of the attributions in the Catalogue._ PLATE I. 1 OLD LONDON BRIDGE. Watercolour. 17 by 10 in.