"Neare tenn yeares paste the author made a doubt Whether to print or lay this worke aside Untill he firste had London plotted out Which still he craves, although he be denied He thinkes the Citie now in hiest pride, And would make showe how it was beste beseene The thirtieth yeare of our moste noble queene." ORIGINAL.--The two earliest known copies of the Agas map, which was first engraved on wood, are both of the same issue; one is at the Pepysian Library, Magdalen College, Oxford, and the other at the Guildhall. Edward J. Francis made a careful reproduction of that at the Guildhall in 1874, and it is from that our present plate is taken. It is, of course, reduced, for the original is 6 feet and ½ inch long, by 2 feet 4½ inches wide. The notes attached to this issue are by W. H. Overall, F.S.A., one of the leading authorities on the question. He doubts Agas's connection with the map, but thinks if he were the originator it could not have been done before 1591. The arms in the corner on the two oldest extant maps are those of James I., but as the arms on the royal barge in the river are those of Elizabeth, it has been conjectured that the maps are themselves copies of a later edition, wherein the arms were altered in conformity with conventional opinion. The chief points which give data from internal evidence are as follows: St. Paul's Cathedral is bereft of its spire. This was struck by lightning in 1561, so the map must be subsequent to that date. The Royal Exchange is apparently built. This was opened in 1570. Northumberland House, built about 1605, has not been begun. We may take it, therefore, generally that the original map, which was engraved on wooden blocks, was made some time in the latter half of Elizabeth's reign, and it is probable that it was done by Agas. DETAILS.--The map abounds in interesting detail. Beginning in the extreme left-hand lower corner, we see St. Margaret's Church, St. Stephen's Chapel, and Westminster Hall. In the river are swans of monstrous size. King Street, now merged in Whitehall, is very clearly shown, also the two heavy gates barring the way. The most northern of these, designed by Holbein, was called after him, and stood until the middle of the eighteenth century. North of it, on the west, is the tilting-ground; and stags browse in St. James's Park. Between the gates, on the east, are the Privy Gardens, overlooked by the Palace of Whitehall--most unpalatial in appearance.