“Phantomes. Though I myselfe never saw any such things, yet I will not conclude that there is no truth at all in these reports. I believe that extraordinarily there have been such apparitions; but where one is true a hundred are figments. There is a lecherie in lyeing and imposing on the credulous, and the imagination of fearfull people is to admiration.” [In other words, timid people are disposed to believe marvellous stories.] (p. 122.) “Draughts of the Seates and Prospects. If these views were well donn, they would make a glorious volume by itselfe, and like enough it might take well in the world. It were an inconsiderable expence to these persons of qualitie, and it would remaine to posterity when their families are gonn and their buildings ruined by time or fire, as we have seen that stupendous fabric of Paul’s Church, not a stone left on a stone, and lives now only in Mr. Hollar’s Etchings in Sir William Dugdale’s History of Paul’s. I am not displeased with this thought as a desideratum, but I doe never expect to see it donn; so few men have the hearts to doe public good to give 4 or 5 pounds for a copper-plate.” p. 126.) With regard to the history of the work now first published, it may be stated that it was the author’s first literary essay; being commenced in 1656, and evidently taken up from time to time, and pursued “con amore”. In 1675 it was submitted to the Royal Society, when, as Aubrey observed in a letter to Anthony á Wood, it “gave them two or three dayes entertainment which they were pleased to like.” Dr. Plot declined to prepare it for the press, and in December 1684 strongly urged the author to “finish and publish it” himself; he accordingly proceeded to arrange its contents, and in the month of June following (in the sixtieth year of his age) wrote the Preface, describing its origin and progress. He states elsewhere that on the 21st of April 1686, he “finished the last chapter,” and in the same year he had his portrait painted by “Mr. David Loggan, the graver,” expressly to be engraved for the intended publication.