EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS TRAVEL AND TOPOGRAPHY STOW’S SURVEY OF LONDON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HENRY B. WHEATLEY THE PUBLISHERS OF _EVERYMAN’S LIBRARY_ WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND FREELY TO ALL APPLICANTS A LIST OF THE PUBLISHED AND PROJECTED VOLUMES TO BE COMPRISED UNDER THE FOLLOWING THIRTEEN HEADINGS: TRAVEL ❦ SCIENCE ❦ FICTION THEOLOGY & PHILOSOPHY HISTORY ❦ CLASSICAL FOR YOUNG PEOPLE ESSAYS ❦ ORATORY POETRY & DRAMA BIOGRAPHY REFERENCE ROMANCE [Illustration] IN FOUR STYLES OF BINDING: CLOTH, FLAT BACK, COLOURED TOP; LEATHER, ROUND CORNERS, GILT TOP; LIBRARY BINDING IN CLOTH, & QUARTER PIGSKIN LONDON: J. M. DENT & SONS, LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. [Illustration: TO THE WISE MAN ALL THE WORLD’S A SOIL BEN JONSON] THE SURVEY OF LONDON BY ❦ JOHN STOW _Citizen of London_ [Illustration] LONDON PUBLISHED by J M DENT & SONS L^{TD} AND IN NEW YORK BY E P DUTTON & CO INTRODUCTION Stow’s _Survey of London_, from its first publication in 1598, has taken rank as the first authority on the history of London, but this very fame has been the cause of some injury to the unity of the work, owing to the additions of successive editors, whose words have often been quoted as if they were written by the original author, although often referring to occurrences long after Stow’s death. What the reader of to-day wants, is the original work as it left the hands of the veteran antiquary, or as nearly as the change of spelling allows, because this gives him a vivid picture of Elizabethan London--the city in which Shakespeare lived and worked among a multitude of the men and women of those “spacious days,” respecting whom we are all eager to learn something more. The _Survey_ is a masterpiece of topographical literature written by a Londoner of ripe experience, who was interested in everything that occurred around him. Stow founded his work upon documents of great value collected by himself, and also upon the splendid series of manuscripts belonging to the city of London, to which he had access as “fee’d chronicler” of the corporation.